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27 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Wedding Cake Model
A view of justice that divides the criminal process into four layers based on the seriousness and notoriety of the crime. The top layer gets the full interest of the law, whereas the bottom layer receives only superficial attention.
Celebrated Cases
Serious Felonies
Less Serious Felonies
Misdemeanors
Important because it is an alternative to the traditional criminal justice flow chart. It is useful because it shows that public opinion about criminal justice is formed on the basis of what happened in an atypical case.
Proactive Policing
An aggressive law enforcement style in which partrol officers take the initiative against crime instead of waiting for criminal acts to occur. Instead of dealing with convicts it is meant to prevent crime from hapening.
(example: stopping motor vehicles to issue citations and aggressively arrest and detain suspicious persons)
UCR, part 1
Uniform Crime Reports: The official crime data collected by the FBI from local police departments.
Part 1 Crimes: Those crimes in the FBI's uniform Crime Report that are considered the most prevalent and serious. The offenses included are the violent crimes of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault and the property crimes of burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Important because it shows us crime related trends across the nation. (who, what, when, where, how)
The 'blue curtain'
The secretive, insulated police culture that isolates officers from the rest of society. Its important to recognize because it can seperate police from the public, which ultimately does not aid the police if fighting crime and protecting the public.
Career Criminal
Persistent repeat offenders who organize their lifestyles around criminality. It is important to recognize these individuals and get them off the streets before they become the leaders of organized crime mobs. It is also important to recognize these individuals in order to give them proper sentencing.
Misdemeanor
Punished much less severely than felonies and many are punished with monetary fines or imprisonment other than in a penitentiary. Someone can not be arrested for a misdemeanor at a subsequent time without an arrest warrant. It is important to be able to classify different crimes into different categories to ensure fairness in punishments recieved by the guilty.
Mens rea
In order for an act to constitute a crime, the criminal must have criminal intent or mens rea.
Intent to commit a crime
Must be voluntary
must be reasonable: Could forsee the consequences of ones act
Is important because it prevents the victims from becoming the criminals
Entrapment
A defendant may be excused from criminal liability if he can convince the jury that law enforcement agents used traps, decoys, and deception to induce criminal action. This is important because it prevents innocent people from being lured into criminal acts, which they can then be punished for.
Curtilage
Grounds or fields attached to a persons house. Police may not enter a persons yard but may look from the street and fly over it. This is important because it enabeles more convictions to be made and the concept of curtilage has also added significance in defining plain view.
Watchman Style
Focused on the maintenance of public order as the police goal, not on law enforecement. Watchmen may choose to ignore infractions unless they believe that the social or political order is jeopardized. The general public will have less of a negative feeling towards these officers which may benefit in more public support and help.
Crime Mapping
Computer programs allow addresses to be translated into map coordinates which allow departments to identify problem areas for particular crimes. Complex maps can chart trends and for example, may be used to predict where a criminal may make their next move.
Voir Dire
The process in which a potential jury panel is questioned by the jury prosecution and the defense to select jurors who are unbiased and objective. This is important in eliminating friends/relatives/accomplices of the defense and in selecting a diverse non-biased jury panel.
Grass Eater
A term used for a police officer who accepts payoffs when everyday duties place him or her in a position to be solicited by the public. It is important to be able to understand different types of police corruption to enable us to identify police corruption when it happens.
Ladder of Force
Diagram showing an officers reasonable responce to a specific type of offense or to what the officer percieves is hapening. The lader of force is important because it gives new officers something to base their actions off of, relative to every other officer.
Search Warrant
An order, issued by a judge, directing officers to conduct a search of specified premises for specified objects or persons and to bring these before the court. Important to avoid breaking peoples right to privacy.
Restorative Justice Perspective
The true purpose of the criminal justice system is to promote a peaceful and just society ; the justice system should aim for peacemaking, not punishment. Resolutions of conflict should take place in the communities that the conflict took place in, in order for the offender to appreciate the damage done, make amends, and be reintegrated back into society. It is important to prevent the criminal from becoming alienated from society and becoming someone elses problem.
Racial Profiling
Racial and ethnic bias towards minority group members. It is important to understand and be conscious that racial profiling is a real bias in order to avoid it in the future.
Miranda Warning
The rights that are read to the person who is taken into custody.
The right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, ect...Is important to protect a criminals suspect 5th amendment right to avoid self incrimination.
Exclusionary Rule
The principle that prohibits using illegaly obtained evidence in trial. This is important because it ensures that police are specific on warrants and so people right to privacy are not encroached upon warrantless. Suspicions are not turned into convictions without proper evidence prior to receiving the warrants.
Grand Jury
A group of citizens chosen to hear charges against persons accused of crime and to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to bring the persons to trial. This is important because it eliminates the prosecution and defense, as well as the courts from wasting their time with cases that shouldnt even make it to trial.
Broken Windows Theory
Role of the police as maintainers of community order and safety. Core police role must be altered if community envolvement is to be won and maintained. Important to envolve the community and to not alienate people who might be sources of information.
Kansas City Patrol Experiment
Question: Does random patrol deter crime?
Conducted: 1972-1973 (12 months)
3 levels of patrol: normal, little or non, Double Tripple
Outcome Measures: Crime, Fear of Crime, Satisfaction with Police, Changes in Police Behavior
Results: Levels of patrol had no significant impact on any outcome measure
Was an important study to conduct because of the results.
Criminal Defenses
Ignorance or Mistake
Insanity
Intoxication
Age
Entrapment
Justification Defenses
(Consent, Self-Defense, Stand Your Ground, Duress, Necessity)
Changing Defenses
These are important to understand so that the prosecution can come up with valid arguments against the defense.
SARA
Scan, Analysis, Respond, Assessment
Common problem solving method used in Problem Oriented Policing in which police identify long term community problems and develop strategies to eliminate them.
'Terry Stops'
Is a type of search and seizure. It is a non warranted search with possible field interrogations and frisks. This is important becasue in places like air ports where where is a high volume of people and a high turn over rate, there may not be time to obtain a warrant and a Terry Stop may be necessary.
Reasonable Suspicion
Is a legal standard in the US law that a person has been or is about to engage in criminal activity based on specific and articuable facts and inferences. It is important for cops to be able to judge people based on reasonable suspicion in order to stop crimes before they are committed.
Stare Decisis
To stand by decided cases-the legal principle by which the decision or holding in an earlier case becomes the standard by which subsequent similar cases are judged. This is important in assigning fair/equal punishment to everyone on the basis of the crime not on the personality of the individual.