Criminal Law chapter 7

Question 1

disorderly conduct crimes are….

Answer 1

offenses against public order and morals

Question 2

Disorderly conduct grew out of what ancient common law crime

Answer 2

breach of the peace

Question 3

The common law crime, breach of the peace, included two misdemeanors. What are they?

Answer 3

Actual and Constructive disorderly conduct

Question 4

Breach of the peace misdemeanor that includes fighting in public and making unreasonable noise

Answer 4

Actual disorderly conduct

Question 5

conduct that tends to “ provoke or excite others to break the peace”

Answer 5

Constructive disorderly conduct

Question 6

What is the most common use of disorderly conduct statutes?

Answer 6

the ban on fighting in public

Question 7

Two common problems in disorderly conduct statutes

Answer 7

they are vague and do not require mens rea

Question 8

“bad manners” crimes that threaten to disrupt public order

Answer 8

quality of life crimes

Question 9

Broken windows theory says what?

Answer 9

minor offenses or disorderly conduct can lead to a rise in serious crime

Question 10

Who proposed the broken windows theory?

Answer 10

James Wilson and George Kelling

Question 11

True or False: any examination of criminal law has to recognize “quality of life crimes” as part of early 21st century life

Answer 11

True

Question 12

In what court case did the U.S court strike down the Jacksonville FL, vagrancy doctrine, which was nearly identical to every other vagrancy law in the country?

Answer 12

Papichristou v. City of Jacksonville

Question 13

In what court case did the U.S supreme court tighten the constitutional restrictions on loitering states?

Answer 13

Kolender v. Lawson

Question 14

In the late 1900s, courts began striking down vagrancy laws because….

Answer 14

they unfairly discriminated against the poor

Question 15

Vagrancy and loitering have been a crime for at least how many years?

Answer 15

600

Question 16

The Articles of Confederation specifically denied what freedom to paupers?

Answer 16

the freedom to travel from state to state

Question 17

Every state in the union had and enforced vagrancy and loitering statutes that wrote…

Answer 17

the court’s view into law

Question 18

The courts decision in Kolender v. Lawson eased control over…. but also negatively impacted…..

Answer 18

Eased control over the poor but negatively impacted the quality of urban life and the viability of city centers

Question 19

As control over the poor was easing up after Kolender v. Lawson, events were occurring that contributed to a rapidly growing underclass. What were they?

Answer 19

• Deinstitutionalization
• family breakdowns
• crack cocaine
• hard economic times
• tightening budgets for social programs

Question 20

Why does enforcing the laws regulating the behavior of homeless and other street people generate controversy?

Answer 20

Because these laws seem to target the poorest and weakest members of the community to provide for the comfort and convenience of better-off residents

Question 21

Define panhandling

Answer 21

stopping people on the street to ask them for food or money

Question 22

Anti-begging ordinances don’t apply to _____ _____

Answer 22

organized charities

Question 23

The court has established a number of tests to determine whether ordinances violate what?

Answer 23

the First amendment guarantee of free speech

Question 24

In what type of forum is the freedom to solicit virtually unrestricted?

Answer 24

In a traditional public forums such as streets, sidewalks, and parks

Question 25

in what type of forum does the government have more leeway to regulate solicitation?

Answer 25

In designated public forums (places the gov. chooses to make available to the public?

Question 26

In what type of forum does the government have broad power to restrict and even prohibit solicitation?

Answer 26

In nonpublic forums such as the airport, bus stations, railroad stations, subways, and shopping malls

Question 27

What Amendment and clause permits time, place, and manner regulations?

Answer 27

The First Amendment free speech clause

Question 28

According to the U.S.S.C, (R.A.V v. City of St. Paul) for solicitation restrictions three elements of a time, place, and manner test have to be satisfied. What are the three elements?

Answer 28

1. They are not based on the content of the speech
2. They serve a significant government interest
3. They leave open other channels of expression

Question 29

In addition to forum, time, place, and manner restrictions, the First Amendment gives the government leeway to regulate ______ ______

Answer 29

Nonverbal expression

Question 30

Noncriminal lawsuits brought by cities seeking restraining orders to bar gang members from gang activities

Answer 30

Civil gang injunctions

Question 31

Do civil gang injunctions have short or long-term results?

Answer 31

Civil gang injunctions have short term positive results but no long term or intermediate effects

Question 32

The First Amendment grants what type of speech less protection than other types of speech?

Answer 32

Commercial speech

Question 33

Gangs can include…

Answer 33

Groups of kids who are just hanging out and “organized fighting squads” who terrorize neighborhoods

Question 34

What types of laws did numerous amount of state and city governments pass to regulate gang behavior?

Answer 34

• Making it a crime to participate in a gang
• Stiffening the penalties for crimes committed by gang members
• Making it a crime to encourage minors to participate in gangs
• Applied organized crime statutes to gangs
• Punish parents for their children’s gang activities
• Ordinances banning gang members from certain public places

Question 35

In what court case was it decided that an ordinance giving police power to order loiterers to disperse or face arrest if officers reasonably believed that one of the loiterers was a gang member is too vague (void- for- vagueness)

Answer 35

City of Chicago v. Morales

Question 36

Injunction to abate public nuisances: What do injunctions call for?

Answer 36

Balancing community and individual rights

Question 37

Tragedies such as Columbine and Sandy Hook have led to the passage of ordinances banning what?

Answer 37

Violent video games from arcades because it was contended that violent video games can cause youth violent behavior

Question 38

While the hypothesis that violent video games can cause youth violent behavior has been found inconclusive, what has evidence supported about violent video games and behavior?

Answer 38

Evidence has supported that playing violent video games increases aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, and some aggressive behaviors

Question 39

Crimes involving willing adult participants who don’t see themselves as victims

Answer 39

Victimless crimes

Question 40

In ______ days, ______ courts had total power to try and punish crimes against “family and morals”

Answer 40

medieval days
ecclesiastical courts

Question 41

As _____ grew stronger, _____ courts gained control over most of victimless crime offenses and they became the crimes against ___ ____

Answer 41

-As Monarchs grew stronger
-Royal courts
-Public morals

Question 42

No issue in criminal policy has caused more acrimonious debate over a longer time than that of the role law should play in enforcing public morals. What issue is this?

Answer 42

The issue that exists between those who believe criminal law should enforce morals to “purify” society and those who just as deeply believe that consenting adults’ nonviolent sexual conduct is none of the criminal laws business

Question 43

Prostitution involves at least two people: who are they?

Answer 43

1. The prostitute who provides the sexual service
2. The client who buys the service

Question 44

In prostitution, there is frequently a third party. Who is it?

Answer 44

the promoter (pimp) who controls, finds johns, and takes a cut of the earnings

Question 45

From colonial times, prostitution was the common law crime of….

Answer 45

selling ones body for money

Question 46

True or False: In the 1900s, there were anti-prostitution statutes in every state. That still remains true today.

Answer 46

True. Except for seven counties in Nevada

Question 47

Harsh treatment of women punished based on what? and not?

Answer 47

punished based on their sexual history, not the elements of prostitution

Question 48

True or False: in prostitution cases, men are brought to the court

Answer 48

False

Question 49

Why did the double standard persist? What are the two beliefs scholars point to that are rooted deeply in victorian culture and society

Answer 49

• Males viewed as reformable- women seen as beyond redemption
• Men cant control their sex drives, but women don’t even have a sex drive

Question 50

Today, the solution to the double standard required two major changes. What were they?

Answer 50

• statutes to provide for punishing the prostitute and the John
• Equal enforcement of the statutes against prostitutes and johns by law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts

Question 51

What are the three types of prostitution standards?

Answer 51

1. Punish the prostitute but not the john
2. Punish both, prostitute more severely
3. Punish both equally