Chapter 1 Vocab
Private wrongs for which you can sue the party who wronged you and recover money..
What are Torts
the idea that government power should be defined and limited by laws..
What is the Rule of Law
the requirement that all crimes have to include a voluntary criminal act, which is the physical element of a crime and the first principle of criminal liability..
What is actus reus
a criminal act triggered by criminal intent..
What is Criminal Conduct..
the legal term that refers to a mental disease or defect that impairs the reason and/or will to control actions..
What is Insanity
Criminal Law created by U.S Congress..
What is U.S. Criminal Code
a retroactive law that does one of three things: (1) criminalizes an act that wasn’t a crime when it was committed, (2) increases the punishment for a crime after the crime was committed, or (3) takes away a defense that was available to a defendant when the crime was committed..
What are ex post facto Laws
criminal intent, the mental element of a crime..
What is mens rea
defendants admit they were responsible for their acts but claim that, under the circumstances, what they did was right (justified)..
What is Justification
most courts define it as psychosis, mostly paranoia and schizophrenia..
What is Mental Disease
Written definitions of crimes and punishment enacted by legislatures and published..
What is codified
“barbaric” punishments and punishments that are disproportionate to the crime committed..
What are cruel and unusual punishments
the principle of criminal liability that requires that a criminal intent has to trigger the criminal act..
What is Concurrence
defendants admit what they did was wrong but claim that, under the circumstances, they weren’t responsible for what they did..
What is Excuse
refers to mental retardation or brain damage severe enough to make it impossible to know what you’re doing, or if you know, you don’t know that it’s wrong..
What is Mental Defect
conduct that unjustifiably and inexcusably inflicts or threatens substantial harm to individual or public interests..
What is Criminal Liability
in vague laws, isn’t whether the defendant knows there’s a law against the act but whether an ordinary, reasonable person would know that the act is a crime..
What is Fair Notice
a “circumstance” connected to an act, an intent, and/or a bad result..
What are attendant circumstances
a defense that argues an imminent danger of attack was prevented..
What is necessity
a failure-of-proof defense in which the defendant attempts to prove that the defendant, incapable of the requisite intent of the crime charged, is innocent of that crime but may well be guilty of a lesser one..
What is Diminished Capacity
“the point of the story”; the court backs up its judgment by explaining how and why it applied the law (general principles and the elements of crimes) to the facts of the case..
What is Opinion
the highest burden of proof in the U.S. Criminal justice system reserved for criminal cases; the prosecution must prove every element of the crime charged to this standard..
What is Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
crimes that include all five elements: (1) a voluntary act, (2) the mental element, (3) circumstantial elements, (4) causation, and (5) a criminal harm..
What are Bad Result Crimes
also called the general defense of necessity, it justifies the choice to commit a lesser crime to avoid the harm of a greater crime..
What is the Choice-of-Evils Defense
an excuse defense in which the defendant argues, “What I did was wrong, but under the circumstances I’m less responsible”..
What is Diminished Responsibility