Systems of Justice terms

1. Systems of Justice terms

2. Chapter 1 • Jurisprudence – The study of Law • Criminal Laws – A body of rules and statutes that defines conduct prohibited by the government because it threatens and harms public safety and welfare and that establishes punishment to be imposed for the commission of such acts. • Felony – Serious crime offense punishable by a prison sentence of more than one year. • Misdemeanor – A criminal offense, less serious than a felony, punishable by a prison sentence of one year or less

3. Civil Laws – Regulate relations between individuals or groups of individuals. • Civil Action – Lawsuit that can be brought by a person who feels wronged or injured by another person. • Defendant – The person accused of committing the crime. In a civil suit the defendant is the person being sued; in a criminal case the defendant is the person charged with committing a crime.

4. Plaintiff – in a civil case, the injured party who brings an action against the alleged wrongdoer. • Prosecutor – The government’s attorney in a criminal case. • Beyond a reasonable doubt – The level of proof required to convict a person of a crime. It does not mean “convinced 100 percent,” but does mean there are no reasonable doubts as to guilt.

5. Perponderance of the evidence – Usually the standard of proof used in a civil suit; the burden of proof that a party must meet in order to win the lawsuit. To win, a party must provide evidence that is more convincing than the other side’s evidence. • Limited government – A basic principle of our constitutional system. It limits government to powers provided to it by the people.

6. Separation of powers – The division of power among the branches of government (executive, legislative, and Judicial) • Statutes – Laws enacted by legislatures. • Checks and Balances – The power of each of the three branches’ power, so as to prevent an abuse.

7. Veto – Refuse to approve • Judicial Review – The process by which courts decide whether the laws passed by congress or state legislatures are constitutional. • Unconstitutional - Conflicting with some provision of the constitution. • Conflict of Interest – when a person has two or more concerns that are incompatible

8. Independent Counsel –An attorney hired to be impartial. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a congressional creation of independent counsel to investigate misconduct of high ranking Officials (Including President). • Federalism – The division of powers between the states and the federal government. • Bill of Rights – The first ten amendments to the constitution, which guarantee basic individual rights to all persons in the U.S.

9. Law – Set of rules or regulation by which a government regulates the conduct of people within a society. • Adversary System –Trial system in the United States. In this system, the parties to a controversy develop and present their arguments, gather and submit evidence, call and question witnesses, and, within the confines of certain rules, control the process. The fact finder, usually a judge or jury, remains neutral and passive throughout the proceeding.

10. Chapter 2 • Supremacy Clause – The provision in Article VI of the Constitution stating that U.S. laws and treaties must be followed even if state and local laws disagree with the Constitution and these treaties. • Bills – A draft of a proposed law being considered by a legislature. • Legislative Intent – What lawmakers who passed a law wanted the law to mean. If the language of a statute is unclear, judges will often look at the legislative intent to help them interpret the law.

11. Public hearings – Proceedings that are open to the public, During these proceedings, evidence is considered and a decision is reached based on the evidence. • Trials – A court Proceeding • Appeals – To take a case to higher court for a hearing

12. Appellate Courts – A court in which appeals from trial court decisions are heard. • Precedent – Court decisions on legal questions that guide future cases with similar questions. • Agency - Issues regulations and enforces them on behalf of the government.

13. Ordinances & Regulations – Local governments laws and rules.

14. Chapter 3 • Advocacy – Active support or argument for a cause • Lobbying – Influencing or persuading legislators to take action to introduce a bill or vote a certain way on a proposed law. • Initiative – The procedures by which voters can propose a law and submit it to the electorate or the legislature for approval.

15. Referendum – Procedure in which issues are voted on directly by the citizens rather than by their representatives in government. • Recall – The removal of an elected official by a vote of the people.

16. Chapter 4 • Negotiation – The process of discussing an issue to reach a settlement or agreement. • Settlement – A mutual agreement between two sides in a lawsuit, made before the case goes to trial, that settles or ends the dispute. • Arbitration – A way of settling a dispute without going to trial. The people who disagree select an impartial person to settle the argument. If the arbitration is binding, the decision must be followed by all parties.

17. Mediation – The act or process of resolving a dispute between two or more parties. • Ombudspersons – A person who has the power to investigate reported complaints and help achieve fair settlements.

18. Chapter 5 • Trial Courts – Courts that listen to testimony, consider evidence, and decide the facts in a disputed situation. • Parties – The people directly concerned with or taking part in any legal matter. • Plaintiff – In a civil case, the injured party who brings an action against the alleged wrongdoer.

19. Prosecutor – The government’s attorney in a criminal case. • Defendant – The person against whom a claim is made. In a civil suit the defendant is the person being sued; in a criminal case the defendant is the person charged with committing a crime. • Adversary System – The judicial system used in the United States. It allows opposing parties to present their legal conflicts before an impartial judge and jury.

20. Inquisitional System – A European method for handling disputes in which the judge plays an active role in gathering and presenting evidence and questioning witnesses. • Voir Dire – The process in which opposing lawyers question prospective jurors to get as favorable or as fair a jury as possible. • Removal For Cause – Part of the jury selection process. It permits removal of any juror who does not appear capable of rendering a fair and impartial verdict.

21. Peremptory Challenges – Part of the pretrial jury selection. This allows each side to dismiss a certain number of possible jurors without giving any reason. There is one exception: peremptory challenges cannot be used to discriminate based on race. • Appeals Court – A court in which appeals from trial court decisions are heard. • Error Of Law – A mistake made by a judge in legal procedures or rulings during a trial that may allow the case to be appealed.

22. Precedent – Court decisions on legal questions that guide future cases with similar questions. • Dissenting Opinion – In a trial or appeal, the written opinion of a minority of judges who disagree with the decision of the majority. • Concurring Opinion – An additional court opinion in which a judge agrees with the decision reached by the court, but not necessarily with the reasoning behind that decision.

23. Petitions for Certiorari – Formal application by a party to have a lower court decision reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has discretion to approve or deny any such application. Certiorari is from the Latin, meaning “to be informed of”.

24. Chapter 6 • Litigators – A trial lawyer; a barrister. • Bar Associations – An organization of lawyers. • Retainer – A down payment by which a client hires an attorney to act in his or her behalf. • Contingency Fee – The fee paid to an attorney based on a percentage of the sum awarded to his or her client in a lawsuit.

25. Privilege – (1) an advantage, or right to preferential treatment, or an excuse from a duty others must perform; (2)a basic right that cannot be taken away; (3) the right to speak or write personally damaging words because the law specially allows it; (4) the right and the duty to withhold information from others because of some special status or relationship of confidentiality. These privileges include husband-wife, doctor-patient, and attorney-client.

26. Disbarred – To take away an attorney’s license to practice law because of illegal or unethical conduct. • Legal Malpractice – The type of lawsuit brought against a lawyer for loss to his or her client caused by the lawyer’s failure to meet acceptable standards of practice for the legal profession.

27. Chapter 7 • Crime – An act or failure to act that violates a law for which a penalty (usually a fine, jail, or probation) is set by the state. • Incarceration – Imprisonment by the state. • Community Policing – A strategy whereby the community works actively with the local police to lower the crime rate in its area.

28. Drunk Driving – The operation of a motor vehicle while intoxicated (overcome by alcohol to the point of losing control over one’s conscious faculties). A drunk person’s blood-alcohol concentration is above a predefined level. • Implied Consent Law – (1) an unwritten agreement to submit to forms of interrogations or searches in exchange for certain privileges, such as driving or flying; (2) a defense frequently used in rape cases. The defense is that the victim agreed to sexual intercourse, because she did not take steps to oppose the defendant’s advances.

29. Restitution – The act or restoring something to its owner; the act of making good for loss or damage; repaying or refunding illegally obtained money.

30. Chapter 8 • State of Mind – What you are thinking; most crimes require that the actor have a guilty state of mind, meaning they purposefully commit the crime. • Motive- the reason a person commits a crime. • Strict Liability – The legal responsibility for damage or injury even if you are not at fault

31. Elements – The conditions that make an act unlawful. • Felony – A serious criminal offense punishable by a prison sentence of more than one year. • Misdemeanor – A criminal offense, less serious than a felony, punishable by a prison sentence of one year or less. • Principal – The person who actually commits a crime.

32. Accomplice – Someone who voluntarily helps another person commit a crime. • Accessory Before The Fact – One who encourages, orders, or helps plan a crime. • Accessory After The Fact – Someone who, knowing a crime has been committed, helps conceal the crime or the criminal. • Crime of Omission – Failing to perform an act required by criminal law.

33. Solicitation – The act of requesting or strongly urging someone to do something. If the request is to do something illegal, solicitation is considered a crime. • Attempt – An effort to commit a crime that goes beyond mere preparation but does not result in the commission of the crime. • Conspiracy – An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime along with an act done to begin the crime.

34. Misprision of Felony – Federal crime, punishable by up to three years in prison, for not providing the government with information a person knows regarding the commission of another crime. • Overt – Open; clear (for example, an overt act in criminal law is more than mere preparation to do something; it is at least the first step of actually attempting the crime.)

35. Chapter 9 • Homicide – The killing of another person. • Malice – Ill Will; deliberate intent to harm someone. • First-degree murder – Murder that is planned in advance and done with malice or during the commission of a dangerous felony.

36. Felony Murder – The killing of someone during the commission of certain other dangerous felonies; regardless of intent to kill. • Second-degree Murder – Murder that does not require malice or premeditation but is the result of a desire to inflict bodily harm. It is done without excuse, and is therefore more serious than manslaughter. • Voluntary manslaughter – Killing that would otherwise be murder, but that occurs after the victim has done something to the killer that would cause a reasonable person to lose self-control or act rashly.

37. Involuntary Manslaughter – Unintentional killing resulting from conduct so reckless that it causes extreme danger of death or bodily injury. • Negligent Homicide – Causing death through negligent behavior. • Negligence – The failure to exercise a reasonable amount of care in either doing or not doing something, resulting in harm or injury.

38. Suicide – The deliberate taking of ones own life. • Assault – An international threat, show of force, or movement that causes a reasonable fear of, or an actual physical contact with another person. Can be a crime or a tort. • Battery – An intentional, unlawful physical contact inflicted on one person by another without consent. • Stalking – The act of following or harassing another person, causing him or her to fear death or injury.

39. Rape – Unlawful sexual intercourse. It is committed when one party forces another party to have sexual intercourse. It implies resistance and lace of consent. • Statutory Rape – The act of unlawful sexual intercourse with someone under the age of consent, even if that person is a willing and voluntary participant in the sexual act. • Acquaintance Rape (aka Date Rape) – Sexual assault by someone known to the victim, such as a date or neighbor.

40. Chapter 10 • Arson – The deliberate and malicious burning of property. • Vandalism – The deliberate destruction or defacement of property. • Larceny – The unlawful taking of another’s property with the intent to steal it. • Shoplifting – A form of larceny in which items are taken from a store without payment or the intention to pay.

41. Concealment – The act of hiding either knowledge or objects. • Embezzlement – The taking of money or property by a person who has been entrusted with it. • Robbery – The unlawful taking of property from a person’s immediate possession by force or threat of force. • Extortion – Taking property illegally by force or threats of harm (for example, blackmail)

42. Burglary – Breaking and entering a building with the intention of committing a felony. • Forgery – The act of making a fake document or altering a real one with the intent to commit fraud. • Uttering – Offering to someone as genuine a document known to be a fake. • Receiving Stolen Property – Receiving or buying property that is known or reasonably believed to be stolen.

43. Unauthorized Use Of A Vehicle (UUV) – Unlawfully taking a car by someone who intends to use it only temporarily. • Carjacking – A federal crime in which the perpetrator uses force or intimidation to steal a car from the driver. • Hackers – Persons who illegally access other people’s computer systems.

44. Chapter 11 • Alibi – A Latin word meaning “elsewhere,” an excuse or plea that a person was somewhere else at the time a crime was committed. • Infancy – The legal status of a person considered not yet legally responsible for his or her activities; the time before which a person becomes entitled to the legal rights normally held by citizens.

45. Intoxication – State of drunkenness or similar condition created by use of drugs or alcohol. • Insanity Defense – Defense raised by a criminal defendant stating that because of mental disease or defect, the defendant should not be held responsible for the crime committed. • Entrapment – An act by law enforcement officials to persuade a person to commit a crime that the person would not otherwise have committed.

46. Duress – Unlawful pressure on a person to do something that he or she would not otherwise do. • Necessity – A defense to a criminal charge that shows a just or lawful reason for the defendant’s conduct.

47. Chapter 12 • Arrest – To take a person suspected of a crime into custody. • Arrest Warrant – A court-ordered document authorizing the police to arrest an individual on a specific charge. • Probable Cause – A reasonable belief, known personally or through reliable sources, that a person has committed a crime.

48. Drug Courier Profile – Using commonly held notions of what a drug couriers look and act like in order to be able to question a person without establishing individualized suspicion. • Corroborate – A process of confirming information. • Stop & Frisk – To “pat down” or search someone who the police believe is acting suspiciously. • Exclusionary Rule – A legal rule that prohibits the use of illegally obtained evidence against the defendant at trial.

49. Affidavit – A written statement sworn to or made under oath before someone authorized to administer an oath. • Search Warrant – An order issued by a judge or magistrate, giving police the power to enter a building to search for and seize items related to a crime. • Interrogate – The questioning of a witness or suspected criminal. • Self-incrimination – Giving evidence and answering questions that would tend to subject one to criminal prosecution.

50. Chapter 13 • Booking – The formal process of making a police record of an arrest. • Arraignment – A court session at which a defendant is charged and enters a plea. For a misdemeanor this is also the defendant’s initial appearance, at which the judge informs him or her of the charges and sets the bail. • Bail – Money or property put up by the accused or his or her agent to allow release from jail before trial. The purpose is to assure the court that the defendant will return for trial. If the defendant is present for trial, the money or property is returned.