Term | Definition |
social order | The condition of a society characterized by social integration, consensus, smooth functioning, and lack of interpersonal and institutional conflict. Also, a lack of social disorganization. |
social disorganization | A condition said to exist when a group is faced with social change, uneven development of culture, maladaptiveness, disharmony, conflict, and lack of consensus. |
crime | 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. |
individual rights | The rights guaranteed to all members of American society by the U.S. Constitution (especially those found in the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights). |
individual-rights advocate | One who seeks to protect personal freedoms within the process of criminal justice. |
public-order advocate | One who believes that under certain circumstances involving a criminal threat to public safety, the interests of society should take precedence over individual rights. |
Justice | The principle of fairness; the ideal of moral equity. |
social justice | |
civil justice | The civil law, the law of civil procedure, and the array of procedures and activities having to do with private rights and remedies sought by civil action. |
criminal justice | 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. |
administration of justice | |
criminal justice system | 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 are law enforcement, courts, and corrections. |
consensus model | A criminal justice perspective that assumes that the system's components work together harmoniously to achieve the social product we call justice. |
conflict model | A criminal justice perspective that assumes that the system's components function primarily to serve their own interests. |
warrant | In criminal proceedings, a writ issued by a judicial officer directing a law enforcement officer to perform a specified act and affording the officer protection from damages if he or she performs it. |
booking | A law enforcement or correctional administrative process officially recording an entry into detention after arrest and identifying the person, the place, the time, the reason for the arrest, and the arresting authority. |
bail | The money or property pledged to the court or actually deposited with the court to effect the release of a person from legal custody. |
preliminary hearing | |
probable cause | |
information | A formal written accusation submitted to the court by a prosecutor, alleging that a specified person has committed a specific offense. |
indictment | A formal, written accusation submitted to the court by a grand jury, alleging that a specified person has committed a specified offense, usually a felony. |
grand jury | |
arraignment | Strictly, the hearing before a court having jurisdiction in a criminal case, in which the identity of the defendant is established, the defendant is informed of the charge and of his or her rights, and the defendant is required to enter a plea. |
trial | In criminal proceedings, the examination in court of the issues of fact and relevant law in a case for the purpose of convicting or acquitting the defendant. |
consecutive sentence | One of two or more sentences imposed at the same time, after conviction for more than one offense, and served in sequence with the other sentence. |
concurrent sentence | concurrent sentence
One of two or more sentences imposed at the same time, after conviction for more than one offense, and served at the same time. |
due process | |
crime-control model | A criminal justice perspective that emphasizes the efficient arrest and conviction of criminal offenders. |
due process model | A criminal justice perspective that emphasizes individual rights at all stages of justice system processing. |
social control | The use of sanctions and rewards within a group to influence and shape the behavior of individual members of that group. |
evidence-based practice | |
criminology | The scientific study of the causes and prevention of crime and the rehabilitation and punishment of offenders. |
multiculturalism | |
Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program | An annual FBI publication that summarizes the incidence and rate of reported crimes throughout the United States. |
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) | An annual survey of selected American households conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics to determine the extent of criminal victimization—especially unreported victimization—in the United States. |
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) | A U.S. Department of Justice agency responsible for the collection of criminal justice data, including the annual National Crime Victimization Survey. |
Crime Index | |
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) | An incident-based reporting system that collects data on every single crime occurrence. NIBRS data will soon supersede the kinds of traditional data provided by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports. |
Violent crime | A UCR offense category that includes murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. |
Property Crime | A UCR offense category that includes burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. |
Clearance Rate | A traditional measure of investigative effectiveness that compares the number of crimes reported or discovered to the number of crimes solved through arrest or other means (such as the death of the suspect). |
Murder | The unlawful killing of a human being. Murder is a generic term that in common usage may include first- and second-degree murder, manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, and other similar offenses. |
Part I offenses | A set of UCR categories used to report murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson, as defined under the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Also called major crimes. |
rape | Unlawful sexual intercourse, achieved through force and without consent. Broadly speaking, the term rape has been applied to a wide variety of sexual attacks and may include same-sex rape and the rape of a male by a female. |
forcible rape (UCR/NIBRS) | The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. For statistical reporting purposes, the FBI defines forcible rape as "unlawful sexual intercourse with a female, by force and against her will, or without legal or factual consent." |
Sexual Battery | Intentional and wrongful physical contact with a person, without his or her consent, that entails a sexual component or purpose. |
Date Rape | Unlawful forced sexual intercourse with a female against her will that occurs within the context of a dating relationship. Date rape, or acquaintance rape, is a subcategory of rape that is of special concern today. |
robbery (UCR/NIBRS) | |
assault (UCR/NIBRS) | An unlawful attack by one person upon another. |
aggravated assault | |
Burglary (UCR/NIBRS) | |
larceny-theft (UCR/NIBRS) | |
motor vehicle theft (UCR/NIBRS) | |
arson (UCR/NIBRS) | |
identity theft | A crime in which an imposter obtains key pieces of information, such as Social Security and driver's license numbers, to obtain credit, merchandise, and services in the name of the victim. |
Part II offenses | A set of UCR categories used to report arrests for less serious offenses. |
dark figure of crime | Crime that is not reported to the police and that remains unknown to officials. |
crime typology | A classification of crimes along a particular dimension, such as legal categories, offender motivation, victim behavior, or the characteristics of individual offenders. |
stalking | |
cyberstalking | The use of the Internet, e-mail, and other electronic communication technologies to stalk another person. |
hate crime (UCR/NIBRS) | A criminal offense in which the motive is "hatred, bias, or prejudice, based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation of another individual or group of individuals." |
corporate crime | A violation of a criminal statute by a corporate entity or by its executives, employees, or agents acting on behalf of and for the benefit of the corporation, partnership, or other form of business entity. |
white-collar crime | |
organized crime | The unlawful activities of the members of a highly organized, disciplined association engaged in supplying illegal goods and services, including gambling, prostitution, loan-sharking, narcotics, and labor racketeering, and in other unlawful activities. |
transnational organized crime | Unlawful activity undertaken and supported by organized criminal groups operating across national boundaries. |
cybercrime | Any crime perpetrated through the use of computer technology. Also, any violation of a federal or state computer-crime statute. |
corpus delicti | The facts that show that a crime has occurred. The term literally means "the body of the crime." |