Criminal Justice Vocab #2

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Harm: the external consequence required to make an action a crime.

Legality: The requirement (1) that harm must be legally forbidden for the behavior to be a crime and (2) that the law must not be retroactive.

norm or social more: Any standard or rule regarding what human beings should or should not think, say, or do under given circumstances.

legal definition of crime: An intentional violation of the criminal law or penal code, committed without defense or excuse and penalized by the state.

Overcriminalization: The prohibition by the criminal law of some behaviors that arguably should not be prohibited

Nonenforcement: The failure to routinely enforce prohibitions against certain behaviors.

Undercriminalization: The failure to prohibit some behaviors that arguably should be prohibited.

ex post facto law: a law that (1) declares criminal an act that was not illegal when it was committed, (2) increases the punishment for a crime after it is committed, or (3) alters the rules of evidence in a particular case after the crime is committed.

Actus Reus: Criminal conduct- specifically, intentional or criminally negligent (reckless) action or inaction that causes harm.

Mens Rea: Criminal intent; a guilty state of mind.

Negligence: The failure to take reasonable precautions to prevent harm.

Duress: Force or coercion as an excuse for committing a crime.

juvenile delinquency: A special category of offense created for youths who, in most U.S. jurisdictions, are persons between the ages of 7 and 18.

Insanity: Mental or psychological impairment or retardation as a defense against a criminal charge.

Entrapment: A legal defense against criminal responsibility when a person, who was not already predisposed to it, is induced into committing a crime by a law enforcement officer or by his or her agent.

Necessity Defense: A legal defense against criminal responsibility used when a crime has been committed to prevent a more serious crime.

Mala in se: Wrong in themselves; a description applied to crimes that are characterized by universality and timelessness.

mala prohibita: Offenses that are illegal because laws define them as such; they lack universality and timelessness.

dark figure of crime: the number of crimes not officially recorded by the police.

offenses known to the police: A crime index, reported in the FBI's uniform crime reports, composed of crimes that are both reported to and recorded by the police.

Crime Index: An estimate of crimes committed.

crime rate: A measure of the incidence of crime expressed as the number of crimes per unit of population or some other base.

Uniform Crime Report (UCR): A collection of crime statistics and other law enforcement information gathered under a voluntary national program administered by the FBI.

eight index crimes: The Part 1 offenses in the FBI's uniform crime reports. They are (1) murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, (2) forcible rape, (3) robbery, (4) aggravated assault, (5) burglary, (6) larceny- theft, (7) motor vehicle theft, and (8) arson, which was added in 1979.

status offense: an act that is not a crime if committed by an adult, such as truancy or running away from home

crime index offenses cleared: The number of offenses for which at least one person has been arrested, charged with the commission of the offense, and turned over to the court for prosecution.

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS): A source of crime statistics based on interviews in which respondents are asked whether they have been victims of any of the FBI's index offenses (except murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, and arson) or other crimes during the past 6 months. If they have, they are asked to provide information about the experience.

self-report crime surveys: Surveys in which subjects are asked whether they have committed crimes.