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18 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Mala in se |
Acts that are crimes because they are harmful to society or are evil
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Mala prohibita |
Acts that are prohibited because they are defined as crimes by the law |
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Common law |
Unwritten laws based on tradition |
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Felony
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Crimes punishable by more than one year in prision |
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Misdemeanor |
Crimes punishable by less than a year in prison |
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Principle of legality |
Citizens cannot be punished for laws that dont exist |
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Ex post facto Laws |
Citizens cannot be punished for actions commited before laws against them were put in place |
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Rules of evidence |
Laws that regulate criminal trials |
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Stare decisis |
The US system of developing and applying case law on the basis of precedents established in previous cases |
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Elements of a crime
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The illegal actions and criminal intentions of the actor along with the circumstance that link the two |
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Actus Reus |
The element of crime in which people are punished for their actions |
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Imperfect defense |
The defense that results in the defendants sentence being lowered |
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Affirmative defense |
The defendant admits they committed the crime, but claims they should not be found guilty because their acts were justified |
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Witness immunity |
A situation where a defendant admits to a crime, but is given immunity in exchange for cooperating with a gov't investigation |
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Privilege |
The defense claiming that the criminal act was part of their official duties |
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Defense of duress |
A legal claim that the defendant acted under threat of immediate and serious harm by another |
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Mistake or Ignorance of fact |
An affirmative legal defense that says that a mistake doesn't contain the means for mens rea |
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Model Penal Code |
Guidelines for criminal codes published in 1962 by the american law institute that puts crimes into categories |
