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President's Crime Commission Created by President Johnson. Appointed several task forces to study the crime problem and the structure of criminal justice administration and make recommendations for action. Key Recommendations for the PCC 1. Society must seek to prevent crime before it happens by assuring all Americans a stake in the benefits and responsibilities of American life, by strengthening law enforcement, and reducing criminal opportunities. 2. The criminal justice system should develop a far broader range of techniques which to deal with individual offenders. 3. The system must work to eliminate existing injustices 4. The system needs to recruit more and better people to work (police, judges, prosecutors, etc.) 5. There must be more operational and basic research on the problems of crime and criminal administration. 6. The police, courts, and correctional agencies need more funding in order to be more effective. 7. Individual citizens, civic and business organizations, religious institutions and all levels of government must take responsibility for planning and implementing changes. Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 Generated heated controversy. Political maneuver aimed at allaying current fears about crime and calming agitation over inner-city riots and anger over SC decisions that allegedly tied the hands of the police. 1. The commission reported that to reduce the fear of crime through a broad and comprehensive attack on the "root causes" of crime, fell short because the root causes of crime have never been fully understood. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration LEAA. Organized to develop new devices, techniques, and approaches in law enforcement; to award discretionary grants fro special programs in the field of CJ; and to supply states and municipalities with funds for improving their CJ systems and for training and educating CJ personnel. Models of Criminal Justice Due Process Model and the Crime Control Model. Opposites Due Process Model This model stresses the possibility of error in the stages leading to trial. It therefore emphasizes the need to protect procedural rights even if this prevents the legal system from operating with maximum efficiency. Justice is better if everyone gets his or her fair day in court even if a few guilty people may go free as a result. No locking up innocents! The Crime Control Model This model emphasizes efficiency and is based on the view that the most important function of the CJ process in repression of criminal conduct. Proponents of this model put a premium on speed and finality, and cannot understand why obviously guilty defendants should go free simply because of errors by police or court personnel. Protect society from criminal behavior! Crime Crime is an intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law (statutory and case law), committed without defense or justification, and sanctioned by the state as a felony or misdemeanor. Act and Omission A person cannot be punished for his/her thoughts. For there to be a crime, there must be an act that is legally forbidden or the omission of an act that is legally required. An attempt may be construed as an act. The omission of an action which meets the acts' requirements when there is a duty to perform. Conspiracy concert or collaboration in criminal purpose, and it must involve two or more people. abettor one who, with requisite criminal intent, encourages, promotes, instigates, or stands by to assist the perpetrator of a crime. accessory before the fact an individual who abets a crime but is not present when the crime is committed. accessory after the fact one who, knowing that a felony has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts, or assists the perpetrator to hinder apprehension or conviction. parties to crime people become parties to crime when they assist, aid and abet, incite, or otherwise encourage others to commit crimes. misprision of felony the offense of concealing a felony committed by another person, even if the party to the concealment did not take part in the planning or execution of the felony. mens rea "guilty mind" or criminal intent. Based on the assumption that people have to capacity to control their behavior and to choose between alternative courses of conduct. Two basic types of intent: specific and general. One of the three elements of crime. Three Elements of Crime Mens Rea: :Guilty mind"; the conscious decision to commit a criminal act. Actus Reus: The behavior that must be committed to meet the definition of a crime. Attendant Circumstances: "Casual Link"; Concurrence between the act the harm that results. The harm must flow from an illegal act. specific intent is present when the circumstances of the crime show that the offender must have consciously desired the prohibited result. general intent refers to the conscious wrong-doing from which a prohibited result follows but not necessarily the result planned. (Ex: shooting the wrong person, but still having intent to shoot a desired person.) Culpability Intent -> acts intentionally to commit a crime. Knowledge -> acts knowledgeably that he could be committing a crime Recklessness - > acts recklessly and disregards a substantial risk that may occur from a wrongful act Criminal Negligence-> acts negligently and fails to be aware of a substantial risk Constitutional law the legal rules and principles that define the nature and limits of governmental power, and the duties and rights of individuals in relation to the state. Constitutional law is set forth in the Constitution of the US and in the Constitutions of the various states. Criminal law the branch of jursiprudence that deals with offenses committed against the safety and order of the state. (State vs. somebody). Civil law the body of principles that determines private rights and liabilities. (Somebody vs. somebody / plaintiff vs. defendant). Statutory law the law created within a statute, handed down by the legislatures. State statutes must conform to US Constitution and the state in which it is enacted Constitution. Case law law that results from court interpretations of statutory law or from court decisions where rules have not been fully codified or have been found to be vague or in error. Must be specific enough to guide society. Usually comes from a SC case. Narrows and defines pre-existing (statutory) laws. Administrative law a breach of public law that deals with the powers and duties of government agencies. More specifically, administrative law refers to the rules and regulations of administrative agencies. Most boring sect of law -> environmental, bureaucratic law. Common law refers to customs, traditions, judicial decisions, and other materials that guide courts in decision making but have not been enacted by legislatures or embodied in the Constitution. Insanity any unsoundness of mind, madness, mental alienation, or want of reason, memory, and intelligence that prevents an individual from comprehending the nature and consequences of his or her acts or from distinguishing between right and wrong conduct. Legal, not medical, term. Defense a broad term that can refer to any number of situations that would serve to mitigate guilt on a criminal offense. M'Naghten Rule the "right or wrong" test of criminal responsibility, which states: If the accused was possessed of sufficient understanding when he or she committed the criminal act to know what he or she was doing and the know that it was wrong, he or she is responsible for the crime. If he or she didn't know what he or she was doing or that it was wrong then he or she is not responsible. Durham Rule the legal standard by which an accused is not held criminally responsible if he/she suffers from a diseases or defective mental condition at the time the unlawful act is committed. Mistake of fact any erroneous understanding of fact or circumstance resulting in some act that would not otherwise have been undertaken. Basically, an honest mistake. A reasonable belief that certain facts are correct, if they were accurate, which would have made the crime innocent. (Ex: identical switched suitcases) Mistake of law any want of knowledge or acquaintance with the laws of the land insofar as they apply to the act, relation, duty, or matter under consideration. It is the citizens responsibility to acquaint themselves with local laws, however, if a jurisdiction has a law which is unique, citizens may use this defense. (Ex: driving a car that is legally banned) Duress refers to any unlawful constraints exercised on an individual forcing him/her to consent to committing some act that would not have been done otherwise. Whereas duress implies that one is not acting out a free will, the American system of law emphasizes both criminal intent and responsibility. Consent of the victim is any voluntary yielding of will of the victim causing him/her to agree to the act of the offending party. This defense has several elements. FIRST: the victim must be capable of giving consent. Excludes kids, the insane, the mentally defective. SECOND: the offense must be a "consentable" crime. Excludes murder, rape, etc. Some crimes consent cannot be given for. THIRD: the consent cannot be obtained by fraud. FOURTH: the person giving consent must have the authority to do so. Entrapment the inducement of an individual to commit a crime not contemplated by him/her, undertaken for the sole purpose of instituting a criminal prosecution against the offender. Cases of entrapment occur when police officers, or citizens acting at their behest, induce a person to commit a crime that he or she would not have otherwise undertaken. Inducement the key word in the entrapment defense. It refers to the fact that the accused has no intention of committing the crime until persuaded to do so by the police officer. All in the way questions are phrased. Cops need to ask general questions whereas the criminal comes up with the specifics (drugs, prositution, etc.) If a cop asks the specifics then that's entrapment. Justification is any just cause or excuse for the commission of an act that would otherwise be a crime. Justifiable homicide: includes case of death resulting from legal demands. Self defense or the defense of others. Excusable homicide: includes cases of death from accidents or misfortunes that may occur during some lawful death. Necessity a defense in which a person claims to have engaged in an otherwise criminal behavior because of the forces of nature. (cannibalism). Felony a crime punishable by death or imprisonment in a federal or state penitentiary (usually more than a year and a day. 366 days.) Mala in se. Misdemeanor a crime punishable by no more than a $1000 fine and/or one year of imprisonment, typically in a local institution (jail). Mala prohibita. Mala in se inherently evil, immoral in their nature and injurious in their consequences. Murder, rape, theft, etc. Mala Prohibita may not necessarily be wrong in themselves but are simply wrong because they been prohibited by statute. All other crimes. Atavism Cesare Lombroso, in the 19th century, developed a theory of crime causation based upon atavistic characteristics, based upon anthropological study. Atavism means a "throwback to some earlier stage in human evolution." The theory of atavistic characteristics has been proven false over the years. Atavism refers to physical defects. Anomie Theory the concept of anomie was first introduced during the latter part of the 19th century by Durkheim, who described the phenomenon as a condition of normative confusion or "normlessness", which the existing rules and values have little impact. Robert Merton used this concept to develop a general theory of criminal behavior. Society, he suggests, has 2 component parts: culture and social structure. The culture consists of a set of norms, values, and attitudes that establishes the goals that individuals should pursue and the acceptable means/behavior patterns for achieving those goals. The social structure involves the organized set of social relationships in which the members o the society play their various roles. Conformity, Ritualism, Innovation, Retreatism, Rebellion. Labeling Theory the theory of crime that focuses on the processes of interaction through which behaviors become defined as criminal and the ways in which the labeling process can bring about more criminality. The impetus for the labeling perspective came in 1951 when Lennert made an important distinction between primary and secondary deviations. Primary: court labels you as a criminal. Secondary: friends, family, peers label you as a criminal and treat you differently. Labeling in particular relates to juveniles. Secondary deviation usually results in juveniles turning back to crime. Cultural Learning Theory In a number of case studies (in Chicago), Shaw found that slum youths were participants in a subculture in which delinquency was approved behavior, and the criminality was acquired in social and cultural settings through process of interaction. Differential Association Dif. asso. is a more developed cultural learning theory. Created by Sutherland, diff. asso. is the theory of crime that suggests that criminal behavior is learned in the same processes that non-criminal behaviors are learned. Criminal behavior is learned within the context of intimate social groups that are criminal (PEER LEARNING). In short, people become criminals because they encounter an excess of definitions favorable to violation of the law over defnitions favorable to law abiding behavior. This excess of definitions favorable to law violation, furthermore, is due to a majority of associations with criminals over non-criminals. malice aforethought refers to the intent to cause death or serious harm or to commit any felony whatsoever. deliberation refers to full and conscious knowledge of the purpose of killing, suggesting that the offender has considered the motives for the act and its consequences. premeditation refers to a design or plan to do something before it is actually done; it is a conscious decision to commit the offense (even though such a decision may occur only moments before the final act). felony-murder doctrine Under common law, the felony-murder doctrine maintained that any death resulting from the comission of, or attempt to commit, the crimes of arson, burglary, larceny, rape, or robbery was to be considered murder. In many contemporary legal statutes, the felony-murder doctrine provides that if a death occurs during the comission of a felony, the person committing the primary offense can also be charged with murder in the first degree. inquisitorial system Under this system the accused person was considered guilty until proven innocent. Divine intervention. Opposite of the adversary system. inquiry system all participants in law - judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, defendant, and witnesses - are obliged to cooperate with the court in its inquiry into crime. It is believed that the truth will emerge out of this inquiry. Utopian -> everyone will tell the whole truth. adversary system the accused person is presumed to be innocent and the burden of proof is placed on the court. In the adversary court, the judge is an impartial arbiter or referee between adversaries - the prosecution and the defense. OUR CURRENT SYSTEM. substantive due process refers to the content or subject matter of a law. It protects people against unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious laws/acts of government. void-for-vagueness doctrine the rule that criminal laws that are unclear or uncertain as to what or to whom they apply violate due process. arrest taking a person into custody for the purpose of charging him/her with a crime booking refers to the administrative steps and procedures carried out by the police in order to record an arrest properly and officially. initial appearance within a reasonable time after arrest, the accused person must be brought before a magistrate and given a formal notice of the charge preliminary hearing the main purpose of the preliminary hearing is to protect defendants from unwarranted prosecutions. They are rare. indictment formal charging document based on the grand jury's determination that there is sufficient cause for a trial. arraignment actual trial process begins. The accused person is taken before a judge, the formal charges are read, and the defendant is asked to enter a plea: guilty, not guilty, nolo contendre (no contest), standing mute.