Chapter 4 Terms

Question 1

Exigent circumstance

Answer 1

An emergency situation that calls for swift action to avoid danger to people or property and allows law enforcement to bypass some constitutional rules.

Question 2

Fresh pursuit doctrine

Answer 2

A court created doctrine that allows police officers to arrest suspects without warrants and to cross territorial boundaries while they are still pursuing.

Question 3

Citizen’s arrest

Answer 3

A legal doctrine that holds harmless a citizen who detains a person observed to have committed a crime. When a person makes a citizen’s arrest, she is immune from civil suit for batter or false imprisonment of the person detained, provided the person detained actually committed a crime.

Question 4

Expectation of Privacy

Answer 4

A two-part test created in Katz v. U.S., where the court created a standard by which searches could be evaluated to see if they are in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The test is both subjective and objective. The party who is searched must have subjective expectation of privacy in the area to be searched, and an objective, hypothetical third party must also believe that the area to be searched has a high degree of expectation of privacy.

Question 5

Standing

Answer 5

A recognized legal right to bring suit or to challenge a legal decision.

Question 6

Arrest

Answer 6

Restraint of a person by the police such that the person is not free to leave.

Question 7

Initial Appearance

Answer 7

A court proceeding held shortly after the suspects’s arrest in which the suspect is apprised of specific constitutional rights.

Question 8

Bail/Bond

Answer 8

Terms that are used interchangeably to refer to an amount posted by a defendant (or posted on the defendant’s behalf) to ensure that the defendant will return for future court hearings.

Question 9

Recognizance bail

Answer 9

The person accused simply gives word that he will return for a specific court date.

Question 10

Probable Cause

Answer 10

The reasonable belief that a crime has occurred or is about to occur.

Question 11

Contraband

Answer 11

Items that are illegal to possess, import, export or sell.

Question 12

Preliminary hearing

Answer 12

A court proceeding that determines whether there is probable cause to believe that the defendant committed the crime with which he is charged.