| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Crime | A wrong committed against society |
| Restraint | Theory of punishment where person is incapacitated so that he has fewer opportunities to engage in conduct harmful to society. |
| Individual Deterrence | Theory of punishment where person is punished, he is deterred from commiting future crimes. |
| General Deterrence | Theory of punishment where others are deterred from commiting similar crimes for fear of incurring the punishment. |
| Retribution | A theory of punishment which serves to vent society's outrage at and its need for revenge for the offender's criminal conduct. |
| Crime malum in se | A crime that is wrong in itself or involves conduct that is inherently bad (murder, rape). |
| Crime malum prohibitum | Is a crime which involves conduct which is wrong because the legislature says it is wrong (fishing without a license). |
| Treason | An attempt to overthrow or betray the government in favor of a foreign power (Article III, Section 3, U.S. Constitution). |
| Capital Crime | A crime where the punishment may be death. |
| Felony | A crime which may have a maximum punishment of death or imprisonment for one year or more. |
| Misdemeanor | A crime which may have a maximum punishment of imprisonment for less than one year. |
| Rehabilitation | Theory of punishment which provides the opportunity to reform or to rehabilitate the criminal into a person who will abide by society's rules. |
| MR & MRS LAMB | Mnemonic for felonies: Murder, rape, manslaughter, robbery, sodomy, larceny, arson, mayhem and burglary |
| Ex post facto law | A law enacted after an act has been committed (forbidden by the U.S. Constitution) |
| Bill of Attainer | A legislative enactment which imposes a punishment or denies privilege without a judicial trial (forbidden by the U.S. Constitution). |
| Actus Reus | A physical act of a defendant - an essential element of a crime |
| Mens Rea | The state of mind of a defendant at the time of his action - an essential element of a crime |
| Causation | Essential element of a crime where the defendant's act must be a proximate cause of the resulting harm. |
| Harmful Result | An essential element of a crime, where the harmful result was caused by the defendant's act (both factually and proximately) |
| Specific Intent | A crime is defined in a way that the specific intent must accmpany the wrongful act. |
| General Intent | All crimes (other than specific intent or strict liability crimes). |
| Transferred Intent | A concept is borrowed from general tort rules, in which the defendant's intent is transferred to fit the result. |
| Strict Liability | A crime where the commission of the prohibited act renders the defendant guility, without regard to her intent. |
| Defendant Acts Purposely | When a defendant consciously desires or seeks her conduct to cause a particular result. |
| Defendant Acts Knowingly | When a defendant is aware that her conduct is almost certain to cause a particular result. |
| Defendant Acts Recklessly | When defendant is aware that there is a risk that her conduct might cause a particular result. |
| Defendant Acts Negligently | When defendant should have known that there was a risk that her conduct might cause a particular result. |
| Principal or Actor | One who, with the required mental state, engages in the act or omission that causes the criminal result. |
| Aider and Abettor | One who aids, counsels, helps, procures, commands, or encourages another in the commission of a crime. |
| Co-conspirator | One who is liable for all crimes committed during and in furtherance of the conspiracy. |
| Accessory After the Fact | One whose involvement does not begin until after the crime has been completed. |
| Misprision of felony | The failure to report a known felony. |
| Compounding a felony | Acceptance of money or other consideration in exchange for not prosecuting or in exchange for not reporting a felony. |
| Inchoate Offenses | Is committed prior to and in preparation for what may be a more serious offense (including solicitation, attempt and conspiracy) |
| Solicitation | A common law misdemeanor to solicit another to commit a felony or an act that would breach the peace or wouth obstruct justice and is complete when the solicitation is made. |
| Conspiracy | A combination or agreement between two or more persons to accomplish a criminal or an unlawful purpose or to accomplish a lawful purpose by unlawful means (a specific intent crime). |
| Conspiracy Requirements | An agreement between two or more persons; an intent to enter into an agreement; an intent to achieve the object of the agreement; and an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy by at least one person. |
| Wharton Rule | There is no crime of conspiracy unless more parties participate in the agreement than are necessary for the crime. |
| RICO Requirements | Defendant received money or income from a pattern of racketeering activity and invested it in an enterprise which is in interstate commerce or affects interstate commerce. |
| M'Naghten Test | A disease of the mind which causes a defect of reason such that defendant lacked the ability - at the time of her actions - to either know the wrongfulnes of the action or understand the nature and quality of her actions. |
| Irresistible Impulse Test | Test to determine whether the defendant - because of a mental illness - was unable to control her actions to conform to the law. |
| Modern Penal Code Test | To determine whether the defendant suffered from a mental disease or defect and as a result lacked substantial capacity to either appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or conform his conduct to the requirements of law. |
| Diminished capacity | Defense used by defendant asserts that as a result of a mental defect (neurosis, severe retardation), short of insanity, she didn't have the mental state required for the crime she is charged with. |
| Voluntary Intoxication | A defense to a crime that requires purpose (intent) or knowledge if it prevents the defendant from formulating the purpose or from obtaining the knowledge. |
| Involuntary Intoxication | Intoxication which results from taking an intoxicating substance without the knowledge of its nature, under duress by another or under medical advice. |
| Infancy | Defense of infancy raises three presumptions concering perpetrator's physical age at the time of the trial. |
| Self-Defense | A person who is without fault may use nondeadly force as reasonably appears necessary to protect herself from the imminent use of lawful force upon her unless threatened with imminent death - then she can use deadly force. |
| Defense of Others | Defendant has the right to use force in defense of any other person. |
| Defense of Property | Defendant is justified in using nondeadly force in defense of his dwelling if he reasonably believes it necessary to prevent or terminate another's unlawful entry into or attack upon the dwelling. |
| Duress | A defendant is not guilty of a crime (other than homicide) if he performs an otherwise unlawful act under the threat of imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or his immediate family. |
| Entrapment | This defense arises when the intent to commit a crime originates through the creating activity of a law enforcement officer rather than the defendant. |
| Assult | An attempt to commit a battery or intentional creation of a reasonable fear in the mind of the victim of imminent bodily harm. |
| Battery | An unlawful application of force to the person of another which results in bodily injury or an offensive touching. |
| Mayhem | Common law defined as a felony crime required dismemberment, disablement of a bodily part or disfigurement. Modern statutes retain in some form, but now treated as aggravated battery. |
| Murder | The unlawful killing of a human being with malice of afterthought. |
| Malice of Afterthought | Elements include intent to kill (express malice), intent to inflict great bodily harm (implied malice) or awareness of an unjustifiably high risk to human life (implied malice) or intent to commit a felony (implied malice). |
| Intentional Use of Deadly Weapon | Creates an inference of intent to kill. |
| Voluntary Manslaughter | A crime where an intentional killing for which adquate provocation existed ("passion killing"). |
| Involuntary Manslaughter | A crime were there was an unintentional killing (occurs as a result of criminal negligence or while committing a misdemeanor crime). |
| Year and a Day Rule | Death of a victim must occur within one year and one day from the infliction of the injury or wound. After that time there can be no prosecution for homicide. |
| First Degree Murder | is defined as a deliberate and premeditated killing or a killing that occurs while committing certain felonies (usually arson, robbery, burglary, rape, mayhem or kidnapping). |
| Felony Murder Rule | A killing that occurs while commitment arson, robbery, burglary, rape, mayhem or kidnapping. |
| Second Degree Murder | may be a passion killing or a killing that occurs while committing a felony other than arson, robbery, burglary, rape, mayhem or kidnapping. |
| False Imprisonment | Where the victim is forced to go where she does not want to go, or stay where she doesn't want to stay. The confinment may be accompanied by rforce, by a show of force or threats |
| Kidnapping | Is the confinement of a person which involves some movement (asportation) of the victim or concealment of the victin in a "secret" place. |
| Aggravated Kidnapping | Occurs when a person is kidnapped for a ransom; for the purpose of commitment another office; with the intent of harming the person or committing some sexcual crime with the victim; or when child stealing is iinvolved. |
| Rape | Common law crime requires sexual intercourse with a woman, not a man's wife, committed without the woman's consent, by use of force. (Most states are now gender-neutral concerning all sex offenses except rape.) |
| First Degree Felony Rape | Results when serious bodily injury occurred or unless the victim was not a social companion of the rapist. |
| Statutory Rape | Crime involving a person under the agent of consent and is a strict liability crime. |
| Incest | Felony which consists of either marriage or a sexual act between persons who are closely related. |
| Obscenity | Crimes which relate to the display or publication of material that appeals to a prurient sexual intent, involves patently offensive sexual conduct and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. |
| Larceny | is a crime against Property. A crime involving the taking and carrying away of personal property of another by trespass with the intent to deprive permanently the person entitled to its possession; a crime against possession. |
| Embezzlement | The fraudulent, conversion of property of another by a person in lawful possession of the property and requires only that the defendant deal with the property in a way that is inconsistent with the agreement under which he holds the property. |
| False Pretenses | When a person obtains title to the property of another by an intentional (or knowing) false statement of past or present fact with the intent to defraud the other. Differs from larceny by "trick". |
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