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Exam 1 Review, of Criminal Justice chapter 3

Terms in this set (26)

what is law
something regulates the relationships between people and parties, agencies of government, businesses, groups of people, etc...often the result of moral enterprise by interest groups that, through the exercise of political power, are successful in seeing their valued perspectives enacted into law.
They empower us allow us to the plan for the future, know what to expect from others i.e. employers keep us from being taken advantage of, protect us from harm
What Laws do:
1. Maintain order in society
2. Regulate human interaction
3. Enforce moral beliefs
4. Define economic environment
5. Enhance predictability
6. Support the powerful
7. Promote orderly social change
8. Sustain individual rights
Statutory Law:
Written or codified law; the "law on the books," as enacted by a government body or agency having the power to make laws
Case Law:
the body of judicial precedent, historically built on legal reasoning and past interpretations of statutory laws, that serves as a guide to decision making, especially in the courts.
Common Law:
a traditional unwritten historical precedents created from everyday social customs, rules and practices, many of which were supported by judicial decisions during early times. Originating from usage and custom rather than from written statues.
Criminal Law:
The branch of modern law that concerns itself with offenses committed against society, its members, their property and the social order. The body of rules and regulations that define and specify punishments for offenses of a public nature or for wrongs committed against the state or society. Also called penal law.
Civil Law:
the branch of modern law that governs the relations between parties.
examples of Civil Law:
o Contracts
o Divorce, child support
o Child custody
o Creation of wills
o Property transfer
o Negligence
o Unfair practices in hiring
o Manufacture and sale of consumer goods with hidden hazards for users
Compensatory Damages:
damages recovered in payment for an actual injury or economic loss. A sum of money awarded in a civil action by a court to cover a person for the particular loss, detriment, or injury suffered as a result of the unlawful conduct of another. Compensatory damages provide a plaintiff with an amount of money necessary to replace what was lost (but nothing more than that amount)
Punitive Damages:
damages requested or awarded in a civil lawsuit when the defendant's willful acts were malicious, violent, oppressive, fraudulent, wanton or grossly reckless. by 50%
Substantive Law:
The part of the law that defines crimes and the specific punishments
Procedural Law:
laws that specify methods used to enforce substantive law
Precedent:
a legal principle that ensures that previous judicial decisions are authoritatively considered and incorporated into future cases. When court decisions are made, the judges write the reasoning into the decision, this reasoning should then be taken into consideration by other courts when settling similar situations.
Stare decisis
(standing by decided matters): builds predictability into our law. Requires that in subsequent cases on similar issues of law and fact, courts are bound by their own earlier decision and by those of higher courts having jurisdiction over them.
General Categories of Crime (Figure 3-2):
1. Felonies: serious crimes, punishment may include loss of freedom, even life
2. Misdemeanors: less serious than felony, punishment can include jail time typically one year or less; fines
3. Inchoate: offense not yet completed....consists of an action or conduct that is a step toward the intended crime.
4. Treason: citizens actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the government. Also, the attempt to overthrow the government of the society of which one is a member.
5. Espionage: the gathering, transmitting, or losing of information related to the national defense in such a manner that the information becomes available to enemies of the U.S. and may be used to their advantage.
General Features of Crime (Figure 3-3):
• Actus Reus: the guilty act. You have to actually do something or plan to do something voluntarily.

• Mens Rea: the guilty mind. Consists of four main types: purposeful (intended to achieve a specific goal), knowing (aware of what doing), reckless (acts that increase the risk of harm. Person may not have intended harm, but should know that it could endanger others), and negligent (should have know better, failure to act). Hard to know exactly what someone is thinking. We do not punish accidents (pure).
• Motive: different than mens rea. Refers to the person's reason to commit crime and is not essential in convicting someone.
• Concurrence: requires that the act and the mental state occur together in order for a crime to have taken place.
• Strict/absolute liability: requires no culpable mental state. It's a crime simply to do something without intention of violating the law (i.e. routine traffic offenses).
Actus Reus:
the guilty act. You have to actually do something or plan to do something voluntarily.
Mens Rea: (define and 4 main types)
• the guilty mind. Consists of four main types:

1- purposeful (intended to achieve a specific goal),

2- knowing (aware of what doing),

3- reckless (acts that increase the risk of harm. Person may not have intended harm, but should know that it could endanger others)

4- negligent (should have know better, failure to act). Hard to know exactly what someone is thinking. We do not punish accidents (pure).
Motive:
different than mens rea. Refers to the person's reason to commit crime and is not essential in convicting someone.
Concurrence:
requires that the act and the mental state occur together in order for a crime to have taken place.
Corpus Delicti:
The facts that show a crime has occurred. Literal meaning: "the body of the crime." In order to try a case, it must be first proven that a crime has occurred.

Two main aspects to corpus delicti:
1. That a certain result has been produced (the crime)
2. A person is criminally responsible for its production
Defenses:
conditions that will tend to negate elements of a crime (particularly the intent element); defenses may provide partial or total protection from punishment.
Alibi:
a defendant uses evidence to show that he/she was not at the scene of the crime when the crime occurred, that he was somewhere else and could not be the person who committed the crime. The defense can have witnesses testify and present evidence at trial to support an alibi defense.
Procedural Defenses:
entrapment, double jeopardy, prosecutorial misconduct, police fraud
Entrapment:
idea for act must begin with the agent for it to be entrapment. Police are allowed to provide opportunity for a willing offender to commit crime.
Double Jeopardy:
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, double jeopardy is meant to protect people from three main abuses: 1) second prosecution for the same crime after acquittal, 2) a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction and 3) multiple punishments for the same offense. Does not apply in cases of trial error, hung jury, successful motion for a mistrial. Cases dismissed for a lack of evidence fall under double jeopardy
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