Document 6516826

Criminal Justice in America Unit 1: What is Law?
Section 1: What is Criminal Justice?
Questions:
1. Describe the American Experience with crime during the last half century. What
noteworthy criminal
2. incidents or activities can you identify during that time, and what social and economic
conditions might have produced them?
3. What are the differences between individual rights perspective and the public order
perspective?
4. What is justice? What aspects of justice does this section discuss? How does criminal
justice relate to social justice and other wider notions of equity and fairness?
5. What are the main components of the criminal justice system? How do they interrelate?
How might they conflict?
6. List and summarize the stages of case processing that characterize the American system
of criminal justice.
7. What does the term process of law mean? Where in the American legal system are
guarantees of due process found?
8. What is meant by the term evidence based practice, and what is the role of research in
criminal justice? How can research influence crime control policy?
9. What is multiculturalism? What is social diversity? What impact do multiculturalism and
diversity have on the practice of criminal justice in contemporary American society?
Vocab:
1. Civil Justice
2. Conflict Model
3. Consensus Model
4. Crime
5. Criminal Justice
6. Criminology
7. Crime-Control Model
8. Due Process
9. Due Process Model
10. Evidence Based Practice
11. Individual Rights
12. Individual Rights Advocate
13. Justice
14. Multiculturalism
15. Public Order Advocate
16. Social Control
17. Social Justice
Criminal Justice in America Section 2: The Crime Picture
Questions:
1. Describe the historical development of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, and
list the crimes on which it reports. How is the ongoing implementation o the National
Incident Based Reporting System changing the UCR Program?
2. Describe the history of the National Crime Victimization Survey Program. What do data
from the NCVS tell us about crime in the United States today?
3. What are the special categories of crime? What are they important? Why are some of
them not as important?
Vocab:
1. Aggravated Assault
2. Arson
3. Assault
4. Bureau of Justice
Statistics
5. Burglary
6. Clearance Rate
7. Computer Crime
8. Computer Virus
9. Corporate Crime
10. Crime Index
11. Crime Typology
12. Cyber stalking
13. Cyber terrorism
14. Dark Figure of
Crime
15. Date Rape
16. Domestic
Terrorism
17. Forcible Rape
18. Hate Crime
19. Identity Theft
20. International
Terrorism
21. Larceny-Theft
22. Malware
23. Motor Vehicle
Theft
24. Murder
25. National Crime
Victimization
Survey
26. National Incident
Based Reporting
System
27. Organized Crime
28. Part I Offenses
29. Part II Offenses
30. Property Crime
31. Rape
32. Robbery
33. Sexual Battery
34. Spam
35. Special Categories
of Crime
36. Stalking
37. Terrorism
38. Transnational
Crime
39. Uniform Crime
Reporting Program
40. Violent Crime
41. White Collar Crime
Criminal Justice in America Section 3: Criminal Law
Questions:
1. What is the purpose of law? What would a society be without law?
2. What is the rule of law? What is its purpose in Western Democracies? What does it mean
to say, “Nobody is above the law”?
3. What re the types of law? What purpose does each serve?
4. What re the five categories of criminal law? Describe each and rank the categories in
terms of seriousness.
5. List and describe the eight features of a crime. What are the “three conjoined elements”
that compromise the legal essence of the concept of crime?
6. What is meant by the corpus delicti of a crime? Hoes does the corpus delecti of a crime
differ from the statutory elements that must be proved to convict a particular defendant of
committing that crime?
7. What four broad categories of criminal defenses does our legal system recognize? Under
what circumstances might each be employed?
Vocab:
1. Actus Reus
2. Alibi
3. Alter Ego Rule
4. Attendant
Circumstances
5. Case Law
6. Civil Law
7. Common Law
8. Concurrence
9. Corpus Delicti
10. Criminal Law
11. Criminal
Negligence
12. Defense
13. Diminished
Capacity
14. Double Jeopardy
15. Element of a Crime
16. Entrapment
17. Espionage
18. Ex Post Fact
19. Excuse
20. Felony
21. Guilty but Mentally
Ill
22. Inchoate Offense
23. Incompetent to
Stand Trial
24. Infraction
25. Insanity Defense
26. Jurisprudence
27. Justification
28. Law
29. Legal Cause
30. M’Naghten Rule
31. Mens Rea
32. Misdemeanor
33. Motive
34. Offense
35. Penal Code
36. Precedent
37. Procedural Law
38. Procedural Defense
39. Reasonable Force
40. Reckless Behavior
41. Rule of Law
42. Self Defense
43. Stare Decisis
44. Statutory Law
45. Strict Liability
46. Substantive
Criminal Law
47. Tort
48. Treason
Criminal Justice in America Unit 2: The Police
Section 1: Policing: Purpose and Organization
Questions:
1. What are the basic purposes of policing in democratic societies? How are they consistent
with one another? In what ways might they be inconsistent?
2. What are the three major levels of law enforcement? Why do we have so many different
types of law enforcement agencies in the United States? What problems if any do you
think are created by such a diversity of agencies?
3. What are they various features of police administration? What is meant by chain of
command?
4. What stages of historical development aid American police agencies experience? How
did policing styles differ by historical era?
5. What is community policing? How does it differ from traditional policing? Does
community policing offer an opportunity to improve policing services in the United
States? Why or why not?
6. What is police discretion? How does the practice of discretion by today’s officers affect
their departments and the policing profession as a whole?
Vocab
1. Chain of Command
2. Charleston Policing
3. Community Policing
4. Comp Stat
5. Crime Prevention
6. Directed Patrol
7. Evidence Based Policing
8. Kansas City Experiment
9. Legalistic Style
10. Line Operations
11. Police Discretion
12. Police Management
13. Police Subculture
14. Police-Community Relations
15. Problem Solving Policing
16. Quality of Life Offense
17. Scientific Police Management
18. Service Style
19. Sheriff
20. Span of Control
21. Staff Operations
22. Strategic Policing
23. Team Policing
24. Watchman Style
Criminal Justice in America Section 2: Legal Aspects of Policing
Questions:
1. Name some of the legal restraints on police action, and list some types of behaviors that
might be considered abuse of police authority.
2. How do the Bill of Rights and democratically inspired legal restrains on the police help
ensure personal freedoms in our society?
3. Describe the legal standards for assessing searches and seizures conducted by law
enforcement agencies.
4. What is arrest, and when does it occur? How do legal understandings of the term differ
from popular depictions of the arrest process?
5. What is the roll of interrogation in intelligence gathering? List each of the Miranda
Warnings. Which recent Supreme Court cases have affected the Miranda Warning
requirements?
Vocab:
1. “Sneak and Peek” Search
2. Anticipatory Warrant
3. Arrest
4. Bill of Rights
5. Compelling Interest
6. Digital Criminal Forensics
7. Electronic Communications Privacy
Act
8. Electronic Evidence
9. Emergency Search
10. Exclusionary Rule
11. Fleeting of Targets exception
12. Fruit of the Poisonous Tree Doctrine
13. Good Faith Exception
14. Illegally Seized Evidence
15. Inherent Coercion
16. Interrogation
17. Landmark Cases
18. Latent Evidence
19. Miranda Triggers
20. Miranda Warnings
21. Plain View Doctrine
22. Probable Cause
23. Psychological Manipulation
24. Reasonable Suspicion
25. Search Incident to an Arrest
26. Suspicion less Search
27. USA Patriot Act
28. Warrant
29. Writ of Certiorari
Criminal Justice in America Section 3: Issues and Challenges of Policing
Questions:
1. What is the police working personality? What are its central features? How does it
develop? How does it relate to police subculture?
2. What are the different types of police corruption? What themes run through the finding of
the Knapp Commission and the Wickersham Commission? What innovative steps might
police departments take to reduce or eliminate corruption among their officers?
3. What are the dangers of police work? What can be done to reduce those dangers?
4. How has the threat of terrorist attacks affected American policing today? Are American
police agencies prepared to prevent and respond to terrorism? Explain.
5. What are some of the civil liability issues associated with policing? How can civil
liability be reduced?
6. What is racial profiling? Why has it become a significant issue in policing today?
7. In what kinds of situations are police officers most likely to use force? When has too
much force been used?
8. Is police work a profession? Explain. What are the advantages of viewing policing as a
profession? How can professionalism be enhanced?
9. What ethic and gender differences characterize policing today? What is the social
significance of this diversity?
10. What are the nature and extent of private protective services in the United States today?
What role do you think private protective services will play in the future? How can the
quality of such services be ensured?
Vocab:
1. Biological Weapons
2. Bivens Action
3. Civil Liability
4. Criminal Intelligence
5. Deadly Force
6. Excessive Force
7. Intelligence-Led Policing
8. Internal Affairs
9. Knapp Commission
10. Less-Lethal Weapon
11. Police Corruption
12. Police Ethics
13. Police Professionalism
14. Police Subculture
15. Police Use of Force
16. Police Working Personality
17. Private Protective Services
18. Problem Police Officer
19. Racial Profiling
Criminal Justice in America Unit 3: Adjudication
Section 1: The Courts
Questions:
1. How did the American court system develop? What are some of the unique features of
American court history? What is the dual court system? Why do we have a dual court
system in America?
2. How is a typical state court system structured? What different types of courts might exist
at the state level, and what kinds of jurisdiction might they have?
3. What are the three levels characteristic of the federal judiciary? What are some of the
differences between the state and federal court systems in America?
4. What steps are typically taken before the start of a criminal trial?
Vocab:
1. Appeal
2. Appellate Jurisdiction
3. Arraignment
4. Bail Bond
5. Community Court
6. Competent to Stand Trial
7. Court of Last Resort
8. Danger Law
9. Dispute-Resolution Center
10. Federal Court System
11. First Appearance Bail
12. Grand Jury
13. Indictment
14. Information
15. Judicial Review
16. Jurisdiction
17. Nolo Contendere
18. Original Jurisdiction
19. Plea
20. Plea Bargaining
21. Preliminary Hearing
22. Pretrial Release
23. Property Bond
24. Release on Recognizance
25. State Court Administrator
26. State Court System
27. Trial de Novo
Criminal Justice in America Section 2: The Courtroom Work Group and the Criminal Trial
Questions:
1. Who are the professional members of the courtroom work group and what are their roles?
2. Who are the nonprofessional courtroom participants, and what are their roles?
3. What is the purpose of a criminal trial? What is the difference between factual guilt and
legal guilt? What do we mean by the term adversarial system?
4. What are the various stages of a criminal trial? Describe each one.
Vocab:
1. Trial Courtroom Work Group
2. Judge
3. Prosecutor
4. Prosecutorial Discretion
5. Exculpatory Evidence
6. Defense Counsel
7. Public Defender
8. Bailiff
9. Expert Witness
10. Lay Witness
11. Subpoena
12. Victim Assistance Program
13. Juror
14. Change of Venue
15. Rules of Evidence
16. Adversarial System
17. Speedy Trial Act
18. Peremptory Challenge
19. Jury Selection
20. Scientific Jury Selection
21. Sequestered Jury
22. Opening Statement
23. Evidence
24. Direct Evidence
25. Circumstantial Evidence
26. Real Evidence
27. Probative Value
28. Testimony
29. Perjury
30. Hearsay
31. Hearsay Rule
32. Closing Argument
33. Verdict
Criminal Justice in America Unit 4: Sentencing and Corrections
Section 1: Sentencing
Questions:
1. Describe the five goals of contemporary criminal sentencing. Which of these goals do
you think ought to be the primary goal of sentencing? How might your choice vary with
the type of offense? In what circumstances might your choice be less acceptable?
2. Describe the nature of indeterminate sentencing and explain its positive aspects. What led
some states to abandon indeterminate sentencing?
3. What is structured sentencing? What structured sentencing models are in use today?
Which model holds the best promise for long-term crime reduction? Why?
4. What are alternative sanctions? Give some examples of alternative sanctions, and offer an
assessment of how effective they might be.
5. What is presentence investigation? How do PSIs contribute to the contents of presentence
reports? How are presentence reports used?
6. Describe the history of victims’’ rights and services in this country. What role does the
victim play in criminal justice proceedings today?
7. What re the four modern sentencing options? Under what circumstances might each be
appropriate?
8. Do you support or oppose capital punishment? Outline the arguments on both sides of the
issue.
Vocab:
1. Aggravating Circumstances
2. Alternative Sentencing
3. Capital Offense
4. Capital Punishment
5. Concurrent Sentence
6. Consecutive Sentence
7. Determinate Sentencing
8. Deterrence
9. Diversion
10. Equity
11. Gain Time
12. General Deterrence
13. Good Time
14. Incpacitation
15. Indeterminate Sentencing
16. Just Deserts
17. Mandatory Sentencing
18. Mitigating Circumstances
19. Presentence Investigation
20. Presumptive Sentencing
21. Proportionality
22. Rehabilitation
23. Restoration
24. Restorative Justice
25. Retribution
26. Sentencing
27. Social Debt
28. Specific Deterrence
29. Structred Sentencing
30. Truth in Sentencing
31. Victim-Impact Statement
32. Voluntary Sentencing Guidelines
33. Writ of Habeas Corpus
Criminal Justice in America Section 2: Probation, Parole, and Community Corrections
Questions:
1. What is probation? How did it develop? What purpose does it serve?
2. What is parole? How do probation and parole differ? How are they alike?
3. List and explain the advantages and disadvantages of probation and parole.
4. Name and describe significant court cases that have had an impact on the practices of
probation and parole.
5. What do probation and parole officers do? What role do probation officers play in the
sentencing of convicted offenders?
6. What are intermediate sanctions? How do they differ from more traditional forms of
sentencing? What advantages do they offer?
7. How are probation and parole changing? What does the future hold for each?
Vocab:
1. Caseload
2. Community Service
3. Conditional Release
4. Conditions of Parole
5. Conditions of Probation
6. Discretionary Release
7. Home Confinement
8. Intensive Probation Supervision
9. Intermediate Sanction
10. Mandatory Release
11. Mixed Sentence
12. Parole
13. Parole Board
14. Parole Revocation
15. Parole Violation
16. Prisoner Reentry
17. Probation
18. Probation Revocation
19. Probation Revocation
20. Probation Violation
21. Recidivism
22. Remote Location Monitoring
23. Restitution
24. Revocation Hearing
25. Shock Incarceration
26. Shock Probation
27. Split Sentence
Criminal Justice in America Unit 5 Prisons and Jails
Section 1 Prisons and Jails
Questions:
1. What are today’s prisons like? What purpose do they serve?
2. What role do jails play in American corrections? What are some of the issues that jail
administrators currently face?
3. What is the role of private prisons today? What will be the state of private prisons two or
three decades from now?
Vocab:
1. ADMAX
2. Classification System
3. Design Capacity
4. Direct-Supervision Jail
5. Ex Post Facto
6. Jail
7. Justice Model
8. Operational Capacity
9. Prison
10. Prison Capacity
11. Private Prison
12. Privatization
13. Rated Capacity
14. Regional Jail
Section 2 Prison Life
Questions:
1. What are prison subcultures, and how do they influence prison life? How do they
develop, and what purpose do they serve?
2. How do women’s prisons differ from men’s? why have women’s prisons been studied
less often than institutions for men?
3. What are the primary concerns of prison staff? What other goals might staff member’s
focus on?
4. What causes prison riots? How might riots be prevented?
5. What are some of the major issues that prisons face today? What new issues might the
future bring?
Vocab:
1. Total Institution
2. Prison Subculture
3. Prisonization
4. Prison Argot
5. Security Threat Group
6. Hands-Off Doctrine
7. Civil Death
8. Balancing Test
9. Grievance Procedure
10. Deliberate Indifference
Criminal Justice in America Unit 6 Juvenile Justice
Questions:
1. Describe the history and evolution of the juvenile justice system in the Western world,
and list the six categories of children recognized by the laws of most states.
2. What are the major similarities and differences between the juvenile and adult justice
systems?
3. What directions might juvenile justice take in the future? What might provide the impetus
for such changes?
Vocab:
1. Abused Child
2. Adjudicatory Hearing
3. Blended Sentence
4. Delinquency
5. Delinquent Child
6. Dependent Child
7. Disposition Hearing
8. Intake
9. Juvenile
10. Juvenile Court
11. Juvenile Disposition
12. Juvenile Justice System
13. Juvenile Petition
14. Neglected Child
15. Parens Patriae
16. Status Offender
17. Status Offense
18. Teen Court
19. Undisciplined Child