Exam 3 (Final Exam) Flashcards
Chapters 8-10
What court cases proved that the 3 strikes law was constitutional?
Rummel v Estelle and Lockyer v Andrade
What happened in Rummel v Estelle?
Rummel was convicted of 3 felonies over a 15 year period and was sentenced to life in prison in Texas
What happened in Lockyer v Andrade?
Andrade stole $150 worth of videotapes (which was his 3rd strike) and was sentenced to 2 terms of 25-life in California
Why are habitual offender laws a waste of resources?
Because of the age crime curve (most people age out of crime)
Why is law important?
- Law is (governmental) social control
- Government has monopoly on the legitimate use of coercion
- Government decides which acts of deviance should be crimes
- Criminal law tells police how to prioritize their efforts
- The law shapes attitudes
What is known about class, crime and the law?
The rich and powerful make laws, regulations, and policies and do not punish harms equally
Who came up with the Behavior of Law?
Donald Black
What is the Behavior of Law?
Law is quantifiable and behaves in a predictable manner
What are the 4 different styles of law?
Penal, compensatory, therapeutic, and conciliatory
What is penal law?
Criminal law (often applies to the poor)
What is compensatory law?
Civil law (often applies to the rich)
What is therapeutic law?
Rehabilitation (ordered by the court)
What is conciliatory law?
Conflict resolution
What do you have to look at to determine how much law will behave?
Stratification and Morphology
What is stratification?
Inequality of wealth
What is morphology?
Social distance/social networks
EX: strangers use more law than friends, and the well connected use more law than loners
What did Black have to say about the direction of law?
The more inequalities exist the more penal law
What are 2 things that are associated with class based systems of law?
Selective enforcement (only enforced for certain groups of people) and differential application (law doesn’t apply the same to everyone)
What are 2 consequences of class based systems of law?
Savings and Loan Collapse and The Global Financial Meltdown of 2008-2010
Class based system of law has differences in what?
There are clear differences in legislation and enforcement
What is the primary role of police/prosecution?
To persuade people to abide by the dominant values of society
What is jurisdiction?
The right or authority of a justice agency to act in regard to a particular subject matter, territory, or person
What is the criminal justice process?
Suspect –> Arrestee –> Defendant –> Convicted Criminal
What are the 4 basic stages when going through the courts/law?
Charging, Pretrial, Trial, Sentencing
What is involved with charging?
Investigation/Arrest(based on probable cause)
Booking
Initial Appearance (charge, rights, bail)
What is involved with pretrial and trial?
- Preliminary hearing
- Information or indictment (grand jury)
- Arraignment
- Pre-trail conference/plea bargaining
- Trial (bench/jury)
What is involved with sentencing?
Fines, probation, jail, prison, parole
What is the significance of discretion?
There are opportunities for discretion at every stage
Discretion opens the door to BIAS
Why does class bias occur?
Rich get away with more than the poor
1. Complicated cases
2. Few resources to fight corporate crime
3. Corporations can afford better lawyers
What is a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA)?
An agreement that the government will not prosecute a company if it pays a fine, agrees to certain conditions, does not commit further criminal acts
What is racial profiling?
Reliance on race as a basis for detaining, investigating, or arrest
How does bias amplification occur through policing?
Differential reinforcement –> more arrests –> more criminal records –> more punitiveness –> ecological contamination
What is differential reinforcement?
Increases the likelihood that people within that community will have a prior record
What is ecological contamination?
Result of bias against people of color and poor neighborhoods
What are pretext stops?
Traffic stop motivated by a desire to hunt for drugs without evidence of illegal drug activity
What did Whren v US show us?
As long as there is a violation, police are justified in pulling someone over
What did Alexander v. Sandoval show us?
Challenges to racial profiling ended in 2001
Research on gender and police decisions?
There is little research, but we know that in traffic stops women are less likely to be stopped than men and black women are more likely to be stopped than white women
What are facts or things we know about bail?
- Pretrial detention is punishment before conviction
- Those not released are more likely to be convicted, sentenced to prison, and serve longer sentences
What do we know about gender and bail?
Women are more likely to get pretrial release
What is plea bargaining?
An arrangement between prosecutor and defendant whereby the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for a more lenient sentence or an agreement to drop other charges
What do we know about race, gender, and plea bargaining?
- Women are more likely to have their initial charge dropped or reduced unless it is a serious felony or they have prior convictions
- Charge reduction for white women is 2x that of black men
What impacts a prosecutor’s decision making?
Legal factors- seriousness, evidence, culpability
Extra legal factors- race, gender, age, class
Victim characteristics- credibility, precipitation, relationship to offender
What do we know about race, gender and juries?
- Predominately white male juries convict black defendants kore
- Predominately black male juries acquit all defendants more
- Same gender juries acquit more
What are solutions to bias and disparities in prosecution?
Better data, increase diversity, understand bias, and hold people accountable
What are justification for punishment?
Retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and restoration
How does a penal philosophy influence sentencing?
- movement from rehabilitation to retribution
- institution of mandatory minimum sentencing
- sentencing guidelines took discretion away from judges
What were some consequences of sentencing guidelines?
Failed to account for institutional discrimination which resulted in increased disparities
What do we know about sentencing and social class?
Poorer people get harsher sentences
- access to legal representation
- bails and pretrial detention
- judicial discretion
- impact of criminal records
Corporate and white-collar criminal often get lighter sentences
- crimes perceived as less harmful
- better access to legal representation
- perception that there are more rehabilitatable
- dealt with via fines
What do we know about sentencing and race?
Racial disparities result from implicit or explicit bias, legislative policies, income inequality, policing practices
What do we know about sentencing and gender?
Women are less likely to be sentences to prison and receive lighter sentences because …
- gender stereotypes
- family roles
- nature of crimes
What are the legal requirements of the death penalty?
- Prosecutorial discretion
- Must have bifurcated (2) hearing
- Jury must consider aggravating and mitigating factors
What are mitigating factors?
No prior record
Extreme mental or emotional disturbance
Defendant was a minor participant in the crime
Defendant was a youth at the time of offense
What are aggravating factors?
Prior record of felonies
Offense is felony murder
Offense involved more than one victim
Victim was a police officer
Torture or heinous crime
Defendant tried to avoid arrest
Defendant tried to escape
Are any methods of execution unconstitutional?
No, The Supreme Court has never found a method of execution to be unconstitutional
What types of offender can receive the death penalty?
Over 18, no intellectual disability, not legally insane at the time of execution
What do we know about race and the death penalty?
Someone that kills a white person is more likely to get the death penalty than someone who kills a black person
What do we know about women and the death penalty?
Women less likely to be sentenced to death
Defendants who kill women more likely to be sentenced to death
White women more likely to murder loved ones
Black women less aggravated, more motivated by revenge or anger
Is there bias in aggravating circumstances?
Appear gender neutral, but describes the type of murder men are more likely to commit
What is a “Domestic Discount”?
When women murder, they kill family members, not defined as deserving of death penalty
What is Feme Covert?
If murder is committed in the presence of a man it is the man’s fault
What is the public’s opinion on the death penalty?
Hovers around 50% being in favor, but it depends on how the question is asked
What concerns do Americans have with the death penalty?
Deterrence
Fairness/concerns about racial disparity
Concerns for mistakes/exonerations
What do we know about capital punishment and deterrence?
No evidence of deterrence
Some evidence it makes it worse
High cost relative to life in prison
What have we learned this semester?
Crime and disparities in the CJS result from structural conditions
The media reinforces stereotypes
The powerful get away with causing harm
Policies need to take intersectionality into account
We need better data/more diverse responses
What are some solutions to the issues we’ve touched on this semester?
De-escalate the war on drugs
Investment in community resources
Restorative justice programs
Reform policing practices
Economic reforms
