Legal Systems
Jurisdiction & Law Types
Elements of Crime
Types of Criminal Defense
Insanity and Mental State
100

The government prosecutes the defendant in this type of proceeding.

What is criminal law?

100

Most prosecutions for crimes like theft or assault occur at this level of government.

What is state jurisdiction? 

100

The guilty act or criminal conduct.

What is actus reus?

100

Self-defense is an example of this category of criminal defenses. 

What is an example of justification defenses?

100

A two-part test that asks if the defendant knew what they were doing and if they knew the act was morally or legally wrong.

What is the M'Naghten Rule?

200

This burden of proof is used in civil cases.

What is preponderance of the evidence?

200

This type of criminal law answers the question: "What acts are illegal?"

What is substantive criminal law?

200

The guilty mind or criminal intent.

What is mens rea?

200

This defense claims the defendant shouldn’t be held responsible, such as insanity or intoxication.

What are excuse defenses?

200

This rule, also known as the "product test," asks if the criminal act was the product of a mental disease or defect.

What is the Durham Rule?

300

These proceedings are meant to resolve disputes and compensate victims.

What is the purpose of civil law?

300

Crimes that cross state lines, occur on federal property, violate federal statutes, or involve federal officials fall under this jurisdiction. 

What is federal jurisdiction?

300

This principle requires that the defendant’s guilty mind and guilty act occur at the same time for a crime to be committed.

What is concurrence?
300

This defense occurs when law enforcement induces a person to commit a crime they were not otherwise predisposed to commit.

What is the entrapment defense?

300
Defendants with this verdict receive criminal sentences but theoretically get psychiatric treatment during incarceration.

What is a guilty but mentally ill verdict?

400

Monetary damages or injunctive relief.

What are the outcomes for civil law?

400

This type of criminal law protects constitutional rights during arrest, trial, and appeal.

What is procedural criminal law? 

400

These are the two kinds of causation that are required for result crimes, like homicide.

What are actual (but-for cause) and proximate (legal cause) causation?

400

The defendant used this defense when saying he was not at the location when the crime occurred and provided evidence of that claim.

What is the alibi defense? 

400

This broader standard examines the capacity to appreciate criminality or conform conduct.

What is the Model Penal Code Test?

500

The same conduct can trigger both of these proceedings.

What are criminal and civil proceedings?

500

This clause permits separate prosecutions because state and federal governments are "separate sovereigns."

What is the Double Jeopardy Clause?

500

The cases where the prosecution only needs to prove that the defendant committed the prohibited act voluntarily, regardless of intent.

What are strict liability offenses?

500

This is treated with skepticism and viewed as a self-inflicted condition that doesn't excuse criminal responsibility. 

What is voluntary intoxication?

500

The Irresistible Impulse Test added this standard to the M'Naghten Rule, which recognizes that some defendants cannot control their actions due to mental disease.

What is a volitional prong?