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CRCJ 1-3
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| arraignment | court appearance in which the defendant is formally charged with a crime and asked to respond by pleading guilty, not guilty, or nolo contendere. |
| arrest | when law enforcement detains and holds a criminal suspect or suspects. |
| arson | any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn the property of another. |
| burglary | breaking into and entering a structure or vehicle with intent to commit a felony or a theft. |
| corporate crime | offenses committed by a corporation officers who pursue illegal activity in the corporation name. |
| crime | the violation of the laws of a society by a person or a group of people who are subject to the laws of that society. |
| crime control model | a model proposed by legal scholar Herbert L. Packer to describe the public expectation of an efficient criminal justice system. |
| criminal justice | a social institution that has the mission of controlling crime by detecting, detaining, adjudicating, and punishing and/or rehabilitating people who break the law. |
| discretion | the power of a criminal justice official to make decisions on issues within legal guidelines. |
| due process model | a model proposed by legal scholar Herbert L. Packer to describe the public expectation of a just and fair criminal justice system. |
| felony | an offense punishable by a sentence of more than a year in state or federal prison and sometimes by death. |
| justice | the administering of a punishment or reward in accordance with morals that a given society considers to be correct. |
| larceny | a form of theft in which an offender takes possessions that do not belong to him or her with the intent of keeping them. |
| mass murder | the murder of three or more people in a single incident. |
| misdemeanor | a minor criminal offense punishable by a fine and/or jail time for up to one year. |
| parole | the conditional release of a prison inmate who has served part of a sentence and who remains under the court control. |
| probation | the suspension of all or part of a sentence subject to certain conditions and supervision in the community. |
| rape | sexual activity, usually sexual intercourse, that is forced on another person without his or her consent, usually under threat of harm. Also, sexual activity conducted with a person who is incapable of valid consent. |
| robbery | the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear. |
| serial murder | the murder of a series of victims during three or more separate events over an extended period of time. |
| sexual assault | sexual contact that is committed without the other party’s consent or with a party who is not capable of giving consent. |
| social control | the rules, habits, and customs a society uses to enforce conformity to its norms. |
| sociological imagination | the idea that we must look beyond the obvious to evaluate how our social location influences how we perceive society |
| street crime | small-scale, personal offenses such as single-victim homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, and vandalism. |
| terrorism | the use or threat of violence against a state or other political entity in order to coerce. |
| victimless crime | behaviors that are deemed undesirable because they offend community standards rather than directly harm people or property. |
| war on drugs | governmental policy aimed at reducing the sale and use of illegal drugs. |
| white collar crime | a nonviolent criminal offense committed during the course of business for financial gain. |
| crime rate | the number of crime index offenses divided by the population of an area, usually given as a rate of crimes per 100,000 people. |
| dark figure of crime | a term describing crime that is unreported and never quantified. |
| hierarchy rule | when more than one criminal offense is committed in a given incident, but only the offense that is highest on the hierarchy list is reported to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports. |
| national crime victimization survey (NCVS) | a survey that is the primary source of information on criminal victimization in the United States and attempts to measure the extent of crime by interviewing crime victims. |
| national incident-based reporting system (NIBRS) | a crime-reporting system in which each separate offense in a crime is described, including data describing the offender(s), victim(s), and property. |
| self-report study | research in which individuals are asked about criminal offenses they have committed, even those they have never been arrested for or charged with. |
| uniform crime reports (UCR) | an annual publication by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that uses data from all participating law enforcement agencies in the United States to summarize the incidence and rate of reported crime. |
| victim | "a person that has suffered direct physical, emotional, or pecuniary harm as a result of the commission of a crime.” |
| victim-impact statement | an account given by the victim, the victim’s family, or others affected by the offense that expresses the effects of the offense, including economic losses, the extent of physical or psychological injuries, and major life changes. |
| victim precipitation | a situation in which a crime victim plays an active role in initiating a crime or escalating it. |
| actus reus | “guilty deed”; the physical action of a criminal offense. |
| affirmative defense | a defense in which the defendant must provide evidence that excuses the legal consequences of an act that the defendant has been proven to have committed. |
| alibi | a defense that involves the defendant(s) claiming not to have been at the scene of a criminal offense when it was committed. |
| attendant circumstances | additional conditions that define a given criminal offense. |
| beyond a reasonable doubt | the highest level of proof required to win a case; necessary in criminal cases to procure a guilty verdict. |
| bill of rights | the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantee fundamental rights and privileges to citizens. |
| case law | the published decisions of courts that create new interpretations of the law and can be cited as precedent. |
| civil law | the law that governs private rights as opposed to the law that governs criminal issues. |
| code of hammurabi | an ancient code instituted by Hammurabi, a ruler of Babylonia, dealing with criminal and civil matters. |
| common law | laws that are based on customs and general principles and that may be used as precedent or for matters not addressed by statute. |
| concurrence | the coexistence of actus reus and mens rea. |
| corpus deliciti | "body of the crime”; the criminal offense. |
| criminal law | the law specifying the prosecution by the government of a person or people for an act that has been classified as a criminal offense. |
| double jeopardy | prosecution of a defendant in the same jurisdiction for an offense for which the defendant has already been prosecuted and convicted or acquitted. |
| entrapment | the use of extreme means by law enforcement to pressure someone to break the law. |
| habeas corpus | an order to have a prisoner/detainee brought before the court to determine if it is legal to hold the prisoner/detainee. |
| inchoate offense | an offense composed of acts necessary to commit another offense. |
| infancy | in legal terminology, the state of a child who has not yet reached a specific age; almost all states end infancy at age 18. |
| infraction | in most jurisdictions, a minor civil offense that is not serious enough to warrant curtailing an offender’s freedom. |
| insanity defense | a defense that attempts to give physical or psychological reasons that a defendant cannot comprehend his or her criminal actions, their harm(s), or their punishment. |
| magna carta | "great charter”; a guarantee of liberties signed by King John of England in 1215 that influenced many modern legal and constitutional principles. |
| mens rea | "guilty mind”; intent or knowledge to break the law. |
| penal code | a code of laws that deals with crimes and the punishments for them. |
| precedent | a prior legal decision used as a basis for deciding a later, similar case. |
| preponderance of the evidence | the burden of proof in a civil trial, which requires that more than 50 percent of the evidence be in the plaintiff’s favor. |
| procedural law | law that specifies how the criminal justice system is allowed to deal with those who break the law or are accused of breaking the law. |
| rule of law | in the context of criminal justice, the government cannot punish any individual without strict adherence to clear, fair, and defined rules, laws, and procedures. |
| statute | a law enacted by a legislature. |
| statutory law | the type of law that is enacted by legislatures, as opposed to common law. |
| statutory rape | sexual activity conducted with a person who is younger than a specified age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental handicap, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception. |
| strict liability | responsibility for a criminal offense without intention to break the law. |
| substantive law | law that describes which behaviors have been defined as criminal offenses. |
| tort law | an area of the law that deals with civil acts that cause harm and injury, including libel, slander, assault, trespass, and negligence. |
Created by:
ryanhagedorn