Crime & Minority Rights

Front 1

Two Theories of Punishment

Back 1

Utilitarianism and Retributivism

Front 2

Utilitarian theory of punishment

Back 2

General deterrence

Specific deterrence (incapacitation & intimidation)

Rehabilitation

Front 3

Retributive theory of punishment

Back 3

Punishment should be proportional to crime/harm caused

Front 4

Lenity Doctrine

Back 4

Judicial interpretation of ambiguous statutes should be biased in favor of the accused

Front 5

Elements of a Crime

Back 5

Actus Reus + Mens Rea = Social harm

Front 6

Actus Reus

Back 6

The physical aspect of criminal activity. A voluntary act that causes social harm. (Act can be an omission where there is a legal duty to act.)

Front 7

Legal Duty to Act

Back 7

1. statute

2. implied or express contract

3. voluntary assumption of care

4. special relationship (parent/child, eg)

5. wrongful creation of peril

Front 8

Mens Rea

Back 8

a guilty mind/criminal intent

Front 9

Strict liability

Back 9

Strict liability crimes do not require mens rea. Usually public welfare offenses are strict liability, as is statutory rape often.

Front 10

Transferred Intent

Back 10

Intent to harm someone transfers to person actually harmed, for example, if someone shoots and hits the wrong person. Intent cannot be transferred to a different crime.

Front 11

Culpable States of Mind

Back 11

Purposely

Knowingly

Recklessly

Negligently

Front 12

Purposeful (state of mind)

Back 12

Actor is aware of the likely consequence of his actions and intends that consequence.

Front 13

Knowing (state of mind)

Back 13

Actor is practically certain of the consequence of his actions.

Front 14

Reckless (state of mind)

Back 14

Actor consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk.

Front 15

Negligent (state of mind)

Back 15

Actor should have been aware of substantial and unjustifiable risk.

Front 16

Willful Blindness

Back 16

NY requires actual knowledge to constitute intent, Federal Statutes include a willful blindness provision

Front 17

Statutes that do not specifically mention intent

Back 17

Mens rea is imposed on all statutes that do not mention it.

Front 18

Actual Cause/Cause-In-Fact

Back 18

Uses but-for test to determine causation. Consequence would not have occurred BUT FOR the action.

Front 19

Proximate Cause

Back 19

Cause from which action is a direct, uninterrupted consequence.

Front 20

Criminally Negligent Homicide (NY)

Back 20

A person is guilty of criminally negligent homicide when, with criminal negligence, he causes the death of another person

Front 21

Manslaughter (NY)

Back 21

(1) Recklessly causing the death of another person

(2) Murder, but with EED

Front 22

Murder 2nd Degree (NY)

Back 22

(1) With intent to cause the death of another person, he causes the death of such person, or third person
(2) Depraved indifference to human life

Front 23

Depraved Indifference

Back 23

Conduct so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of other to warrant the same criminal liability as an intentional crime. Depraved indifference focuses on the risk created by the defendant’s conduct, not the injuries actually resulting.

Front 24

Felony Murder

Back 24

Felony murder rule imposes strict liability for first degree murder on deaths caused during the commission of a felony.

Front 25

Heat of Passion

Back 25

mitigates murder to manslaughter given

1) adequate provocation

2) killing occurred in the heat of passion

3) no reasonable opportunity for the passion to cool

4) causal connection between provocation, passion, and killing

Front 26

Extreme Emotional Distress

Back 26

-Standard used by NY state

-Essentially heat of passion without the temporal and direct provocation requirements

-Subjective based on standard of defendant

Front 27

Merger Rule

Back 27

Felony and death must be separate acts in order to qualify as felony murder.

Front 28

Castle Doctrine

Back 28

No duty to retreat from one's home, but must retreat to edge of property

Front 29

Justifications for deadly force

Back 29

reasonable belief that such force is necessary to defend oneself or another person

retreat not a viable option

Front 30

Aggressor Self-Defense Claim

Back 30

The aggressor has no claim to self-defense unless he has clearly withdrawn from the altercation and has clearly communicated such

Front 31

Robbery

Back 31

A person forcibly steals property and commits robbery when, in the course of committing a larceny(theft), he uses or threatens the immediate use of physical force upon another person in order

1) to take or retain the property

2) compel another to deliver or aid in the taking of the property

Front 32

Burglary

Back 32

A person knowingly enters or remains unlawfully in a building/premises with the intent to commit a crime therein.