Crimes and the Limits of Law Flashcards
Mala in se
Acts that are cimes because they are inheritly evil or ful to society
mala prohibita
Acts that are prohibeted because they are defined as crimes by law
executive orders
Presidential dieves regarding the execution of legislative acts and directs the behavior of officers and agencies of executive branch
common law
Unwritten, simply stated laws based on traditional common understandings in a time when most people were illterate
felony
Serious criminal conduct punishable by incarceration for move than one year
misdemeanor
Less serious criminal conduct punishable by incarcentation for less than a year
principle of legality
The principle that citizens cannot be punished for conduct fo which no law against in exists
ex post facto
Laws providing that citizens cannot be punished fo r actions commited before laws againt the actions were passed and that the cov cannot increase the penalty for a specific crime after the crime was commited
due process
Substantive due process limits the governments power to crimilize behavior unless there is a compelling eason for the public intrest to do so; procedural due process requires that the gov follow standard procedues and treat all
rules of evidence
provide legal guidance as to the poper treatment of evidence and evidentiary proceding
stare decisis
The US system of deeloping and applying case law on the basis of precedents estabished in previous cases
void for vagueness
The principle that lawsthat do not use clear and specific language to define prohibited behaviors cannot be upheld
right to privacy
the principle that laws that violate personal privacy canot be upheld
void for overbreadth
The principle that laws go too far in they criminalze legally protected behavior in an attemptedto make some other behavior illegal that cannot be upheld
cruel and unusual punishment
An eigth amendment right, based on the premise of classical criminology, that punishment should be appropriate to the crime
elements of a crime
The illegal actions and criminal intetions of the actor along with the circumnstances that link the two, especially causation
actus reus
An element of crime in which people are punished for thei actions; thus the law does not prrosecute persons for actions that are not voluntary or that are accidental and do not involve ecklnessness or negligence
mens rea
an element of crime in which a peson must have ciminal intent or a guilty mind for his or her actions to be criminal
strict liability crimes
actions that are considered criminal without the need for criminal intret
inchoate offense
an action that goes beyond mere thought but does not esult in a completed crime
defendses
Justifaction or excuses defined by law which a fefendant may be released from presecution or punsihment for a crime
perfect defense
The person is excused fom all criminal liablities and punishements
solicitation
The requesting or commanding of anothe to commit a crime
conspiracy
The planning by two or more people to commit a crime
attempt
An incomplete ciminal act; the closest act to the completion of a cime
defenses
Justifications or excuses defined by law by which a defedant may be released from prosecution or punishment for a crime
perfect defense
The person is excused from all criminal lialities and punishments
imperfect defense
The defendant liability or punishment for a crime is reduced
affirmative defense
The defendant admits that he o she committed the actus eas of the crime argues that he or she should not be found guilty of the crime becauseof a defense
diplomatic immunity
the granting of immunity o protection from any kind of ciminal prosecution to foreign diplomats
legislative immunity
The potection of senators and representatives of Congress from arrest only while the
witness immunity
a situation in which a defendent admits to committing a crime but is granted immunity from prosecution in exchange fro cooperation with a goverment investigation
privlegde
A type of defense in which the defendant claims immunity fom
defense of duress
A legal claim by a defendant that he o she acted in voluntariliy under the threat of immediate and serious harm by another
mistake o ignorance of fact
an affirmative leval defense in which the defendant made a mistake that does not meet the requirement mens rea
necessitity
An affirmative legal defense claiming that the defendant commiitted an act out of need and not mens rea
self defense
An affirmative legal defense in which a defendant claims that he or she acted to protect himself or heself or another person against a deadly attak or invasion of of his o her home
insanity
A legal claim by a defendant that he or she was suffering fom a disease or mental defect and that the defect caused the defendant not to understand the differance between right and wrong
Model Penal Code
Guidelines for US criminal codes published in 1962 by the American Law insitute that classify and define cimes into categories
homicide
The killing of one human being by another
murder
All intentional killings and deaths that occur in the couse of agravated felonies
manslaguter
The killing of another without the speicic intent to kill
