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Chapter 4 Vocab
Based on Criminal Law by Joel Samaha
26
Criminal Justice
Undergraduate 1
04/27/2013

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Cards

Term
Culpability
Definition
Blameworthiness based on mens rea; deserving of punishment because of individual responsibility for actions
Term
Blameworthiness
Definition
The idea that we can only punish people who we can blame, and we can only blame people who are responsible for what they do
Term
Concurrence
Definition
The requirement that actus reus must join with mens rea to produce criminal conduct or that conduct must cause a harmful result
Term
Cause in fact
Definition
The objective determination that the defendant's act triggered a chain of events that ended as the bad result, such as death in homicide
Term
Legal cause
Definition
A subjective judgment as to whether it's fair and just to blame the defendant for the result; cause recognized by law to impose criminal liability
Term
Mens rea
Definition
The state of mind the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt; criminal intent from an evil mind; the mental element in a crime, including purpose, knowledge, recklessness, and negligence
Term
Motive
Definition
The reason why the defendant commits the crime
Term
Subjective fault
Definition
Fault that requires a "bad mind in the actor
Term
Objective fault
Definition
Requires no purposeful or conscious bad mind in the actor; it sets a standard of what the "average person should have known"
Term
Strict liability
Definition
Liability without fault, or in the absence of mens rea; it's based on voluntary action alone (ex: statutory rape)
Term
General intent
Definition
Intent to commit the actus reus--the act required in the definition of the crime
Term
Specific intent
Definition
The attitude represented by subjective fault, when there's a "bad" mind or will that triggers the act; the intent to do something beyond the actus reus
Term
General intent "plus"
Definition
"General intent" refers to the intent to commit the actus reus of the crime and "plus" refers to some "special mental element" in addition to the intent to commit the criminal act
Term
Purpose (in mens rea)
Definition
The specific intent to act and/or cause a criminal harm
Term
Knowledge (in mens rea)
Definition
consciously acting or causing a result
Term
Recklessness
Definition
The conscious creation of substantial and unjustifiable risk
Term
Negligence
Definition
The unconscious creation of substantial and unjustifiable risks
Term
Purposely
Definition
Acts taken for the very aim of engaging in conduct or causing a criminal result
Term
Principle of concurrence
Definition
Some mental fault has to trigger the actus reus in criminal conduct crimes and the cause in bad-result crimes
Term
Causation
Definition
Requirement that criminal conduct cause a harm defined in the criminal code
Term
Factual (but for) cause
Definition
Conduct that, in fact, leads to a harmful result
Term
Legal ("proximate") cause
Definition
A subjective judgment as to whether it's fair and just to blame the defendant for the result; cause recognized by law to impose criminal liability
Term
Intervening cause
Definition
The cause that either interrupts a chain of events or substantially contributes to a result
Term
Superseding cause
Definition
The cause that relieves from responsibility (liability) the party whose act started the series of events which led to the result because the original conduct is no longer the proximate cause
Term
Defense of excuse
Definition
Defenses based on the idea that what the defendant did was a crime but under the circumstances he wasn't responsible for what he did (insanity)
Term
Failure-of-proof defense
Definition
Defendant disproves the prosecution's case by showing he or she couldn't have formed the state of mind required to prove the mental element of the crime
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