Crimes and the Limits of Law

Question 1

Mala in se

Answer 1

Acts that are cimes because they are inheritly evil or ful to society

Question 2

mala prohibita

Answer 2

Acts that are prohibeted because they are defined as crimes by law

Question 3

executive orders

Answer 3

Presidential dieves regarding the execution of legislative acts and directs the behavior of officers and agencies of executive branch

Question 4

common law

Answer 4

Unwritten, simply stated laws based on traditional common understandings in a time when most people were illterate

Question 5

felony

Answer 5

Serious criminal conduct punishable by incarceration for move than one year

Question 6

misdemeanor

Answer 6

Less serious criminal conduct punishable by incarcentation for less than a year

Question 7

principle of legality

Answer 7

The principle that citizens cannot be punished for conduct fo which no law against in exists

Question 8

ex post facto

Answer 8

Laws providing that citizens cannot be punished fo r actions commited before laws againt the actions were passed and that the cov cannot increase the penalty for a specific crime after the crime was commited

Question 9

due process

Answer 9

Substantive due process limits the governments power to crimilize behavior unless there is a compelling eason for the public intrest to do so; procedural due process requires that the gov follow standard procedues and treat all

Question 10

rules of evidence

Answer 10

provide legal guidance as to the poper treatment of evidence and evidentiary proceding

Question 11

stare decisis

Answer 11

The US system of deeloping and applying case law on the basis of precedents estabished in previous cases

Question 12

void for vagueness

Answer 12

The principle that lawsthat do not use clear and specific language to define prohibited behaviors cannot be upheld

Question 13

right to privacy

Answer 13

the principle that laws that violate personal privacy canot be upheld

Question 14

void for overbreadth

Answer 14

The principle that laws go too far in they criminalze legally protected behavior in an attemptedto make some other behavior illegal that cannot be upheld

Question 15

cruel and unusual punishment

Answer 15

An eigth amendment right, based on the premise of classical criminology, that punishment should be appropriate to the crime

Question 16

elements of a crime

Answer 16

The illegal actions and criminal intetions of the actor along with the circumnstances that link the two, especially causation

Question 17

actus reus

Answer 17

An element of crime in which people are punished for thei actions; thus the law does not prrosecute persons for actions that are not voluntary or that are accidental and do not involve ecklnessness or negligence

Question 18

mens rea

Answer 18

an element of crime in which a peson must have ciminal intent or a guilty mind for his or her actions to be criminal

Question 19

strict liability crimes

Answer 19

actions that are considered criminal without the need for criminal intret

Question 20

inchoate offense

Answer 20

an action that goes beyond mere thought but does not esult in a completed crime

Question 21

defendses

Answer 21

Justifaction or excuses defined by law which a fefendant may be released from presecution or punsihment for a crime

Question 22

perfect defense

Answer 22

The person is excused fom all criminal liablities and punishements

Question 23

solicitation

Answer 23

The requesting or commanding of anothe to commit a crime

Question 24

conspiracy

Answer 24

The planning by two or more people to commit a crime

Question 25

attempt

Answer 25

An incomplete ciminal act; the closest act to the completion of a cime

Question 26

defenses

Answer 26

Justifications or excuses defined by law by which a defedant may be released from prosecution or punishment for a crime

Question 27

perfect defense

Answer 27

The person is excused from all criminal lialities and punishments

Question 28

imperfect defense

Answer 28

The defendant liability or punishment for a crime is reduced

Question 29

affirmative defense

Answer 29

The defendant admits that he o she committed the actus eas of the crime argues that he or she should not be found guilty of the crime becauseof a defense

Question 30

diplomatic immunity

Answer 30

the granting of immunity o protection from any kind of ciminal prosecution to foreign diplomats

Question 31

legislative immunity

Answer 31

The potection of senators and representatives of Congress from arrest only while the

Question 32

witness immunity

Answer 32

a situation in which a defendent admits to committing a crime but is granted immunity from prosecution in exchange fro cooperation with a goverment investigation

Question 33

privlegde

Answer 33

A type of defense in which the defendant claims immunity fom

Question 34

defense of duress

Answer 34

A legal claim by a defendant that he o she acted in voluntariliy under the threat of immediate and serious harm by another

Question 35

mistake o ignorance of fact

Answer 35

an affirmative leval defense in which the defendant made a mistake that does not meet the requirement mens rea

Question 36

necessitity

Answer 36

An affirmative legal defense claiming that the defendant commiitted an act out of need and not mens rea

Question 37

self defense

Answer 37

An affirmative legal defense in which a defendant claims that he or she acted to protect himself or heself or another person against a deadly attak or invasion of of his o her home

Question 38

insanity

Answer 38

A legal claim by a defendant that he or she was suffering fom a disease or mental defect and that the defect caused the defendant not to understand the differance between right and wrong

Question 39

Model Penal Code

Answer 39

Guidelines for US criminal codes published in 1962 by the American Law insitute that classify and define cimes into categories

Question 40

homicide

Answer 40

The killing of one human being by another

Question 41

murder

Answer 41

All intentional killings and deaths that occur in the couse of agravated felonies

Question 42

manslaguter

Answer 42

The killing of another without the speicic intent to kill