Vocabulary Chapters 1-4 Flashcards
Criminal Justice System
A set of government institutions (i.e., police, courts, corrections) that are responsible for arresting, convicting, and punishing individuals who break the criminal law.
Criminology
The study of the causes and effects of crime.
Criminal Justice
The study of law enforcement (i.e., policing), corrections (including probation and parole), courts, and juvenile justice.
Peer Review Research
Research that is submitted to a respectable and/or recognized peer-reviewed scholarly journal. If the paper holds merit, the editor then sends it out to three or more subject matter expert reviewers. The writer’s identity is concealed, as is the identity of the reviewers (also known as referees). This process of quality control, called “blind review”, is meant to guard against bias. Reviewers try to determine the merit of the research. Referees generally make one of three recommendations: accept, reject, or revise and resubmit). Peer-reviewed research is more credible than non-peer-reviewed research.
Special Interest Group
An organization, typically of dues paying members that work on behalf of the collective membership to achieve an objective. This includes unions, associations, and political organizations other than political parties.
Assembly Line Justice
Characterizes the crime control model operates much like an assembly line.
Burden of Proof
Legal threshold (of evidence) presented that prosecutor/state has to pass in order to charge an individual with a crime, and/or to prove his/her case against a defendant in order to secure a conviction.
Civil Law
Relates to a person’s property interests and to relationships between or among private parties; it includes such mechanisms as contracts (verbal and written), business transactions, and family relations (e.g., marriages, divorces, child custody).
Code of Hammurabi
Babylonian code established in 1776 BC that included numerous laws and sanctions for violating those laws.
Common Law
Originating through English traditions, this body of law evolves through the decisions of judges in courts and other tribunals. Common law is now supplanted by Statutes, which passed during legislative process or regulations involving the executive branch (managed by governor/president). Influenced b English traditions.
Conservative
Political ideology that stresses individual rights, small government, and minimal government intervention into the daily lives of its citizens.
Courtroom Work Group
Consists of the judge, prosecutor and defense attorney.
Crime Control Model
Emphasizes the suppression of crime in society. View, that protecting the welfare of the majority of citizens is more important than protecting the rights or liberties of any single individual.
Crimes of Commission
Intentional crimes.
Crimes of Omission
Failure to adhere to rule of law or comply with a legal obligation.
Criminal Law
Deals with behaviors that are perceived to be harmful to society as a whole, such as homicide, robbery, or sexual assault.
Dichotomy
A two-edged sword or contradiction.
Disproportionate Minority Contact
The realization that the criminal justice system primarily processes people from minority groups such as African-Americans, Hispanics and American Indians.
Due Process Model
Protects individuals accused of crime, by insuring that the constitution of the U.S., those of the states, and federal and state statuses are abided by.
Faces of Power
(i.e., explanations concerning the role of the government and its purpose in society).
Ideology
A way of thinking/a deeply held belief.
Interest Articulation
Process by which individuals and groups make their political preferences known to the political leadership of a country.
Liberal
Political ideology that advocates greater redistribution of wealth and government intervention into the lives of its citizens. Advocates government funded social programs like education, health, and welfare.
Mala Prohibita Crime
An act that is criminal because the criminal justice system has identified it as criminal.
Mala in Se Crime
Crime considered wrong in and of itself (i.e., morally wrong such as murder, sexual assault, robbery.)
Marxism/Neomarxism/Elite Theory
A belief that power is concentrated in the hands of the wealthy or elite sectors of society and that they are able to get their preferences enacted into policies, practices and legislation.