mala in se crime are offenses that require some level of criminal intent. Mala prohibita offenses are offenses that are crimes only because a specific statute or ordinance prohibits them

Felonies are crimes punishable by death or confinement in the state's prison for one year to life without parole. Misdemeanors are offenses punishable by fine and/or confinement in the local jail for up to one year.

proposed criminal code drafted by the American Law Institute and used to reform criminal codes

Principle of legality means no one can be convicted of, or punished for, a crime unless the law defined the crime and prescribed the punishment before the person engaged in the behavior that was defined as a crime

a retroactive law that does one of three things: (1) criminalizes an act that wasn't a crime when it was committed, (2) increases the punishment for a crime after the crime was committed, or (3) takes away a defense that was available to a defendant when the crime was committed. An example of this is abortion being banned in some states you can't go back and convicted them of breaking the law because they weren't.

The state has to prove all elements of the crime by "proof beyond a reasonable doubt"

Mens rea is criminal intent, the mental element of a crime and acts reus is the requirement that all crimes have to include a voluntary criminal act, which is the physical element of a crime and the first principle of criminal liability.

Criminal act (actus reus) Criminal intent (mens rea) Concurrence Attendant circumstances, and Bad result (causing a criminal harm)

There are two kinds of possession: actual and constructive. Actual possession physical control of banned items on my person, for example, marijuana in my pocket. Constructive possession is banned items not on my person but in places I control, for example, in my car or apartment.

General intent- means the intent to commit the criminal act. Its general intent is general because it states the minimum requirement of all crimes—namely, that they have to include a voluntary act, omission, or possession. Specific Intent- applies only to bad result crimes. You might want to think of it as general intent plus, where "general intent" refers to the intent to commit the actus reus of the crime, and "plus" refers to the intent to cause a criminally harmful result. There are only a few specific intent crimes, most of them confined to the core felonies

Subjective fault is fault that requires a "bad mind" in the actor. We call that bad state of mind "knowingly," which is more culpable than "recklessly" and less culpable than "purposely."

The Model Penal Code (MPC) breaks down mens rea into four levels of culpability: purposely, knowingly, recklessly, and negligently.

affirmative defenses- defendants have to "start matters off by putting in some evidence in support" of their defenses of justification and excuse. Affirmative defenses operate

Self-defense consists of four elements:

consent is the high value placed on individual autonomy in

sanity depends on whether the defendant satisfies the elements of the state's definition of insanity, namely the right-wrong; irresistible impulse; MPC substantial capacity; or Durham test. Competency is whether the defendant has the mental capacity to (1) understand the legal proceedings and

Texas uses the M'Naghten test for insanity defenses. Boiled down to its essence, there are two elements to the right-wrong test. The defendant suffered a defect of reason caused by a disease of the mind. Consequently, at the time of the act she did not know: the nature and quality of the act (she didn't know what she was doing) or that the act was wrong.

entrapment excuse that argues government agents got people to commit crimes they wouldn't otherwise commit. The subjective test of entrapment focuses on the predisposition of defendants to commit crimes. According to the test, the defense has to prove the government pressured the defendants to commit crimes they wouldn't have committed without the pressure. The crucial question in the subjective test is: "Where did the criminal intent originate?" If it originated with the defendant, then the government didn't entrap the defendant. If it originated with the government, then the government did entrap the defendant.

agency theory is the idea that we're autonomous agents with the freedom to choose our actions and become accountable for someone else's actions when we voluntarily "join in and identify with those actions"

accomplices, participants before and during the commission of crimes and accessories, participants after crimes are committed.

Conspiracy is an agreement to commit some other crime

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) imposes enhanced penalties for "all types of organized criminal behavior, that is, enterprise criminality—from simple political to sophisticated white-collar schemes to traditional Mafia-type endeavors"

A legal impossibility occurs when actors intend to commit crimes and do everything they can to carry out their criminal intent, but the criminal law doesn't ban what they did. A factual impossibility occurs when actors intend to commit a crime and try to but some fact or circumstance—an extraneous factor—interrupts them to prevent the completion of the crime. Legal impossibility is a defense to criminal attempt, but factual impossibility is not.

solicitation the crime of trying to get someone else to commit a crime.

Manslaughter is Killing a person without malice aforethought.

First degree the only crime today in which the death penalty can be imposed, consisting of (1) premeditated, deliberate intent to kill murders and (2) felony murders. the reason for creating first and second-degree murders, beginning with Pennsylvania in 1794, was to separate murders that deserved the death penalty from those that didn't. The goal was to limit capital punishment without eliminating it.

Adequate provocation the requirement that the provocation for killing in anger has to be something the law recognizes, the defendant himself had to be provoked, and that a reasonable person would have been provoked.

Common Law rape was strictly limited to intentional, forced, nonconsensual, heterosexual vaginal penetration. It was aimed at the traditional view of rape: a male stranger leaps from the shadows at night and sexually attacks a defenseless woman he's never seen before, and forcibly penetrates her vagina. Men couldn't rape their wives. rape today boils down to three

Cultural cognition how group values influence individuals' perceptions of facts.

battery is unwanted and unjustified offensive touching. assault is an attempt to commit battery or intentionally putting another in fear.

There are three categories of crimes against property:

arsondamaging or destroying buildings by burning

The consequences of wrongful access to personal information can be devastating, and they go beyond the money victims lose to identify thieves. The more than 9 million annual identity theft victims spend an average of 600 hours over two to four years and $1,400 to clear their names (V. Johnson 2005, 257, n. 7). Victims may also lose job opportunities; be refused loans, education, housing, or cars; and be arrested for crimes they didn't commit. In extreme cases, victims are blackmailed.

broken-windows theoryfirst espoused by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, the theory that minor offenses or disorderly conduct can lead to a rise in serious crime.

The term "victimless crime" is applicable when referring to an illegal act that does not directly harm another person, meaning there is no clear, identifiable victim other than the person committing the act themselves. These crimes typically involve consensual behavior between adults and are often debated in terms of morality, legality, and social impact.

Discretion in enforcing minor crimes raises ethical concerns like bias, unequal treatment, and abuse of power. Officers may let some offenders go while punishing others, leading to inconsistency and potential discrimination. There's also a risk of targeting marginalized groups or enforcing laws based on personal beliefs, undermining public trust and fairness in the justice system.

Treason is the only crime defined in the U.S. Constitution and is the most serious of all crimes against the State. Treason is defined as the crime of levying war against the United States or of giving aid and comfort to its enemies

The most comprehensive law developed to fight terror is the USA PATRIOT Act, passed by Congress soon after the

the crime of damaging or destroying property for the purpose of hindering preparations for war and national defense during

1st Degree Felony: 5-99 years in prison Up to $10,000 fine