CJA 354 Week 1 Reading Assignment Review

This paperwork of CJA 354 Week 1 Reading Assignment Review shows the solutions to the following problems:

Chapter 1

TRUE/FALSE. Write 'T' if the statement is true and 'F' if the statement is false.

1) Mores are unwritten but generally known rules that govern serious violations of the social code.

2) Norms are ethical principles or principles meant to guide human conduct and behavior-principles or standards of right and wrong.

3) A crime is any act or omission in violation of penal law, committed without defense or justification, and made punishable by the state in a judicial proceeding.

4) Misdemeanors offenses are more serious than felony offenses.

5) Bob has been convicted of a crime and sentenced to less than a year in jail. Therefore, we know that Bob has been convicted of a felony.

6) Substantive criminal law defines crimes and specific punishments.

7) Statutory law is written by judges.

8) That form of law that governs relationships between parties is known as criminal law.

9) The term jurisdiction refers to both the geographic district to which the authority of a court extends and the power of a court to hear a lawsuit.

FILL IN THE BLANK / SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

10) Only human conduct that violates the criminal ________ can properly be called criminal.

11) A ________ is any act or omission in violation of penal law, committed without defense or justification, and made punishable by the state in a judicial proceeding.

12) A private or civil wrong or injury is referred to as a(n) ________.

13) The Ten Commandments are an example of ________ law.

Chapter 2

TRUE/FALSE. Write 'T' if the statement is true and 'F' if the statement is false.

14) In some states, a person can be arrested for mere thoughts.

15) Bob hides his heroin in the basement of his home and goes to work. While Bob is at work, he is considered in possession of the heroin.

16) An omission to act cannot ever be criminal.

17) If a defendant intended to act, but did not intend the consequence, then general intent is present.

18) General intent is a thoughtful, conscious intention to perform a specific act in order to achieve a particular result.

19) The Latin term for motive is mens rea.

20) Strict liability crimes do not require mens rea.

21) Bob purposefully takes a shot at Ray, hoping to kill him.

Mary steps in between them and the shot hits and kills her. Bob can be charged with purposefully killing Mary.

SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

22) When attorneys refer to conduct, they are referring to both the behavior and the ________ state that were present at the time of the behavior.

23) Strict liability is based on the presumption that causing harm is in itself blameworthy, regardless of the person's ________.

24) Bob accidentally hits Ray with his car and kills Ray. When Bob gets out of the car and sees that it is Ray he has killed, he is glad because he intended to kill Ray the next day. Bob is not guilty of a crime because his act and his culpable mental state lack ________.

25) The Latin term _____________ means an act in violation of the law; a guilty act.

26) Bob takes a bag of marijuana and puts it in his pocket. As long as it is in his pocket he has ________ possession of the marijuana.

Chapter 3

TRUE/FALSE. Write 'T' if the statement is true and 'F' if the statement is false.

27) The term "body of crime" is used to refer to the dead body of a murder victim.

28) The Latin term corpus delicti refers to the corpse in a homicide case.

29) The corpus delicti of a crime can be established before the identity of the person who committed the crime is known.

30) If there is an actual link between a person's conduct and the resulting harm, causation in fact exists.

31) Bob mails Ray a box of poisoned candy, hoping to kill Ray. Ray's mother is home alone when the box arrives. She opens it, eats some of the poisoned candy and dies. Bob is not the proximate cause of Ray's mother's death.

32) Felony murder statutes hold a person involved in the commission of a felony responsible for homicide if another person dies during the offense, even though the death may have been unintentional.

33) The principle of legality reflects the fact that behavior can still be criminal even if no law exists that defines it as illegal and sets a punishment for it.

34) Ex post facto laws violate the U.S. Constitution.

35) There can be crime without law.

SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

36) ________ includes loss, disadvantage, or injury or anything so regarded by the person affected, including loss, disadvantage, or injury to any other person in whose welfare he is interested.

37) Prostitution may be "victimless crime," but it causes ________ harm.

38) There is no crime; there is no punishment without ________.

Chapter 4

TRUE/FALSE. Write 'T' if the statement is true and 'F' if the statement is false.

39) Under the laws of most states, any crime defined by statute has a corresponding crime of attempt.

40) Mere preparation to commit a crime is generally sufficient to constitute the crime of attempt.

41) The last act test is no longer in use because it makes it practically impossible for the police to prevent a substantive crime by arresting the offender for attempt.

42) Ray earns his living buying drugs from Bob and then selling the drugs on the street. Ray meets with Bob for the purpose of buying some cocaine. When Ray inspects the cocaine, he decides it has been cut with too much flour and decides not to buy it. Under the dangerous proximity test, Ray cannot be found guilty of attempted possession of a controlled substance with the intent to sell.

43) Critics of conspiracy statutes believe these statutes increase the risk that people will be punished for what they say or think rather than for what they do.

44) An accomplice to a crime is not as criminally liable as the principal.

45) Bob goes into a bank with a loaded gun to rob it. All Ray does is wait outside to drive the getaway car. Bob and Ray share the criminal liability for the actual robbery.

46) Only people can be parties to crimes.

SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

47) Prosecutors in ________ cases have procedural advantages not available to them in other cases.

48) All persons who take part in the commission of a crime are ________ to the crime.

49) Strict liability crimes do not require ________.

50) Criminal fault is imputed to ________, based on the principle of vicarious liability and the identification doctrine.