chapter 3

Question 1

legal responsibility

Answer 1

The accountability of an individual for a crime because of the perpetrator’s characteristics and the circumstances of the legal act

Question 2

Civil law

Answer 2

Law regulating the relationships between or among individuals usually involving property, contracts, ir business disputes

Question 3

substantive criminal law

Answer 3

law that defines acts that are subject to punishment and specifies punishments of such offenses

Question 4

Procedural criminal law

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What is contained in a State’s penal code?

Answer 5

Substantive criminal law that defines crimes and also punishments for those crimes

Question 6

Civil infractions

Answer 6

Minor offenses that are typically punishable by small fines and produce no criminal record for the offender

Question 7

Legality

Answer 7

There must be a law that defines the specific action a s a crime. Offensive and harmful behavior is illegal unless it has been prohibited by the law before it has committed.

Question 8

Actus reus

Answer 8

Criminal laws are aimed at human acts, including acts that a person failed to undertake. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that people may not be convicted simply because of their status

Question 9

Causation

Answer 9

For a crime to have been committed, there must be a causal relationship between an act and the harm suffered.

Question 10

Harm

Answer 10

To be crime, an act (or a failure to act) must cause harm to some legally protected value. The harm can be to a person, property, or some other object that a legislature deems valuable enough to deserve protection through the government’s power to punish.

Question 11

Concurrence

Answer 11

For an act to be considered a crime, the intent and the act must be be present at the same time.

Question 12

Mens rea

Answer 12

“Guilty Mind,” or blameworthy state of mind, necessary for legal responsibility for a criminal offense; criminal intent, as distinguished from innocent intent.

Question 13

Punishment

Answer 13

There must be a provision in the law calling for punishment of those found guilty of violating the law`

Question 14

Justification Defenses

Answer 14

Focus on whether the individuals actions are was socially acceptable under the circumstances

Question 15

Self-defense

Answer 15

A person who feels that he or she is in immediate danger of being harmed by another person may ward off an attack

Question 16

Necessity

Answer 16

Unlike self-defense, in which a defendant feels that he or she must harm and aggressor to ward off an attack.

Question 17

Excused defenses

Answer 17

Focus on the the actor and whether he or she possessed the knowledge or intent for a criminal conviction

Question 18

Durress

Answer 18

When someone commits a crime because he or she has been coerced by another person

Question 19

Entrapment

Answer 19

A defense that can be used to show the lack of intent. The law excuses a defendant when when it is shown that government agencies have induced the person to commit the offense

Question 20

Infancy

Answer 20

The Anglo-American law excuses criminal acts by the children under age seven on the grounds of their infancy and lack of responsibility for their actions-in other words. mens reas not present

Question 21

Mistake of fact

Answer 21

The specific degree of knowledge and intent that the prosecution must prove for that offense

Question 22

Intoxication

Answer 22

The law does not relieve an individual responsibility for acts performed while voluntary intoxicated. There are, however, cases in which intoxication ca be used as a defense as when a person consumes a drink without knowing that is can cause intoxication.

Question 23

Insanity

Answer 23

Five tests of criminal irresponsibility to determine if the suspect is in need of psychological incarceration

Question 24

The Bill of Rights

Answer 24

The first ten amendments of the constitution

Question 25

The first amendment

Answer 25

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Question 26

The fourth Amendment

Answer 26

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Question 27

The Fifth Amendment

Answer 27

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Question 28

Grand jury

Answer 28

Decides whether there is enough evidence to indict and brings to trial a person accused of a crime

Question 29

The fourteenth amendment

Answer 29

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.