chapter 3 Flashcards
(29 cards)
legal responsibility
The accountability of an individual for a crime because of the perpetrator’s characteristics and the circumstances of the legal act
Civil law
Law regulating the relationships between or among individuals usually involving property, contracts, ir business disputes
substantive criminal law
law that defines acts that are subject to punishment and specifies punishments of such offenses
Procedural criminal law
Law defining the procedures of criminal justice officials must follow in enforcement, adjudication, and corrections
What is contained in a State’s penal code?
Substantive criminal law that defines crimes and also punishments for those crimes
Civil infractions
Minor offenses that are typically punishable by small fines and produce no criminal record for the offender
Legality
There must be a law that defines the specific action a s a crime. Offensive and harmful behavior is illegal unless it has been prohibited by the law before it has committed.
Actus reus
Criminal laws are aimed at human acts, including acts that a person failed to undertake. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that people may not be convicted simply because of their status
Causation
For a crime to have been committed, there must be a causal relationship between an act and the harm suffered.
Harm
To be crime, an act (or a failure to act) must cause harm to some legally protected value. The harm can be to a person, property, or some other object that a legislature deems valuable enough to deserve protection through the government’s power to punish.
Concurrence
For an act to be considered a crime, the intent and the act must be be present at the same time.
Mens rea
“Guilty Mind,” or blameworthy state of mind, necessary for legal responsibility for a criminal offense; criminal intent, as distinguished from innocent intent.
Punishment
There must be a provision in the law calling for punishment of those found guilty of violating the law`
Justification Defenses
Focus on whether the individuals actions are was socially acceptable under the circumstances
Self-defense
A person who feels that he or she is in immediate danger of being harmed by another person may ward off an attack
Necessity
Unlike self-defense, in which a defendant feels that he or she must harm and aggressor to ward off an attack.
Excused defenses
Focus on the the actor and whether he or she possessed the knowledge or intent for a criminal conviction
Durress
When someone commits a crime because he or she has been coerced by another person
Entrapment
A defense that can be used to show the lack of intent. The law excuses a defendant when when it is shown that government agencies have induced the person to commit the offense
Infancy
The Anglo-American law excuses criminal acts by the children under age seven on the grounds of their infancy and lack of responsibility for their actions-in other words. mens reas not present
Mistake of fact
The specific degree of knowledge and intent that the prosecution must prove for that offense
Intoxication
The law does not relieve an individual responsibility for acts performed while voluntary intoxicated. There are, however, cases in which intoxication ca be used as a defense as when a person consumes a drink without knowing that is can cause intoxication.
Insanity
Five tests of criminal irresponsibility to determine if the suspect is in need of psychological incarceration
The Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments of the constitution
