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Mid Term
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Criminal Liability | conduct that unjustifiably and inexcusably inflicts or threatens substantial harm to individual or public interests |
| Felonies | serious crimes that are generally punishable by one year or more in prison |
| Model Penal Code (MPC) | the code developed by the American Law Institute to guide reform in criminal law |
| Criminal Punishment | penalties that meet four criteria need: 1. to inflict pain or other unpleasant consequences; 2. to prescribe a punishment in the same law that defines the crime 3. to be administered intentionally; and 4. The state has to administer them |
| General Deterrence (and criminal punishment) | aims, by threat of punishment to deter criminal behavior in the general population |
| Incapacitation (and criminal punishment) | prevents convicted criminals from committing future crimes by locking them up, or more rarely, by altering them surgically or executing them |
| Principle of Utility | permitting only the minimum amount of pain necessary to prevent the crime as punishment |
| Reasonable Doubt | the proof that prevents one from being convinced of the defendant’s guilt, or the belief that there is a real possibility that the defendant is not guilty |
| Case Citation | the numbers, letters, and punctuation that follow the title of a case in the excerpts or in the bibliography at the end of the book |
| Rule of Law | the law is above everyone and it applies to everyone |
| ex post facto Law | a law passed after the occurrence of the conduct constituting the crime |
| Void-for-vagueness Doctrine | the principle that statutes violate due process if they don’t clearly define crime and punishment in advance |
| Equal Protection of the Laws | Interpreted by the courts to mean that state agents (and laws) cannot make arbitrary, irrational distinctions between people. Differential of people are permitted, but this differential treatment must not be based on race, religion, or gender |
| Fundamental Right to Privacy | a right that bans “all governmental invasions of the sanctity of a man’s home and the privacies of life |
| Second Amendment | A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. U.S. Constitution, Amendment II |
| Cruel and Unusual Punishment | barbaric” punishments and punishments that are disproportionate to the crime committed |
| Principle of Proportionality | a principle of law stating that the punishment must be proportional to the crime committed |
| Apprendi Rule | other than the fact of prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt |
| Elements of a Crime | the parts of a crime that the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt, such as actus reus, mens rea, concurrence, causation, and bad result |
| actus reus | the criminal act or the physical element in criminal liability |
| mens rea (criminal intent) | the “state of mind” the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt; criminal intent from an evil mind; the mental element in crime, including purpose, knowledge, recklessness, and negligence |
| Conduct Crimes | crimes requiring a criminal act triggered by criminal intent |
| Criminal Conduct | the criminal act triggered by a mens rea |
| Manifest Criminality | the requirement in law that intentions have to turn into criminal deeds to be punishable |
| Criminal Omissions | two forms: (1) mere failure to act or (2) failure to intervene in order to prevent a serious harm |
| Failure to Report (criminal omission) | one type of omission actus reus |
| Constructive Possession | legal possession or custody of an item or substance |
| Culpability (blameworthiness) | the idea that we can only punish people that we can blame, and we can only blame people that are responsible for what they do |
| Concurrence | the requirement that a criminal intent has to trigger a criminal act in criminal conduct crimes and that criminal conduct has to cause a bad result in bad result crimes |
| Subjective Fault | fault that requires a “bad mind” in the actor |
| Strict Liability | liability that requires neither subjective nor objective fault |
| Specific Intent | the attitude represented by subjective fault, where there’s a “bad” mind or will that triggers the act; the intent to do something beyond the actus reus |
| Purposely | the most blameworthy mental state |
| Causation | requirement that criminal conduct causes a harm defined in the criminal code |
| Factual Cause | conduct that, in fact, leads to a harmful result |
| "but for" cause | meaning that if it weren’t for an actor’s conduct, the result wouldn’t have occurred |
| Affirmative Defenses | defendants have to “start matters off by putting in some evidence in support” of their justification or excuse defenses |
| Perfect Defenses | defenses in which defendants are acquitted if they’re successful |
| Competency Hearings | special hearings to determine if defendants who have used the insanity excuse defense are still insane |
| Mitigating Circumstances | circumstances that convince fact finders (judges or juries) that defendants don’t deserve the maximum penalty for the crime they’re convicted of |
| Initial Aggressor | someone who provokes an attack can’t then use force to defend herself against the attack she provoked |
| Withdrawal Exception | if initial aggressors completely withdraw from attacks they provoke, they can defend themselves against an attack by their initial victims |
| Imminence Requirement | an element of self-defense requiring the danger to be “right now!” |
| Castle Exception | when attacked in your home, you have no duty to retreat and can use deadly force to fend off an unprovoked attack, but only if you reasonably believe the attack threatens death or serious bodily injury |
| Choice-Of-Evils Defense | also called the general defense of necessity justifies the choice to commit a lesser crime to avoid the harm of a greater crime |
| Insanity | the legal term that refers to a mental disease or defect that impairs the reason and/or will to control actions |
| Reason | psychologists call it “cognition”; the capacity to tell right from wrong |
| Will | psychologists call it “volition,” most of us call it “willpower”; in the insanity tests it refers to a defendant’s power to control their actions |
| Irresistible Impulse Test | we can’t blame or deter people who, because of a mental disease or defect know, that what they’re doing is “wrong” but can’t bring their actions into line with their knowledge of right and wrong |
| Substantial Capacity Test (MPC test) | a person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of the conduct because of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law |
| Diminished Responsibility | a defense of excuse in which the defendant argues, “What I did was wrong, but under the circumstances, I’m less responsible.” |
| Judicial Waiver | when juvenile court judges use their discretion to transfer a juvenile to adult criminal court |
| Entrapment | excuse that argues government agents got people to commit crimes they wouldn’t otherwise commit |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | excuse that argues the defendant wasn’t responsible because of PTSD |
Created by:
Martinr
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