Exam 1 Flashcards
Expected patterns of behavior or belief
norms
an intentional act or omission to act, neither justified nor excused that is in violation of the criminal law and punishable by the state
crime
What makes crimes vary?
they are subject to time and place, and reflect contemporary concerns.
Who asserted crime is normal and cannot be eliminated?
Emile Durkheim
How is crime functional?
helps society to progress (social change)
metal detectors in school, amber’s alert, USA patriot act?
Charged with protecting the public, maintaining order, enforcing laws, identifying offenders, bringing the guilty to justice, and treating and punishing convicted persons.
The Criminal Justice System
4 Components of Criminal Justice System
Law Enforcement (police)
Court
Correction
Theory / Criminal Law
What is the structure of our criminal justice system?
decentralized
Decentralized structure meaning-
We have the State level, local level, and federal level. there is no one centralized law enforcement agency to police the whole country.
The territory over which a law enforcement agency or court has authority
Can be a physical geographical area (law enforcement) or Subject Matter (court)
Jurisdiction
Cons of overlapped jurisdiction between agencies?
Because the different agencies will try to push the responsibility over to other agencies to avoid the responsibility
What do police, court and correction all stem from?
Theory / Criminal Law
Parts of the criminal process
Crime committed and reported Police Court Correction Integration into society
reporting or observing crime by officer
Initial Contact
What is required for arrest?
Probable cause
Process of fingerprinting, photograph, and going to holding cells
Arrest and booking
Process of gathering evidence and identifying a suspect
Criminal Investigation
How many local, state, federal and special law enforcement agencies approximately?
18,000
Where is federal law applied?
Federal Court
State level cases involving constitutional issues are appealed to ___________
federal courts
highest appellate court in judicial system
U.S. Supreme Court
The court systems for both state and federal organize into which 3 tiers:
Lower courts, intermediate appellate courts, supreme courts.
The process when a prosecutor decides what charge will be filed
charging
The right to _________ is guaranteed for defendants
trial by jury
Process which includes victim impact statements, a decision made by the judge for the appropriate sentence, and the defendant’s decision to appeal if they believe they were unfairly convicted
Sentencing and Appeals
A sentencing option w conditions for convicted offenders: paying a fine, counseling, alcohol treatment program, getting a job
Probation
A type of conditional release based on good behavior or evidence of some level of rehabilitation
parole
focusing on deterring crime and ensuring victims’ rights and not on protecting offenders’ rights
Crime Control Model
Ensuring fairness under law, emphasizing defendant’s rights’ not victims’ rights
due process model
Maintaining the goal of repairing harm that criminal offenses inflict upon victims, offenders and the community. Victim centered, community-based, punishment as a last resort
Restorative justice model
Crime is a result of the burdens and benefits in society not being equally distributed among its members
social justice model
Stressing absolute good and absolute evil. cannot be tested scientifically
spiritualism
Why is crime difficult to measure?
the dark figure of crime, all of the crime that goes unreported
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (1927)
Most widely-used source of crime data
Data collected by FBI – covers over 96% of U.S. population
Reports on: Crimes known to police (report or discover)
Number of arrests (incidence)
Persons arrested (prevalence)
tracks reported offenses, number/characteristics of persons arrested, crimes cleared by arrest and exceptional means.
Uniform Crime Report
Number of arrests
incidence
Persons arrested
prevalence
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, Forcible rape, Robbery, Aggravated assault, Burglary, Larceny-theft, Motor vehicle theft, Arson
8 crimes
what are the 8 crimes?
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, Forcible rape, Robbery, Aggravated assault, Burglary, Larceny-theft, Motor vehicle theft, Arson
Criticisms of Uniform Crime Report
dark figure of crime
only most serious offense reported
UCR data tells more about police behavior than crime
Asks victims about experiences with crime
Gathers data on personal and household crimes
Data obtained from nationally representative sample of about 49,000 households
Only interviews people age 12+
National Crime Victimization Survey
Criticisms of National Crime Victimization survey
Small number of crimes Reliability of data questionable Memory errors Telescoping Deception errors Juvenile victimizations Sampling error
Ask people directly about involvement in crime
Studies consistently find 85-90% of people in U.S. engage in behavior that could lead to arrest
self-report studies
The most comprehensive self report study
Lunched in 1976 – interviewed 1725 youths (age 11-17)
Follow up more than 3 decades
National Youth Survey
Criticisms of self-report studies
Methods of data collection
Data not always reliable
Validity checks provide general support of self-report method
single best method for estimating serious violent and property crime
Uniform Crime Report
Helps uncover dark figure of crime
National Crime Victimization Survey
Reasons for the recent crime decline
The economy
Incarceration
Policing
Age
Rejection of hedonism and free will, belief in fair punishment suited to the offense, criminal as a calculator, No acknowledgement to individual differences
Classical school
Rise of social Darwinism, science, and medicine (mid 1800s into 1900s)
Led by Cesare Lomboroso in Italy
Emphasizing the scientific study of criminals
Criminal as determined - Biological traits (criminals - something different with non criminals)
Positivist school
Rejecting Individualism – Focusing on social circumstances
American society, the city, contained potent criminogenic forces
The study of urban area and crime
The Chicago school
socially patterned urban development, Zone 1 - loop, Zone 2 - transition, Zone - 3 Workingmen’s home, Zone - 4 Residential Zone, Zone 5 - Commuters Zone
Concentric Zone theory (Ernest Burgess)
Exploring how crime occurs when individuals learned cultural definitions supportive of illegal conduct
Crime culturally transmitted and learned
Differential association Theory
Delinquency – the nature of the neighborhood
Disorganized neighborhood – produce and sustain ‘criminal traditions’
Social Disorganization Theory
Lower-class culture – responsible for crimes in urban area
Cultural Deviance Theory
Expanding Sutherland’s differential association theory
Definition and imitation -> crime
Social reinforcement (rewards and punishment) – determine whether criminal behavior is repeated
Differential social reinforcement
Social Learning Theory
collapse of social solidarity
Social solidarity – based on social integration and social regulation
Base for control theory
Anomie Theory, Emile Durkheim
Weakened norms (anomie) -> Placing an intense value on economic success
The pursuit of success – no longer based on normative standards right or wrong
Instead, pecuniary reward
Strain Theory, Robert Merton
Social control weaker -> weakened social bonding -> delinquency
Social bond – Attachment, commitment, involvement, belief
Social Bonding Theory, Travis Hirschi
Low self-control -> criminal involvement
Self-control -> established in childhood
The importance of parenting
Self-Control Theory, Gottfedson and Hirshi)
Labeling as criminogenic – creating career criminal
Labeling Theory
The embrace of capitalism -> inducing high rates of lawlessness among both the rich and the poor
Conflict Theory
Gendering of criminology
How understandings of female criminality shifted from theories
Victimology
Feminist Theory
Environmental criminology/situational crime prevention
Focusing on reducing opportunities for crime
Suitable target, Motivated offender, and absence of guardian
Routine Activity Theory (Marcus Felson and Lawrence Cohen)
Investigating decision making of offenders
Rational Choice Theory / Deterrence Theory
Research on brain, genetics, and other biological factors
Biological traits – differentiating offenders from nonoffenders
Biosocial Criminology
Focusing on how the roots of crime can be traced to childhood
Studying how people develop into offenders and how they escape from their lives of crime
Life-course theory (Developmental Criminology)
formalized rules that prescribe or limit actions
laws
established body of law common to nation
Common Law
The doctrine of precedent
Stare Decisis
Identifying behaviors considered harmful to society, labels those behaviors as crime, and specifying their punishment
Substantive criminal law
Specifying how crimes are to be investigated and prosecuted
Procedural criminal law
Written codes which contain criminal law
Enacting: Congress and state legislatures
Statutes
A continuation of the common-law tradition
Allowing the courts to interpret the law when applying
Case Law
The rules, orders, decisions, and regulations established by state and federal administrative agencies
FTC, IRS, FDA, EPA
Administrative Rules
The final arbiters of substantive and procedural law
Constitutions, federal and state
How many victims of crime per year?
20 million
U.S. budget to fight crime?
200+ billion annually
inherently wrong/evil
Major threat to social order
Mala in se
Wrong because prohibited by statute
Less moral condemnation
Mala prohibita
most serious, result in 1+year incarceration; death penalty; loss of certain rights
fellonies
result in less than 1 year incarceration in jails; fines
Misdemeanors
petty offenses, usually resulting in fines, community service
Infractions
the body of the crime
Must be established in a court of law
Corpus
Criminal responsibility limited to an actual act, the planning or attempt to act in violation of law, specific omission to act when law requires action
May also include written or oral expression of certain thoughts
Actus Reus
(the Latin for “guilty mind”)
Defendant must also have criminal intent to be criminally liable for conduct
Mens Rea
Degrees of intent
Purposely
Acting with conscious deliberation, planning, or anticipation
Knowingly
Being aware of a prohibited conduct or a forbidden result by the conduct
Recklessly
Conscious disregard of a known risk, no conscious intent to harm
Negligently
Being unaware of a risk of harm created by the conduct
What 2 things must present before the crime is completed for the act to be prohibited by criminal law?
Actus Reus and Mens Rea
Defendant admits responsibility, but, under the circumstances, did what was right
Justification
a lawful manner to defend self/others/property or prevent crime
Degree of force limited to reasonable response to threat
Self-defense Justification
Choosing between two evils
Person may violate the law out of necessity when she/he believes that the illegal act is required to avoid a greater evil
Necessity Justification
Defendant claims victim consented to act
Some common law offenses (theft, rape) require clear demonstration of victim’s lack of consent
Consent Justification
The defendant admits that what she/he did was wrong, but, under the circumstances, she/he was not responsible for the criminal act
Excuses
Very rare in reality (Raised in less than 1% of criminal cases and only 25 % of those cases found not guilty)
People who are released from criminal charges owing for insanity do not go free, instead are sent to mental hospital
Insanity Excuse
Standard of Insanity
M’NaghtenRule: “right from wrong” test
Irresistible Impulse Test: supplement to M’Naghtenrule
Durham Rule: “mental disease or defect”
Substantial Capacity Test: Model Penal Code
Allows jury to find accused guilty and impose punishment of incarceration
Requires prison to provide psychiatric treatment to convicted offender
Guilty but mentally ill
No criminal intent due to influence of alcohol, narcotics, or drugs
Voluntary vs. involuntary intoxication
Intoxication Excuse
Defendant encouraged/enticed by agents of the state to engage
Two elements required for defense
Government inducement of the crime
Defendant’s lack of predisposition to engage in the criminal conduct
Entrapment Excuse
Defendant actually a victim, not a criminal
Engaged in behavior because was coerced by force or threat of unlawful force
Duress Excuse
Although “ignorance of the law is no excuse”, under some circumstances mistakes may negate intent
Mistake of law –defendant does not know a law exists
Mistake of fact –defendant unknowingly violates law because believes some fact to be true when it is not
Mistake Excuse
What are legal exemptions for being found not guilty?
Double jeopardy, Statute of Limitations, and Age.
protects against self-incrimination
Fifth Amendment
protects against unreasonable search and seizures
Fourth Amendment
Ensures speedy and fair trial-lawyer & impartial jury
Sixth Amendment
Protects against cruel and unusual punishments
Eighth Amendment
Amendment eventually interpreted to mean that Bill of Rights applied to all citizens –states must ensure these rights (used to be that only disputes between federal govt and citizen let you have rights stated in the bill of rights)
Fourteenth Ammendment
expanded application of due process clause to states
Warren Court (1953-1969)
Justice Hugo Black called for total incorporation
Justice Felix Frankfurter argued for selective incorporation
In 1947 in Adamson v. California
