Criminal Courts (U.S.) Quiz # 16

_____ is defined as agreement for sentencing leniency negotiated during the plea bargaining process. The prosecutor might agree to recommend a particular sentence, recommend that sentences be served concurrently rather than consecutively, or agree to recommend that the sentence not exceed some threshold (a “sentence lid”).

Prosecutor

Sentence agreement

Judge

None of these

_____ is known as a hybrid approach to case adjudication, with elements of both plea bargaining and trial. To receive concessions from the prosecutor, the defendant waives the right to a jury trial, and the case is adjudicated by a judge at a bench trial.

Crimes against society

All of these

Crimes against majority

Slow plea of guilty

Is substantial assistance departure a type of downward departure authorized by the federal sentencing guidelines. The judge can impose a more lenient sentence than required by the guidelines if the defendant provides information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of another offender?

True

False

_____ is a charging policy that emphasizes case screening as a way of decreasing office workload. This policy results in high levels of referrals to diversionary programs and in overcharging (for the purpose of enhancing the prosecutor’s power in plea negotiations).

System efficiency policy

None of these

Common law

Justification

_____ is known as a charging policy under which prosecutors evaluate cases in terms of their likelihood of conviction at trial; they file charges only if the odds of conviction at trial are good. This policy produces both a high rate of rejection at initial screening and a high trial rate for the cases that are not screened out.

An obstacle course

The civil law system

All of these

Trial sufficiency policy

Is direct evidence evidence, such as eyewitness testimony, that by itself proves (or disproves) a fact that is at issue in a case?

True

False

_____ is evidence provided by a witness that is based on information provided to the witness by someone else. Generally inadmissible, although there are a number of exceptions.

Dual-sovereignty doctrine

Hearsay evidence

All of these

Habeas corpus law

_____ is defined as evidence that requires the judge or jury to make inferences about what happened at the scene of the crime or judgments about the defendant’s role in the crime. Also referred to as circumstantial evidence.

Equity

Indirect evidence

None of these

Trial sufficiency policy

Is liberation hypothesis an explanation for research findings suggesting that legally irrelevant factors (e.g., the race or gender of the defendant and victim, the behavior of the victim at the time of the crime) come into play primarily in cases where the evidence is ambiguous and the outcome is therefore less predictable. The liberation hypothesis suggests that when the evidence is uncertain, jurors will be “liberated” from the constraints imposed by the law and will therefore feel free to take legally irrelevant factors into consideration during decision making?

False

True

_____ is a method of studying jury deliberations. Researchers use mock juries or mock trials that involve hypothetical scenarios. These may be actual mock trials, such as in a university classroom, or simple written scenarios wherein people (often college students) are asked to decide some hypothetical defendant’s fate. Then the researchers compare people’s demographic characteristics to the decisions they hand down.

Mock jury study

Trial sufficiency policy

Retreat doctrine

All of these

_____ is defined as according to the Fifth Amendment, “no person . . . Shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” That is, any person charged with an offense cannot be compelled to testify against himself or herself in a criminal trial.

All of these

Booking

Plea bargaining

Privilege against self-incrimination

_____ is known as this is an exception to the general rule that all relevant evidence is admissible at trial. Certain categories of individuals generally cannot be compelled to testify in criminal cases. This includes spouses, priests, doctors, or lawyers. The things these individuals say to one another are said to be privileged communications.

Privileged communication

Information

None of these

Incorporation

Is real evidence evidence that can be admitted into trial that consists of tangible items such as weapons used in the crime, DNA or fingerprints collected at the crime scene, or other “real” objects relevant to the case?

False

True

_____ is a classification of evidence that includes the actual testimony provided by a witness during a trial. Real evidence is introduced using testimonial evidence.

All of these

Testimonial evidence

Automobile registration records

All of these sources

_____ is defined as process of reviewing final judgments of lower courts on questions of law, with the goal of determining whether proper procedures were followed.

None of these

Irresistible impulse test

Centralized

Appellate review

Is boot camp program that targets young, nonviolent felony offenders who do not have extensive prior criminal records. Modeled on the military boot camp, the correctional boot camp emphasizes strict discipline, military drill and ceremony, and hard labor and physical training. Most also provide substance abuse counseling and educational and vocational training. Offenders selected for these programs live in barracks-style housing, address the guards by military titles, and are required to stand at attention and obey all orders?

True

False

_____ is punishment philosophy that holds that all offenders found guilty of a particular type of crime, without regard to their prior record or other personal characteristics, are dangerous and therefore should be incapacitated through a jail or prison sentence.

Harm

Real evidence

Collective incapacitation

None of these

_____ is defined as a type of alternative punishment or intermediate sanction in which offenders are ordered to perform a certain number of hours of unpaid work at schools, hospitals, parks, and other public and private nonprofit agencies.

None of these

Community service

Sentencing hearing

Appeals hearing

_____ is known as a type of fine originating in Europe and Latin America. The fine that the offender is ordered to pay is calibrated both to the seriousness of the offense and to the offender’s ability to pay.

All of these

Day fine

Bills of attainder

The common law system

Is determinate sentence sentencing system in which the legislature provides a presumptive range of confinement for each offense or class of offenses. The judge imposes a fixed term of years within this range. The offender serves this sentence, minus time off for good behavior?

True

False

_____ is utilitarian justification of punishment in which punishment is seen as a means of preventing the offender from reoffending or discouraging others from following his or her example. Deterrence theorists suggest that potential offenders will refrain from committing a crime if they believe that the odds of getting caught and being severely punished are high and are not outweighed by any anticipated gain from the crime.

Retreat doctrine

None of these

Deterrence

Trial sufficiency policy

Is electronic monitoring type of punishment that is often used in conjunction with house arrest, designed to ensure that offenders are at home when they are supposed to be. The offender is fitted with a wrist or ankle bracelet that is worn 24 hours a day. The bracelet emits a constant radio signal to a home monitoring unit, which is attached to the offender’s home phone. The monitoring unit informs the monitoring center when the offender enters and leaves his or her home; it also sends a message if the offender tampers with or attempts to remove the bracelet?

True

False

_____ is use of punishment to dissuade prospective offenders. Potential offenders learn of the consequences of criminal involvement (for actual offenders) and decide not to risk subjecting themselves to such punishment.

None of these

Judiciary Act of 1789

General deterrence

Credible

_____ is defined as statutes that allow the death penalty to be imposed only if the crime involves at least one statutorily defined aggravating circumstance.

None of these

Guided discretion statutes

Peremptory

Challenge

_____ is known as type of punishment in which offenders are ordered to remain at home for a designated period of time. They are allowed to leave only at specified times and for specific purposes—to obtain food or medical services, to meet with a probation officer, and, sometimes, to go to school or work.

Attorney general

All of these

Defense attorney

House arrest

Is incapacitation a utilitarian justification of punishment that involves locking up—or otherwise physically disabling—dangerous or high-risk offenders to prevent them from committing crimes in the future?

False

True

_____ is sentencing system in which the legislature specifies a minimum and maximum sentence for each offense or class of offenses. The judge imposes either a minimum and a maximum term of years or the maximum term only. The parole board decides when the offender will be released from prison.

None of these

Trial de novo

Arrest

Indeterminate sentence

_____ is defined as a sanction that is more severe than probation but less severe than a prison sentence. Examples include intensive supervision probation, boot camps, house arrest and electronic monitoring, community service, and monetary fines.

Battery

Reliable

None of these

Intermediate sanction

_____ is known as the minimum jail or prison sentence that must be imposed on an offender convicted of a particular type of crime; especially common for drug offenses and for offenses involving use of a weapon.

All of these

Mandatory minimum sentence

Establishing a master list

Identifying peremptory challenges

Is probation a sanction involving community supervision of an offender by a probation officer. May also include other conditions, such as substance abuse treatment or drug testing?

False

True