Criminal Law Exam 1 Flashcards
that which is laid down, ordained, established…a body of rules of action or conduct prescribed by controlling authority, and having binding legal force.
Law
An unwritten rule that underlies and is inherent in the fabric in the fabric of society
norm
An unwritten, but generally known, rule that governs serious violations of the social code
more
Ethical principles, or principles meant to guide human conduct and behavior; principles or standards of right and wrong
morals
Any act or omission in violation of penal law, committed without defense or justification, and made punishable by the state in a judicial proceeding
crime
the body of rules and regulations that defines and specifies punishments and specifies punishments for offenses of a public nature or for wrongs committed against the state or society.
Criminal Law
The rules of conduct inherent in human nature and in the natural order, which are thought to be knowable through intuition, inspiration, and the exercise of reason without the need to refer to man-made laws.
Natural Law
Law that is legitimately created and enforced by governments
Positive law
law originating from use and custom rather than from written statutes. The term refers to non statutory customs, traditions, and precedents that help guide judicial decisions making.
common law
A jurisdiction in which the principles and precedents of common law continue to hold sway.
common law state
The form of the law that governs relationships between parties.
Civil Law
A private or civil wrong or injury; “the unlawful violation of a private legal right other than mere breach of contract, express or implied”
tort
An individual, business, or other legally recognized entity that commits a tort.
Tortfeasor
The part of the law that defines crimes and specifies punishments
Substantive Criminal Law
A serious crime, generally one punishable by death or by incarceration in a state or federal prison facility as opposed to a jail.
Felony
A minor crime; an offense punishable incarceration, usually in a local confinement facility, for a period of which the upper limit is prescribed by statute in a given jurisdiction, typically one year or less.
misdemeanor
a violation of a state statute or local ordinance punishable by a fine or other penalty, but not by incarceration. Also called summary offense.
Infraction
Acts that are regarded, by tradition and convention, as wrong in themselves.
mala in se
Acts that are considered “wrongs” only because there is a law against them.
mala prohibita
A crime committed against property, including (according to the FBI’s UCR Program) burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
property crime
A crime committed against property, including murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery.
Personal Crime
An act that is willfully committed and that disturbs public peace or tranquility. Included are offenses like fighting, breach of peace, disorderly conduct, vagrancy, loitering, unlawful assembly, public intoxication, obstructing public passage, and illegally carrying weapons.
public-order offense
An offense that was originally defined to protect the family and related to protect the family and related social institutions
moral offense
The authority of a state to enact and enforce a criminal statute
police power
The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which were made part of the constitution in 1791.
Bill of rights
To make criminal; to declare an act or omission to be a criminal or in violation of a law making it so.
Criminalize
The body of previous decisions, or precedents, that has accumulated over time and to which attorneys refer when arguing cases and that judges use in deciding the merits of new cases
case law
Law in the form of statutes or formal written codes made by a legislature or governing body with the power to make law.
statutory law
the legal principle that requires that courts be bound y their own earlier decisions and by those of higher courts having jurisdiction over them regarding subsequent cases on similar issues of law and fact.
stare decisis
To argue or to find that a earlier appellate court decision dooes not apply to a case currently under consideration even though an apparent similarity exists between the cases.
distinguish
the geographic district or subject matter which the authority of a government body, especially a court, extends
jurisdiction
The authority of a court to review the actions of the executive and legislative branches and to declare those not consonant with the constitution void.
judicial review
The court system that pits the prosecution against the defense in the belief that truth can best be realized through effective debates over the merits of the opposing sides.
adversarial system
The mandate, operative in American Criminal courts, that an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty and that the prosecution must prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Burden of Proof
In legal proceedings, an actual and substantial doubt arising from the evidence, from the facts or circumstances shown by the evidence, or from the lack of evidence.
reasonable doubt
the standard of proof necessary for conviction in criminal trials `
reasonable doubt standard
A standard for determining legal liability, which requires a probability of just over 50% that the defendant did what is claimed
preponderance of evidence
The level of factual proof used in civil cases involving issues of personal liberty. The standard requires greater certainty than “more probable than not” but is not as demanding as “no reasonable doubt”
clear and convincing evidence
The maximum that an orderly society must be governed by establishing principles and known codes that are applied uniformly and fairly to all of its members. Also called supremecy of law
rule of law
the procedures that effectively guarantee individual rights in the face of criminal prosecution
due process
