Survey of Criminal Justice Midterm

public policy

Priorities and actions developed by government to use public resources as a means to deal with issues affecting society.

Evidence bases practice

Policies developed through guidance from research studies that demonstrate which approaches are most useful and cost-effective for advancing desired goals.

Crime Control Model

A model of the criminal justice system that assumes freedom is so important that every effort must be made to repress crime; it emphasizes efficiency, speed, finality, and the capacity to apprehend, try, convict, and dispose of a high proportion of offenders.

Due Process Model

A model of the criminal justice system that assumes freedom is so important that every effort must be made to ensure that criminal justice decisions are based on reliable information; it emphasizes the adversarial process, the rights of defendants, and formal decision-making procedures.

Crime

A specific act of commission or omission in violation of the law, for which a punishment is prescribed.

Cybercrime

Offenses that involve the use of one or more computers.

dark figure of crime

A metaphor referring to the significant yet undefined extent of crime that is never reported to the police.

Felonies

Serious crimes usually carrying a penalty of incarceration for more than one year or the death penalty.

identity theft

The theft of social security numbers, credit card numbers, and other information in order to secure loans, withdraw bank funds, and purchase merchandise while posing as someone else. The unsuspecting victim will eventually lose money in these transactions.

Mala in se

Offenses that are wrong by their very nature.

mala prohibita

Offenses prohibited by law but not wrong in themselves.

Misdomeanor

Offenses less serious than felonies and usually punishable by incarceration of no more than one year, probation, or intermediate sanctions.

money laundering

Moving the proceeds of criminal activities through a maze of businesses, banks, and brokerage accounts in order to disguise their origin.

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

Interviews of samples of the U.S. population conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics to determine the number and types of criminal victimization, and thus, the extent of unreported as well as reported crime.

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

A reporting system in which the police describe each offense in a crime incident, together with data describing the offender, victim, and property.

occupational crimes

A criminal offense committed through opportunities created in a legal business or occupation.

organized crime

A framework for the perpetration of criminal acts—usually in fields, such as gambling, drugs, and prostitution—providing illegal services that are in great demand.

Political Crimes

An act, usually done for ideological purposes, that constitutes a threat against the state (such as treason, sedition, or espionage) or a criminal act by a state.

Property Crimes

Crimes in which property is damaged or stolen.

Public order crimes

Acts, such as public drunkenness and disorderly conduct, which threaten society's well-being and make citizens fearful.

Transnational Crimes

Profit-seeking criminal activities that involve planning, execution, or victimization that crosses national borders.

Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

Annually published statistical summary of crimes reported to the police, based on voluntary reports to the FBI by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.

victimless crime

Offenses involving a willing and private exchange of illegal goods or services that are in strong demand. Participants do not feel they are being harmed, but these crimes are prosecuted on the grounds that society as a whole is being harmed.

violent crime

Crimes against people in which force is employed to rob, produce physical injury, or cause death.

visible crime

An offense against persons or property that is committed primarily by members of the lower social classes. Often referred to as "street crime" or "ordinary crime," this type of offense is the one most upsetting to the public.

Anomie

A breakdown in and disappearance of the rules of social behavior.

biological explanations

Explanations of crime that emphasize physiological and neurological factors that may predispose a person to commit crimes.

Classical Criminology

A school of criminology that views behavior as stemming from free will, that demands responsibility and accountability of all perpetrators, and that stresses the need for punishments severe enough to deter others.

Control Theories

Theories holding that criminal behavior occurs when the bonds that tie an individual to society are broken or weakened.

criminogenic traits

Factors thought to bring about criminal behavior in an individual.

labeling theory

Theories emphasizing that the causes of criminal behavior are found not in the individual but in the social process that labels certain acts as deviant or criminal.

Learning Theories

Theories that see criminal behavior as learned, just as legal behavior is learned.

life course theories

Theories that identify factors affecting the start, duration, nature, and end of criminal behavior over the life of an offender.

Life exposure theory

Approach to understanding the unequal distribution of crime and victimization that examines the differential exposure to crime of demographic groups, such as the young or the poor, based on where they live and work and engage in leisure activities.

Positivist Criminology

A school of criminology that views behavior as stemming from social, biological, and psychological factors. It argues that punishment should be tailored to the individual needs of the offender.

Psychological explanations

Explanations of crime that emphasize mental processes and behavior.

repetitive victimization

The victimization of an individual or household by more than one crime during a relatively short period of time.

Revictimization

The victimization of an individual more than once over a long period of time, such as repeated incidents of domestic violence spread out over several years.

Routine Activities Theory

A variation of the lifestyle approach that sees crime arise in times and places where there is a convergence of specific elements: motivated offenders, suitable victims, and a lack of capable guardians to prevent or deter criminal acts.

Social Conflict Theory

Theories that assume criminal law and the criminal justice system are primarily a means of controlling the poor and the have-nots.

Social Process Theories

Theories that see criminality as normal behavior. Everyone has the potential to become a criminal, depending on (1) the influences that impel one toward or away from crime and (2) how one is regarded by others.

social structure theories

Theories that attribute crime to the existence of a powerless lower class that lives with poverty and deprivation and often turns to crime in response.

sociological explanations

Explanations of crime that emphasize the social conditions that bear on the individual as causes of criminal behavior.

Theory of Differential Association

The theory that people become criminals because they encounter more influences that view criminal behavior as normal and acceptable than influences that are hostile to criminal behavior.

victime precipitation

The role of victims in fostering the context or triggering the action that led to their victimization in a crime.

Victimology

A field of criminology that examines the role the victim plays in precipitating a criminal incident and the impact of crimes on victims.

Adjuducation

The process of determining whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty.

arrest

The physical taking of a person into custody on the grounds that probable cause exists to believe that he or she has committed a criminal offense. Police may use only reasonable physical force in making an arrest. The purpose of the arrest is to hold the accused for a court proceeding.

discretion

The authority to make decisions without reference to specific rules or facts, using instead one's own judgment; allows for individualization and informality in the administration of justice.

Discrimination

Differential treatment of individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or economic status, instead of treatment based on the actual behavior or qualifications of each individual.

disparity

The unequal treatment of members of one demographic group by the criminal justice system, compared with treatment accorded members of other groups.

dual court system

A system based on a separate judicial system for each state, in addition to a court system under the national government. Each case is tried in a court of the same jurisdiction as that of the law or laws allegedly broken.

exchange

A mutual transfer of resources; a balance of benefits and deficits that flow from behavior based on decisions about the values and costs of alternatives.

Federalism

A system of government in which power is divided between a central (national) government and regional (state) governments.

filtering process

A process by which criminal justice officials screen out some cases while advancing others to the next level of decision making.

indictment

A document returned by a grand jury as a true bill charging an individual with a specific crime on the basis of a determination of probable cause from evidence presented by a prosecuting attorney and presented to a court at a preliminary hearing.

information

A document charging an individual with a specific crime. It is prepared by a prosecuting attorney and presented to a court at a preliminary hearing.

plea bargain

A defendant's plea of guilty to a criminal charge with the reasonable expectation of receiving some consideration from the state for doing so, usually a reduction of the charge. The defendant's ultimate goal is a penalty lighter than the maximum punishment formally warranted by the original charge.

System

A complex whole consisting of interdependent parts whose operations are directed toward goals and are influenced by the environment within which they function.

warrant

A court order authorizing police officials to take certain actions; for example, to arrest suspects or to search premises.

Administrative regulations

Rules made by government agencies to implement specific public policies in areas such as public health, environmental protection, and workplace safety.

Case Law

Court decisions that have the status of law and serve as precedents for later decisions.

Civil Forfeiture

Confiscation by the state of property used in or acquired through a crime. In recent years the police have used civil forfeiture to seize property that they believe was purchased with drug profits.

Civil Law

Law regulating the relationships between or among individuals, usually involving property, contract, or business disputes.

Common Law

The Anglo-American system of uncodified law, in which judges follow precedents set by earlier decisions when they decide new but similar cases. The substantive and procedural criminal law was originally developed in this manner but was later codified—set down in codes—by state legislatures.

Constitutions

The basic laws of a country or state defining the structure of government and the relationship of citizens to that government.

double jeopardy

The subjecting of a person to prosecution more than once in the same jurisdiction for the same offense; prohibited by the Fifth Amendment.

Entrapment

The defense that the police induced the individual to commit the criminal act.

fundamental fairness

A legal doctrine supporting the idea that so long as a state's conduct maintains basic standards of fairness, the Constitution has not been violated.

grand jury

A body of citizens that determines whether the prosecutor possesses sufficient evidence to justify the prosecution of a suspect for a serious crime.

Inchoate Defenses

Conduct that is criminal even though the harm that the law seeks to prevent has been merely planned or attempted but not done.

Incorporation

The extension of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to make binding on state governments the rights guaranteed in the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution (the Bill of Rights).

indigent defendants

People facing prosecution who do not have enough money to pay for their own attorneys and court expenses.

legal responsibility

The accountability of an individual for a crime because of the perpetrator's characteristics and the circumstances of the illegal act.

Mens Rea

The series of events from the arrest of a suspect to the filing of a formal charge with a court (through an indictment or information).

procedural criminal law

Law defining the procedures that criminal justice officials must follow in enforcement, adjudication, and corrections.

Procedural Due Process

The constitutional requirement that all people be treated fairly and justly by government officials. An accused person can be arrested, prosecuted, tried, and punished only in accordance with procedures prescribed by law.

self-incrimination

The act of exposing oneself to prosecution by being forced to respond to questions whose answers may reveal that one has committed a crime. The Fifth Amendment protects defendants against compelled self-incrimination. In any criminal proceeding, the prosecution must prove the charges by means of evidence other than the involuntary testimony of the accused.

Statutes

Laws passed by legislatures. Statutory definitions of criminal offenses are found in penal codes.

Strict Liability

An obligation or duty that when broken is an offense that can be judged criminal without a showing of mens rea, or criminal intent; usually applied to regulatory offenses involving health and safety.

substantive criminal law

Law defining acts that are subject to punishment and specifying the punishments for such offenses.

Barron v. Baltimore(1833)

The protections of the Bill of Rights apply only to actions of the federal government.

Gideon v. Wainwright(1963)

Indigent defendants have a right to counsel when charged with serious crimes for which they could face six months or more incarceration.

Powell v. Alabama(1932)

An attorney must be provided to a poor defendant facing the death penalty.

chain of command

Organizational structure based on a military model with clear definition of ranks to indicate authority over subordinates and obligations to obey orders from superiors.

domestic violence

The term commonly used to refer to intimate partner violence or violent victimization between spouses, boyfriends and girlfriends, or those formerly in intimate relationships. Such actions account for a significant percentage of the violent victimizations experienced by women.

Frankpledge

A system in old English law in which members of a tithing, a group of ten families, pledged to be responsible for keeping order and bringing violators of the law to court.

inteligence led policing

An approach to policing, in conjunction with concerns about homeland security, that emphasizes gathering and analyzing information to be shared among agencies in order to develop cooperative efforts to identify, prevent, and solve problems.

Interpol

The International Criminal Police Organization, through which countries cooperate in investigating crimes, especially situations in which lawbreakers have crossed international borders or participated in multicountry criminal activities.

law enforcement

The police function of controlling crime by intervening in situations in which the law has clearly been violated and the police need to identify and apprehend the guilty person.

legalistic style

Style of policing that emphasizes strict enforcement of laws and reduces officers' authority to handle matters informally.

order maintenance

The police function of preventing behavior that disturbs or threatens to disturb the public peace or that involves face-to-face conflict among two or more people. In such situations, the police exercise discretion in deciding whether a law has been broken.

patrol units

The core operational units of local police departments that deploy uniformed officers to handle the full array of police functions for service, order maintenance, and law enforcement.

service

The police function of providing assistance to the public, usually in matters unrelated to crime.

service style

Style of policing in which officers cater to citizens' desire for favorable treatment and sensitivity to individual situations by using discretion to handle minor matters in ways that seek to avoid embarrassment or punishment.

sheriff

Top law enforcement official in county government. The sheriff was an exceptionally important police official during the country's westward expansion and continues to bear primary responsibility for many local jails.

Slave Patrols

Distinctively American form of law enforcement in southern states that sought to catch and control slaves through patrol groups that stopped and questioned African Americans on the roads and elsewhere in public places.

US Marshals

Federal law enforcement officials appointed to handle duties in western territories and today bear responsibility for federal court security and apprehending fugitives.

watch system

Practice of assigning individuals to night observation duty to warn the public of fires and crime that was first introduced to the American colonies in Boston and that later evolved into a system of paid, uniformed police.

watchman style

Style of policing that emphasizes order maintenance and tolerates minor violations of law as officers use discretion to handle small infractions informally but make arrests for major violations.