CRJ 201: Crime Control Policies

In any given year, about __________ of every 100 probationers fail.

16

What percentage of defendants who are arraigned in state courts actually go to trial?

2 percent

Eyewitness misidentification played a role in what percentage of the cases of false convictions that were overturned using DNA evidence?

70 percent

"Stand your ground" laws extend what doctrine?

The Castle Doctrine

Sentencing practices enacted in 1986 equated possession of 1 ounce of crack cocaine to 100 ounces of powder cocaine. When did the law change and the ratio dropped from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1?

The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010

What is the most visible source of administrative or regulatory law in the United States?

The Federal Regulatory Agencies

In 1968, Herbert L. Packer wrote __________, which helped to define the justice process in America for the next 40-plus years.

The Limits of the Criminal Sanction

Since 1996, what is the overall trend of the percentage of jail inmates supervised outside of a jail facility?

The percentage is decreasing

Who has the ultimate decision over whether to prosecute a case or not?

The prosecutor

What is the key to the success of specialized courts?

The resources for supervision and treatment and proper staffing.

Legal factors are crucial when the decision is made to whether prosecute a case and what the appropriate charges should be. Which one of these is a legal factor?

The suspect's criminal history.

What is it called when police use intimidation, threats of violence, assaults, and other forms of coercion in interviews to obtain confessions?

The third degree.

Boot camps (also known as shock incarceration) emerged as intermediate correctional programs in the early 1980s. The first camps were modeled on military training and emphasized drill, strict rules, and physically demanding challenges that engaged the participants from dawn to dusk. What was wrong with them?

The were simply ineffective.

What is the aim of intermediate sanctions?

They bridge the gap between ordinary probation and jail or prison.

Eyewitness misidentification is the primary cause of wrongful convictions.

True

For many Americans, fear of crime is an expression of racial fears.

True

Handguns are the firearms used most often in violent crimes

True

Most prisoners have very little positive social capital, such as the informal networks that would enable them to find jobs or housing.

True

One of the problems with specialized courts is that they may actually extend the reach of the criminal justice system, a practice also known as net-widening.

True

Prosecutors operate with a great deal of unchecked and unreviewable discretion.

True

The United States has the world's highest incarceration rate.

True

The following statement summarizes the essence of the Due Process model: "It is better to let 12 guilt people go free than to punish 1 innocent person."

True

The highest level of law in the United States is constitutional law.

True

The main problem with the supply-side argument is that there is already an abundant supply of firearms in the United States.

True

The testimony of a witness to a crime has long been regarded as one of the most reliable methods of establishing guilt or innocence, however, the use of DNA evidence has cast considerable doubt about the reliability of eyewitness evidence.

True

There were about 200,000 untested sexual assault kits (SAK; also called rape kits) in the evidence storage units of U.S. police departments and sheriff's offices.

True

Three separate studies have found that justice system officials believe that one in 100 cases results in a wrongful conviction.

True

What is another term that describes Confirmatory Bias?

Tunnel vision

One of the challenges of paroling prisoners is that we seldom adequately prepare prison inmates for release. What is the other?

We do not provide enough community support for them once they are out.

What is the Iron Law of Imprisonment?

With few exceptions, most inmates return home.

The main two parties involved in the plea-bargaining process are the _____________ and ____________.

defense attorney and prosecutor

A "gray market" is a secondary firearms market where guns are purchased

from non-federal firearms licensed dealers

A number of public health scholars have become involved in the study of firearms violence. The language of those in this discipline is somewhat different than that of the criminal justice literature, and their strategies are often based on _______________________.

harm reduction

The idea of removing the highest-risk offenders from contact with the general population is called selective ___________.

incapacitation

The standard of "Equal Justice Under Law" is violated when _______________.

minority offenders are more likely to be charged or prosecuted than whites

The idea that some racial or ethnic groups are being stopped at a rate disproportionate to their representation in the local population is called __________________.

racial profiling

The greatest racial disparities in arrest statistics are for the crime of _______________.

robbery

The majority of persons killed by firearms were persons

who took their own lives.

In California, an offense often linked to "Three-Strikes" prosecutions that can be filed as either a misdemeanor or a felony is called a ______________.

wobbler

What changes were made to state and federal sentencing policies in the 1970s and 1980s?

A change from indeterminate to determinate sentences

Television programs that feature forensic science are popular with viewers, but what is caused by the CSI Effect?

A distortion of the public's expectations that most crimes can be solved in one hour.

What is the first stage of the policymaking process?

Agenda Setting

What is the term used to describe how offenders commit fewer crimes as they get older, and presumably establish more positive bonds with the community?

Aging out.

In which of the following cases did the U.S. Supreme Court rule that prosecutors may not use their peremptory challenges in a racially discriminatory fashion?

Batson v. Kentucky (1986)

Why would the advocates of the Crime Control model be concerned with wrongful convictions?

Because the guilty party may still be free and present a danger to the community.

What is prisonization?

Being stigmatized by the prison experience.

Targeting low-level crimes, such as street-level drug dealing and prostitution, in an effort to deter more serious crime is known as the ______________________.

Broken Windows Theory

What Supreme Court case required California to reduce prison crowding, so officials had a forced choice between expanding prison beds or returning prisoners to the community?

Brown v. Plata

What type of law results from the decisions of state and federal appellate courts?

Case Law

What term is used to describe the civil laws or policies that restrict the activities or access to resources for ex-inmates or convicted felons?

Collateral Consequences

The U.S. legal system inherited which one of the following systems of law from the British?

Common Law

What is the best way to reduce mistakes in suspect identifications?

Conduct a "double-blind" line up or display of photos.

The corrections field has been prone to developing offender rehabilitation programs based on fads. What have many of these programs been called?

Correctional Quackery

Which of the following are a source or sources of eyewitness misidentification?

Crime trauma, intoxication, and influence by media publicity or prosecutors.

Which intervention is associated with the attempt to increase the costs of illegally using firearms, typically through street enforcement?

Demand-side interventions

What court case allowed for more lenient sentences for individuals currently convicted of, but not yet sentenced for drug crimes involving crack cocaine?

Dorsey v. United States

The golden era of the due process model can be attributed to which Chief Justice?

Earl Warren

What Supreme Court case guaranteed due process protections for persons in police custody?

Escobedo v. Illinois

Banning assault weapons has had a major overall impact on violent crime reduction, since they were increasingly being used during crimes.

False

Gambler's court and the homeless court were the first specialized courts, which are also known as problem-solving courts.

False

If an accused person is caught in the act, so-called flagrante delicto, the state need not worry about proving guilt.

False

Most of the 444 exonerations were convicted of property offenses, which include theft, larceny, and shoplifting.

False

Most people who have problems with mental health are dangerous and therefore should not own a gun.

False

Persons utilizing the public health perspective often argue that more guns in circulation has little or no effect on the number of firearms murders.

False

The barriers that inmates once faced upon reentry in the past and that might have increased their likelihood of recidivism no longer exist.

False

The common element of specialized courts and the community-based interventions that support them is that they do not use coercion to make offenders comply with their treatment.

False

The imprisonment of women has decreased significantly over the past several decades.

False

The process of empaneling a jury is called venire.

False

The service life of a firearm is about 50 years.

False

Today, probation officers are trained mainly in social work, and their role is to help clients.

False

While many states have introduced sentencing guidelines since the mid-1980s, the federal government has resisted this trend.

False

Wrongful convictions are errors, but they do not harm the integrity of the entire criminal justice system.

False

The concept of due process is found in which amendments to the U.S. Constitution?

Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments

What type of program purchases guns from citizens to reduce the likelihood that the gun will end up on the black market?

Gun Buyback Programs

Which form of sentencing dominated the legal scene in the United States until the abandonment of rehabilitation and the advent of the new penology and mass imprisonment?

Indeterminate sentencing

What has been established to investigate wrongful convictions and to educate the public about these miscarriages of justice?

Innocence Projects

California voters approved the Proposition 36 (2000) and Proposition 47 (2014) ballot initiatives. How did Proposition 36 change the law?

It provided treatment for nonviolent drug offenders instead of incarceration.

What did the 1934 National Firearms Act mandate?

It required registration of certain types of firearms and increased the tax on their transfer.

What is it called when lab technicians give testimony that has little or no basis in the scientific literature?

Junk science

What did the 1968 Gun Control Act mandate?

Made certain categories of persons ineligible to purchase firearms.

What court case established that indigent defendants should receive state-funded counsel in non-capital felony cases?

None of the above

Specialized courts are intended primarily for what kind of defendants?

Nonviolent misdemeanor defendants

Which agency within the federal government was charged with investigating and finding solutions for the disproportionate minority contact (DMC) problem?

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Which groups are particularly at risk of making false confessions?

Persons with mental illness and juveniles

What are the three principal components of the criminal justice system?

Police, Courts, and Corrections

What term is defined as "The sum purpose that a legal rule or institution is intended to achieve...It is the purpose for which law is created or enforced."

Policy

Which stage of policymaking process typically takes place in the legislative arena?

Policy Formulation

An indigent defendant is a

Poor defendant that cannot afford an attorney.

What is the federally funded antigun and antigang program that has gone nationwide and calls for the vigorous prosecution of gun-involved offenders under federal law?

Project Safe Neighborhoods

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is an example of what?

Public Interest Group

What intervention is specifically targeted at reducing violence associated with youth and gang crime?

Pulling Levers

Research suggests that the context in which a traffic stop takes place is important in understanding what actually occurs. What is it called when citations are more likely to be given to white drivers in predominantly African American communities, while African American drivers are more likely to be cited in white neighborhoods?

Race-out-of-place effect.

The president who oversaw implementation of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act and carried out this nation's first "war on crime" was

Richard M. Nixon

What is the term for inexpensive handguns that are frequently used in violent crimes?

Saturday Night Specials

Which amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right to own and bear arms?

Second Amendment

What types of offenders often have additional restrictions placed on them, including where they can live?

Sex offenders

A __________ purchase is the term used when a legally eligible person purchases a firearm from a licensed dealer on the behalf of an ineligible person.

Straw

What is the aim of day reporting centers (DRCs)?

Supervision combined with rehabilitation.

Which intervention is associated with the attempt to reduce the number of firearms within a jurisdiction.

Supply-side interventions