History & Development of the U.S. Criminal Justice System

25 vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from the lecture on the historical development of policing, courts, and corrections in the United States.

Colonial Crime Codes

Early American laws rooted in biblical doctrine that criminalized offenses like profanity, blasphemy, and Sabbath violations.

Religion-Based Law

A legal framework in colonial America that relied on sin and religious doctrine to guide behavior and punish offenders.

Morality-Based Law

Legal standards focused on secular moral values that expanded as U.S. society grew, leading to more laws and violations.

Night Watch System

Informal, volunteer-run community patrols in early U.S. cities intended to warn of danger but plagued by low pay, poor oversight, and ineffectiveness.

Day Watch

Daytime patrol force added in Boston in 1838 to supplement the night watch, marking a step toward full-time policing.

Boston Watch (1838)

The first U.S. city to create a paid day watch to work alongside night watchmen, highlighting the need for organized policing.

New York Police Department (1845)

The first unified, salaried, uniformed police force in the U.S., combining night and day watchers into one organization.

Professionalized Policing

A model in which police are distinct from citizens, receive salaries, wear uniforms, and serve full-time.

Workhouse

Sixteenth-century English institutions where offenders labored but were not housed, a forerunner to American prisons.

Corporal Punishment

Physical penalties such as dunking, stoning, and whipping used in early America for serious crimes.

Penitentiary

An early American prison designed for solitary reflection and repentance, derived from the word 'penitent'.

Solitary Confinement

The practice of isolating prisoners so they can reflect on their crimes and seek moral reform.

Deterrence

A correctional philosophy aimed at discouraging crime by making punishment certain and severe.

Rehabilitation

A prison goal focused on treating offenders’ criminal tendencies so they can reenter society reformed.

Humane Treatment Movement

Nineteenth-century reform effort that opposed corporal punishment and promoted prisons as more compassionate alternatives.

U.S. Constitution

The founding document that granted states the authority to create, enforce, and apply their own laws, shaping the court system.

Federal Court System

National courts established to handle matters beyond state jurisdiction, developed as the U.S. expanded.

State Court System

Individual judicial frameworks retained by each state to address violations of state law.

Jury Nullification (Revolutionary Era)

The colonial practice of juries judging the legitimacy of English laws rather than just the defendant’s actions.

Urbanization

Rapid city growth in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that increased crime complexity and drove the need for specialized courts.

Private Protection

Hiring individual guards for personal property security, an option only wealthier citizens could afford before professional policing.

Watchmen Failures

Common issues—sleeping, drinking, poor supervision—that plagued early volunteer patrols and led to formal police forces.

Paid Police Force

A salaried law-enforcement body distinct from the citizenry, first realized in New York City in 1845.

Uniformed Police Officer

A hallmark of professional policing signifying authority, first widely adopted in mid-nineteenth-century U.S. cities.

Penal Reform Movement

Nineteenth-century efforts advocating prisons, solitary reflection, and rehabilitation over corporal punishment.