Ch. 9

Ch. 9

1. Crime: offense against the state, punishable by fine, imprisonment or death. A violation of obligations due the community as a whole and can be punished only by the state

   • Conventional Crimes: thief breaking into a home, someone being mugged in the parking lot of a small mall or a local liquor store, crimes found in the daily news. It can also be murder, violence, and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape or aggravated assault
   • Consensual Crimes: victimless crimes, prostitution, illegal drug use,and unlawful sexual practices between consensual adults. However, children could be the indirect victims of these crimes since their parents are the ones committing the crimes
   • Economic Crimes: tax fraud, identity theft, insurance companies scamming clients. Harder to detect and prove in court than are other conventional crimes
   • Syndicated or Organized Crimes: corruption, trafficking in illegal drugs, gambling, prostitution
   • Politiical Crimes: treason, armed rebellion, assaination of public officials, sedition( any illegal actions that promote the overthrow of the lawful government or even foreign governments

2. Elements of a Crime:

   • The law defining the crime and punishment: a law must be spelled out so every citizen knows the extent to how far they can go before being arrested and what acts are illegal
   • Ex post facto: laws that declare certain conduct to be illegal after the conduct is taken place, a person cannot be arrested if they commited a crime before the crime was even considered illegal
   • Bills of Attainder: singles out a particular person or group of people and declare that something is criminal and for them but legal for everyone else
   • Actus Reus: the act of the crime
   • Mens Rea: the intent of the crime
   • Arrest: first substantial contact between the state and the accused
     • Warrant: issued after a complaint, filed by one person against another, has been presented and reviewed by a magistrate who has found probable cause for the arrest
       • Arrest w/o a warrant: in the visibility of a police officer
         • Probable cause: a police officer has to have reasonable doubt to pull the person over and then might see something suspicious in their car when speaking to them from outside the car
   • Trivial offenses: traffic light violations, gambling, drunkenness, misconduct by juveniles. Police officers are advised to give warnings to these minor offenses, so that law enforcement resources are reserved for more serious conduct.

3. 4 situations a police officer's discretion is at a maximum:

   • 1.) minor or trivial offenses
   • 2.) situations in which the victim will not seek prosecution
   • 3.) cases in which the victim is also involved in misconduct
   • 4.) criminal conduct thought to reflect the mores of a community subgroup

4. A victim may not always seek prosecution for these reasons: 1. may be a victim of a property crime so they only want restitution(money for the damage) 2. victim is in a ongoing relationship with the criminal 3. victim of rape fears publicity and being blamed as well as knowing law enforcement will not take their case seriously 4. victim is also involved in crime

5. Appearance before a magistrate: 1. after arrested for a crime, the suspect is booked at a police station, facts of the crime are recorded and fingerprints and photographs may be taken 2. appearance before magistrate, judge or commissioner- all 3 of these are lower level judicial officials

6. Grand Jury Process/ Preliminary Hearing: 16-23 people, jury is presented with evidence from the US attorney, determines whether there is probable cause, if the jury determines there is enough evidence an indictment is issued against the defendant, defendants and their attorneys do not have the right to appear before the grand jury, not public

   • Trial Jury: 6-12 people, public, but jury deliberations are private, defendants have the right to appear, call their witness on their behalf, and testify, final outcome is a verdict: civil cases( plaintiff or defendant) criminal cases(guilty or not guilty)

7. The arraignment: process in which the defendant is brought before the judge in the court where he or she is to be tried to respond to the grand jury indictment or the prosecutor's bill of information

   • Preliminary Hearing: used to determine whether there is a probable cause for the accused to be bound over the trial
     • Bill of Information: prosecutor files this with the court on where the trial will be held, this serves to outline the charges that will be adjudicated in the new legal setting

8. Adversarial System: there are two sides in a courtroom, mostly used in the United States

   • In criminal cases: government vs. defendant, defendant contends innocence
   • In civil cases: plaintiff vs. defendant, defendant denies responsibility
   • Judge is the disinterested referee whose job is to keep both side within the boundaries of the law and courtroom decorum
   • Both sides have full opportunity to "fight it out"
   • Inquisitorial System/Method: judge is the primary actor in the courtroom and the attorneys passively defend their client's interest, used in most other countries especially in French culture