Ch. 5 Vocabulary

Substantive Law: defined by statute, it prescribes (what we should do) and proscribes (what we should not do) various types of conduct.
Crime: (1) an act in violation of a (2) criminal law for which a (3) punishment is prescribed; the person committing it must have (4) intended to do so and to have done so without legally acceptable (5) defense or justification.
Uniform Crime Reports: (UCR) the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual report of crimes committed in the United States. It comprises Part I and Part II offenses. The UCR defines eight crimes (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson) as Part I offenses. Part II offenses are a mixture of mala prohibita offenses and less serious mala in se offenses.
Substantive Due Process: a constitutional principle that holds that in addition to procedural rights the law must protect substantive rights, such as the right to possess or to say or do certain things.
Overbreadth Doctrine: a criminal law violates the overbreadth doctrine when it fails to narrowly define the specific behavior to be restricted.
Void For Vagueness Doctrine: a statute is void for vagueness if it fails to clearly define both the act prohibited and the appropriate punishment in advance.
Ex Post Facto Law: criminalizing an act already completed but not previously forbidden by the penal code.
Bills of Attainder: legislation imposing punishment without trial.
Corpus Delicti: refers to the five elements of criminal liability, each of which must be pleaded guilty.
Actus Reus: meaning "a guilty act," if refers to the three forms of the criminal act: (1) voluntary bodily movements, (2) an omission in the face of a duty to act, and (3) possession.
Mens Rea: "guilty mind." Liability generally does not attach based on action alone; there also must exist some sort of guilty mind.
Model Penal Code: in relation to modern criminal law, it sets forth four levels of intent: purposeful, knowing, reckless, and negligent.
Negligence: a failure to act with the appropriate level of care.
Doctrine of Transferred Intent: applies to situations where a person intended to harm A but in error harmed B.
Concurrence: the union of the criminal act (actus reus) and criminal intent (mens rea).
Causation: the legal principle that the criminal act is the act that is the cause of the harm. There are two types of causation: factual and legal.
Factual Cause: refers to the idea that "but for" the actor's conduct the harm would not have occurred. It is an initial act that sets a series of other acts in motion that leads to some harm. Factual causation is a necessary but not sufficient element for the imposition of criminal liability. A legal cause also must exist.
Legal Cause: also referred to as proximate cause. The proximity in time between the accused's actions and the ultimate degree of harm caused to the victim. The question often asked is such cases is "for which act does it seem fair and just to hold the actor accountable?" Consequences of an act which are not reasonably foreseeable to the actor are "intervening causes" and may serve to relieve the actor of criminal liability.
Proximate Cause: the legal principle that the criminal act is the one that is the most significant and it seems fair and just to hold the actor accountable for his or her actions.
Harm: the result of the act, the injury to another.
Strict Liability: Imposes accountability without proof of criminal intent in situations where society deems it fair to do so, such as violations of drug and alcohol sales laws.
Vicarious Liability: refers to the imputation of accountability from one person to another, usually the individual's superior.
Inchoate Crimes: crimes that occur in preparation for an offense. Inchoate means "to begin" or "to partially put into operation."