What four broad categories of criminal defenses does our legal system recognize? Under what circumstances might each be employed?

What will be an ideal response?


The four categories of criminal defense recognized include alibi, justification, excuse, and procedural defense. An alibi means that the defendant was somewhere else at the time of the crime. When a defendant offers a justification, he or she admits to the wrong but argues that it was necessary to avoid a greater evil. A defendant offering an excuse claims that a personal condition or circumstance was such that he or she should not be held accountable under the law. A defendant who makes a procedural defense claims that he or she was discriminated against in some way or appropriate procedures were not followed.

Criminal Justice

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A _____ ________ is any object that contains handwritten or typewritten markings whose source or authenticity is in doubt

Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).

Criminal Justice

Barry has been a police officer since 1972. He has seen a lot of changes happen to his department and the culture of policing in general. In the 70’s most of his fellow officers were white men. He figures that the idea of adding more women and minorities to the force is great because it may be easier to respond to certain incidents if you have heterogeneity. Barry made detective back in 2005 but his partner has just retired. His new partner is a woman, he is ok with that, but thinks that she might have trouble. What type of trouble is she likely to run into as a police officer?

A) Double marginality B) The blue curtain C) More disciplinary action by administrators D) Cynicism

Criminal Justice

Technical rules violation rates depend largely on _____________.

A. how clients behave B. how the system enforces its rules C. the laws of a given state D. All of these are correct

Criminal Justice

An operation in which a police officer is placed in a position where he or she might be tempted to break a rule or a law and is monitored to see what he or she will do is known as a "graft check."

a. True b. False Indicate whether the statement is true or false

Criminal Justice