CJ 3

Criminal Justice Study Guide: 

Mens Rea: 

• Directly translates to intent, used to determine guilt, if they purposefully or knowingly committed the crime 

• Categories: Negligence, Recklessness  

• Degree reflects the seriousness of the crime, mens rea helps decide the severity of the punishment  

Actus Reus: 

• The criminal act itself, forms the basis for the criminal charge 

• Punishment for the commission or attempt of crime itself 

• The guilty act 

Concurrence: the coming together of the guiltily mind and the criminal act, mens + actus rea 

Substantive vs procedural law: 

Constitutional Amendments: 

• 1^st: Freedom of speech, religion, and press 

• 2^nd: Right to bear arms 

• 4^th: no unreasonable search and seizure, warrants need probable cause 

• 5^th: protection against self-incrimination, due process, fair trial 

• 6^th: Fair and speedy trial, public trial, trial by jury, access to a lawyer 

• 8^th: No cruel or unusual punishment, no excessive bail or fine 

• 14^th: govt. shouldn’t act unfairly or arbitrarily, due process, citizens have equal rights 

Defense Types:  

• Excuse Defenses:  

• Infancy: Age prevents the individual from making the decision to commit the crime. 

• Insanity: State of mind prohibits legal responsibility for the actions related to the crime.  

• Intoxication: voluntary, involuntary 

• Mistake: Ordinarily not considered a valid defense, mistake of law, mistake of fact 

• Justification Defense:  

• What qualifies as a defense 

• Duress: Wrongful threat induces criminal act that otherwise would not be performed 

• Threat must be of serious bodily harm 

• Harm threatened must be greater than the harm caused by the crime 

• Threat must be immediate and inescapable 

• Defendant must have become involved in the situation through no fault of their own 

• Self-Defense: Non-deadly force to protect self or property, people have duty to retreat 

• Deadly force may be used if: 

• Reasonable belief of imminent harm/death 

• Attacker uses unlawful force 

• Defender did not provoke 

• No other options 

• Necessity: Court considers harm of crime vs. harm of avoiding the crime.  

• Entrapment: Allowed when a government representative coerces a person into the commission of a criminal act 

Elements of a crime:  

Corpus delicti”: Body of the crime  

1. The actus reus, or guilty act 

2. The mens rea, or guilty intent 

3. Concurrence, or the coming together of the criminal act or the 
   guilty mind 

4. A link between the act and the legal definition of the crime 

5. Any attendant, or accompanying, circumstances 

6. The harm done by the crime  

Functions of criminal law:  

1. Protect and punish  

• Legal function 

• Maintain social order by protecting from criminal harm 

 
2. Maintain and Teach 

• Social function 

• Expresses public morality 

• Teaches societal boundaries 

Pre-trial Discretion: 

• Preventive detention 

• Posting bail 

• Cash bonds and Property bonds 

• Bail bond agents 

• Problems leading to reform 

• Alternatives to bail 

• Release on recognizance (ROR) 

• Bail reform 

Grand Jury: 

• Federal government and 1/3 + of states require indictment for felony charges 

• Group of citizens determines whether probable cause exists 

• Impaneled for a set time 

• Closed session 

• Defense may not cross-examine but may call witnesses 

• Prosecutor presents the state’s evidence 

• Jurors may ask questions  

• Probable cause present = indictment 

• 99%+ rate 

Voir Dire:  

• Preliminary questions the trial attorneys ask potential jurors to determine whether they have a connection with the defendant or witnesses 

• There are two ways jurors are excluded: 

1. Challenges for cause 

• The attorney must provide a sound, legally justifiable reason why a juror cannot serve. 

2. Peremptory challenges 

• The attorney can remove a juror without showing and supporting reason or cause. 

Reasons for Sentencing: 

1. Retribution:  

1. Wrongdoer has freely chosen to violate society’s rules and must be punished. 

2. Just deserts: proportioned to the crime 

2. Deterrence: 

1. Punishment and prevention 

2. General: by punishing one person, others will be discouraged from committing a similar crime. 

3. Specific: an individual, after being punished once, will not want to repeat the act and be punished again. 

3. Incapacitation: 

1. Selective: longer sentences are given to individuals based on their propensity to reoffend. 

2. Collective: all offenders have similar imprisonment for similar criminal activity. 

4. Rehabilitation: 

1. Humane goal of punishment 

2. Crime viewed as “social phenomenon” and criminals as being able to be “treated” and possibly “cured” 

Insanity: State of hind prohibits legal responsibility for the actions related to the crime 

• Typically measured by the McNaughton Rule 

• Sanity does not equal competency, competency in court, sanity at the time of the crime 

• Guilty but mentally ill (GBMI): used in some insanity defenses, defendant is committed to mental hospital rather than imprisoned 

 Supreme Court: 

Reviews very small percentage of cases decidedReviews very  

Makes criminal justice policy: 

Judicial review 

Salutory interpretation 

• Reviews very