Chapter 1: What Is Criminal Justice?

Front 1

Crime

Back 1

Conduct in violation of the criminal laws of a state, the federal government, or a local jurisdiction for which there is no legally acceptable justification or excuse.

Front 2

Individual rights

Back 2

The rights guaranteed to all members of American society by the U.S. Constitution, known as the bill of rights. These rights are particularly important to criminal defenses facing formal processing by the criminal justice system

Front 3

Social disorganization

Back 3

A condition said to exist when a group is faced with social change, uneven development of culture, maladaptiveness, disharmony, conflict, and lack of consensus.

Front 4

Individual rights advocate

Back 4

One who seeks to protect personal freedoms within the process of criminal justice

Front 5

Social order

Back 5

The condition of a society characterized by social integration, consensus, smooth functioning, and lack of social disorganization

Front 6

Public-Order advocate

Back 6

One who believes that under certain circumstances involving a criminal threat to public safety, the interests of society should take precedence over individual rights.

Front 7

Justice

Back 7

The principle of fairness; the ideal of moral equity.

Front 8

Social justice

Back 8

An ideal that embraces all aspects of civilized life and that is linked to fundamental notions of fairness and to cultural beliefs about right or wrong

Front 9

Civil justice

Back 9

The civil law, the law of civil procedures and activities having to do with private rights and remedies sought by civil action. Civil justice cannot be separated from social justice because the justice enacted in our nation's civil courts reflects basic American understandings of right and wrong.

Front 10

Criminal justice

Back 10

In the strictest sense, the criminal (penal) law, the law of criminal procedure, and the array of procedures and activities having to do with the enforcement of this body of law. Criminal justice cannot be separated from social justice because the justice enacted in our nation's criminal courts reflects basic American understandings of right and wrong.

Front 11

Administration of justice

Back 11

The performance of any of the following activities: detection, apprehension, detention, pretrial release, post-trial release, prosecution, adjudication, correctional supervision, or rehabilitation of accused persons or criminal offenders

Front 12

Criminal justice system

Back 12

The aggregate of all operating and administrative or technical support agencies that perform criminal justice functions. The basic divisions of the operational aspects of criminal justice

Front 13

Consensus model

Back 13

A criminal justice perspective that assumes that the system's components work together harmoniously to achieve the social product we call justice.

Front 14

Conflict model

Back 14

A criminal justice perspective that assumes that the system's components function primarily to serve their own interests. According to this theoretical framework, justice is more a product of conflicts among agencies within the system than it is the result of cooperation among component agencies.

Front 15

Sustainable justice

Back 15

Criminal laws and criminal justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benefits of a just society