Ch. 6 Review Questions1. Why are the police sometimes called the gatekeepers to the criminal justice process?One role of a police officer is to enforce the criminal law. What we mean here is that the decision to arrest a person triggers the Criminal Justice process.2. Explain how corpus delicti , mens rea, and actus rea relate?Corpus Delicti: Body of a crime.The body of a crime contains two parts, the mens rea and the actus rea.Mens Rea: “The guilty mind” and refers to the mental state of the suspect. (Mens rea means the suspect has the ability to form criminal intent.)Actus Rea: Pertains to the elements or physical acts that define a particular crime.3. Give some examples of a lack of mens rea.Juveniles (7-10): Do not have the ability to form criminal intent.A mentally retarded person may not understand the consequences of his or her actions.Someone suffering from a psychological disorder might not really know what he or she is doing.An elderly person who is senile also could fall within this category.Instead of arresting these people, an officer may take them into protective custody for safety reasons if they are dangerous to themselves, others, or property.The Model Penal Code explains that “Intoxication does not, in itself, constitute mental disease”.4. What is the difference b/w a felony and a misdemeanor?Actus re differentiates a felony offense from a misdemeanor violation.A felony is a serious crime punishable by more than one year imprisonment.A misdemeanor is a minor crime that carries a maximum confinement of up to one year.In some states a person who steals a bicycle valued at $250 a felony. In other states, this theft might be a misdemeanor. As you can see, the same behavior can carry different penalties, depending upon the crime classification and geographical jurisdiction.Generally speaking, an officer may not make an arrest for a misdemeanor unless that crime takes place in his or her presence. A felony arrest carries no such restriction.An officer should not be so much concerned with mens rea as much as actus rea.5. Define homicide.The killing of one human being by another. Two generable classes of homicide: Lawful and Unlawful.Deaths due to accidents, during war time, or from legal executions are not considered to be homicides.6. What does a justifiable homicide mean?Lawful. Involves the use of lethal force to prevent serious injury or death to another or to oneself. Ex;// Officer kills a robber who is shooting a gun at people.Stand your ground law: Relieves a civilian of the duty to retreat under certain conditions and allows that person to use whatever force is necessary to defend his or her well being.7. To what does an excusable homicide refer?Lawful. Refers to a death which results from an accident or sheer misfortune.State laws usually divide unlawful homicide into two types:Murder & Manslaughter8. What constitutes murder?A criminal homicide is murder when “it is committed purposely or knowingly; or it is committed recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.9. What is first-degree murder?Involves malice aforethought, deliberation and premeditation10. Define malice aforethought, deliberation, and premeditation.Malice Aforethought: The intent to commit a felony or to cause death or serious harm.Deliberation: Means that the person has thought over the consequences and has still decided to kill the victim.Premeditation: Implies that the person planned to carryout the killing.11. What is included under manslaughter?It involves negligence or takes place “under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance for which there is reasonable explanation or cause”Manslaughter is an unlawful murder characterized by a lack of premeditation. It is an intermediate crime which lies half-way between the more serious crime of murder, at the one extreme, and, at the other extreme, justifiable, or excusable homicide, which is not criminal at all.Manslaughter can be either voluntary or involuntary.12. What 4 conditions make up “heat of passion?”The provocation must be reasonableThe death must take place during the heat of passionThere must not be a chance for a “cooling-off period” during the time lapse b/w the provocation and the killing. Finally the suspect must have acted in the heat of passion.If any one of these conditions is missing, more than likely the appropriate charge would be murder.13. Explain the standard “reaction of a reasonable person.”Generally speaking, mere words or taunting do not establish a sufficient level of provocation. There must be some act of physical force, such as an assault, battery, or mutual combat. The standard here is the reaction of a reasonable person.A normal person does not normally try to kill somebody else. Moreover, the law does not allow a reasonable person becomes so provoked or outraged to choose homicide as a deliberate strategy. Thus, if a person is so upset that he or she kills the provoker, that death is a crime. What the charge of manslaughter does is determine whether the killing was understandable given the circumstances surrounding the case.14. Contrast voluntary from involuntary manslaughter.Voluntary:Fits those instances where a death occurs during some extraordinary set of circumstances and where the deceased has provoked the offender. Under these conditions, the aggressor intends to hurt the other party, perhaps even seriously, but is not trying to kill that person. Along with this desire to hurt the other party, there must be a state of emotional imbalance. This upheaval must be so distressing that it causes the person to lose his or her self-control. This temporary loss of control is known as the heat of passion.Involuntary:Is a catchall. Either negligence or recklessness can produce this type of homicide.Negligence: Behavior that exposes others unnecessarily to the risk of disease or serious bodily injury.15. What is the felony-murder rule?Means that if a person dies during the course of a felony that is dangerous to life (usually robbery, burglary, sexual battery, arson, kidnapping), the suspect is responsible for that death.Distance from the scene may not matter under the felony-murder rule. Rather, the key is one’s participation in the criminal act.Sine qua non test: But for the suspect’s actions, the victim would still be alive today.16. Compare simple assault, simple battery, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery.Assault
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