Chapter 1/Criminal Justice/Cengage Learning

1. Criminal
Justice
Today

2. Crime:
1. Violates criminal law.
2. Is punishable by criminal sanctions.

3.  Describe the two most common models of how
society determines which acts are criminal.

4. Consensus Model: Conflict Model:
 Society, though  Society is diverse and
diverse, shares the constantly engaged in
same moral value a power struggle.
system.  Dominant groups in
 Crimes violate this society codify their
value system and are values into law.
deemed harmful to
society.

5.  Define crime and identify the different types of
crime.

6. An Integrated Definition:
 Punishable under criminal law as defined by a
society.
 Considered an offense against society as a
whole, and prosecuted by public officials.
 Punished by statutorily determined sanctions
that bring about the loss of personal freedom.

7. Violent Crime: Property Crime:
◦ Murder ◦ Burglary
◦ Sexual assault/rape ◦ Larceny/theft
◦ Assault/battery ◦ Motor vehicle theft
◦ Robbery ◦ Arson

8. Public Order Crimes: White Collar Crimes:
Behavior that has been Illegal acts committed
labeled criminal by an individual or
because it is contrary to business entity using
shared social values, some non-violent means
customs and norms to obtain a personal or
(e.g. public business advantage
drunkenness). (e.g. embezzlement).

10. High Tech Crime: Organized Crime:
Crimes directly related Illegal crimes by illegal
to the increased use of organizations, geared
computers and towards satisfying the
public’s need for illegal
technology by society.
goods and services.

12. Goals of the Criminal Justice System:
 To control crime
 To prevent crime
 To provide and maintain justice

13.  Federalism is a form of government in which a
written constitution provides for a division of
powers between a central government and
several regional governments.
 Ideals of federalism can be seen in the local,
state, and federal levels of law enforcement.

14.  Outline the three levels of law enforcement.

15.  Local and County Law Enforcement
◦ Responsible for the “nuts and bolts” of law enforcement.
 State Law Enforcement
◦ Generally, there are both “state police” and “highway
patrols.”
 Federal Law Enforcement
◦ Operates throughout the U.S.

16.  List the essential elements of the corrections
system.

17.  Probation
 Jails
 Prisons
 Community-based corrections

18.  Criminal justice as a “system” – an orderly
progression of events through a process
comprised of agencies working together.
 Herbert Packer compared the idealized
criminal justice process to an assembly line.

19.  Each step in the assembly line, which comprises
the formal criminal justice system, is the result of a
series of decisions that must be made by those who
work in the CJS.
 When members of the criminal justice system
exercise discretion, this produces an informal
criminal justice system.

21.  Describe the layers of the “wedding cake” model.

23.  Contrast the crime control and due process
models.

24. Crime Control Model: Due Process Model:
A model of criminal A model of the criminal
justice that places justice system that
primary emphasis on places primary
the rights of society to emphasis on the rights
be protected from crime of the individual to be
and violent offenders. protected from the
power of government.

25.  Crime the Bottom Line
◦ The Impact of Law Enforcement
◦ The Scourge of Street Gangs
◦ Gun Sales and Gun Control
◦ The Illegal Drugs Problem
◦ White Collar Crime

26.  Crime and Punishment
◦ The Growing Prison Population
◦ The Economics of Incarceration
 Homeland Security and the Threat of Terrorism
◦ The Patriot Act
 Technology: Fighting and Fueling Crime