Ch 1: Overview of the Criminal Justice System Flashcards
Recidivism
Persons relapse back into criminal bahavior (often recieves sanction and goes under investigation)
High risk
Someone likely to re-offend
Low risk
Someone not likely to re-offend
Offender
Person guilty of crime
Defendant
Person accused
Victim
Someone affected, hurt, damaged, killed, or suffered by a crime
Mal in se
Evil in itself (morally wrong; social construct)
Mal prohibita
Wrong because it’s law
Goals of the criminal justice system
Justice, crime control, and crime prevention
Legislative branch
Makes laws (congress)
Executive branch
Carries out laws (president, VP, cabinet, federal agencies)
Judicial branch
Evaluates laws (supreme courts, appellate courts)
Evidence based practice
Use of skills, techniques, and strategies that we know work since they’ve been researched and demonstrated by evidence and proven to work
Federal government
US government/courts; laws by congress; deals with specific issues
State government
State courts, appellate courts; legislative laws; deals with wide range of issues
Discretion
Being given some leeway by officer
Resource dependence
Criminal justice agencies don’t generate their own funds so they depend on other agencies for operation funds
Subsequential tasks
It explains the steps in case processing, starting with apprehension and arrest, prosecution and pretrial services, adjudication, sentencing, and corrections
Filtering
As people move into the criminal justice system they’re funneled out as they go through each step
Misdemeanor
Lesser crimes with under a year sentence (jail or fine)
Felony
More serious crimes with over a year sentence (prison)
