The Concise Dictionary of Crime and Justice

Mark S. Davis

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781483380957
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Criminologia

A new approach to making everyday criminal justice terms accessible

A useful reference work for faculty and students, criminal justice professionals, writers, and anyone else interested in criminal justice and criminology, TheConcise Dictionary of Crime and Justice, Second Edition, is an excellent, wide-ranging resource with clear definitions for over 3, 000 key criminal justice terms. Often going beyond simply definitions, the dictionary places the entries in a meaningful context, connecting the definitions with other concepts. The dictionary uniquely presents common misperceptions for selected terms, along with additional relevant information to clarify a term's use or derivation.

C

Cabrini-Green a former high-rise public housing complex in Chicago, Illinois known for its poor living conditions and gang-related violence.

cache a store of drugs, weapons, or other illegal goods.

cadaver a human corpse, especially one to be used for dissection and instruction in medical schools. See anatomy murder.

cadaver dog a dog specially trained to detect the odor of human decomposition. Cadaver dogs are used to locate human remains in the investigation of crimes and natural disasters. Some critics regard these alleged abilities as junk science.

cadaveric spasm the physiological reaction that can occur soon after death when a single muscle group becomes stiff and rigid.

CALEA abbreviation for the Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies.

caliber the inside diameter of a rifle or handgun barrel, or the diameter of a bullet or projectile. For example, the bore of a .22 rifle is 22/100 of an inch in diameter. Compare with gauge.

Cali cartel an infamous illegal drug organization based in Cali, Colombia. At one time it was thought the Cali cartel controlled the vast majority of the world’s cocaine distribution. Its influence extended to government officials, including the military, the police, and other organizations and individuals. See cartel, Medellin cartel, trafficking.

California Criminalistics Institute a unit of California state government that offers training in forensic science.

California Youth Authority the state agency in California responsible for the confinement of youths remanded by county juvenile courts. The California Youth Authority distinguished itself in the latter part of the 20th century by participating in innovative programming, including the use of I-level classification system.

call for service a call received by a law enforcement agency indicating that someone needs police assistance. Calls for service often are employed by researchers and policy analysts as an alternative to crime statistics, such as those gathered for the Uniform Crime Reports. Plotting calls for service on a map can aid in the identification of hot spots.

call girl a prostitute who uses the telephone to schedule appointments with clients. Call girls generally are accorded higher status than street prostitutes, a difference reflected in their income and lifestyle. See Fleiss, Heidi, prostitution.

Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study a research study of a delinquency prevention project that began in 1939. The Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study was unique at the time because it carefully examined a large number of youths over a long period of time. Data collected on these youths included intelligence, personality characteristics, school progress, and neighborhood characteristics. See longitudinal study.

Cambridge Study in Delinquency Development a longitudinal study undertaken by University of Cambridge criminologists where comprehensive social and family data were gathered on youths in order to test hypotheses about the correlates of delinquent behavior.

cameras in the courtroom the use of video cameras to record court proceedings, most often trials. Cameras in the courtroom are controversial because they can disrupt the proceedings and possibly taint the viewing public’s perception of events. Such controversies pit the freedom of the press as expressed in the First Amendment against the right to a fair trial as guaranteed in the Sixth Amendment. See Court TV.

Camorra a criminal organization in Italy with a long history and extensive political reach. Compare with Mafia. See organized crime.

camouflage-collar crime crime related to fish and wildlife. See poaching, wildlife crime.

Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy (CECP) an initiative of criminal justice professionals and policy makers to move toward a “less politicized, more informed debate” on criminal justice policy. The CECP questions unnecessarily long prison sentences, punishment without treatment for substances abusers, the easy access to guns, and the elevation of highly publicized crimes to policy importance.

Campbell Collaboration an initiative to produce systematic reviews of the effects of various social interventions, including those related to crime and delinquency. See evidence-based practice, systematic review. Compare with Cochrane Collaboration.

campus crime crime occurring in or around a college or university campus. While campus crime encompasses all forms of crimes, it has come to mean those types of crime common to campus settings, such as date rape, bicycle theft, and offenses associated with binge drinking.

campus unrest a term used to convey a variety of disturbances occurring on or around college and university campuses. Examples of campus unrest include demonstrations against war, environmental policy, or other issues. See civil disobedience.

Canadian Criminal Justice Association (CCJA) a Canadian membership organization whose mission includes increasing greater understanding of criminal justice issues and improving the criminal justice system. The CCJA, which publishes the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

caning the practice of punishing offenders by beating them with split cane shafts. Caning is particularly painful because as the cane is withdrawn, the splits close, pulling flesh with them. One infamous case of caning was that of an American citizen Michael Fay, whose 1994 caning in Singapore generated worldwide attention and pleas for leniency. See corporal punishment, flogging.

cannabis sativa the scientific term for marijuana.

cannibalism the act of one human being eating the flesh of another human. The most notorious practitioners include Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer who kept body parts of his victims in his refrigerator, and the fictional Hannibal Lector from the book, The Silence of The Lambs. In most cultures cannibalism is considered an offense malum in se. Compare with necrophagia.

canvass the process used by law enforcement officers to gather information about a crime or other incident under investigation by asking questions of witnesses, nearby residents, and other persons in close proximity to a crime scene.

capable guardian according to routine activities approach, an individual or organization that can prevent a motivated offender from committing a crime.

capacity the ability of a firearm’s magazine to hold a specific number of cartridges. Some jurisdictions limit the capacities of magazines by law in an effort to limit the weapon’s lethality. In corrections, the number of detainees or inmates a facility can, should, or does hold. See design capacity, rated capacity.

capias from Latin, a legal document issued by a judge or magistrate ordering the arrest of an individual.

capital crime a crime for which death is a potential penalty. See capital punishment, death penalty.

Capital Jury Project a program of research designed to collect data on how juries exercise discretion in their decisions in death penalty cases. Based at the University at Albany, State University of New York, the Capital Jury Project is funded by the National Science Foundation. See capital punishment, jury.

capital offense same as capital crime.

capital punishment punishment that results in the death of the convicted offender. Capital punishment has become more controversial with exoneration of wrongfully convicted individuals through the use of DNA testing. See death penalty.

capo di tutti capi Italian for boss of all bosses. See boss, Mafia, organized crime.

Capone, Al(phonse) (1899–1947) a notorious organized crime figure of the 1920s and 1930s. Capone rose through the ranks of the Chicago mob to become one of the most powerful bosses and bootleggers in the United States. He eventually was convicted of federal income tax evasion and was sentenced to prison, serving some time in Alcatraz. After his release from prison, he died of syphilis. See bootlegger, Prohibition.

caporegime often abbreviated as capo, literally means in Italian the head of a regiment or a lieutenant in an organized crime family. Compare with boss.

Capote, Truman (1924–1984) an American writer whose book, In Cold Blood, chronicled the brutal 1959 slayings of the Clutter family in Kansas and the conviction and execution of the two killers.

car alarm a horn or other device that makes a loud sound when the vehicle is tampered with.

carbine a light short barreled rifle. An example is the M-1 carbine, a .30 caliber version of the longer, heavier Garand rifle used by U.S. forces in World War II.

car...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface to the New Edition
• How to Use This Dictionary
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• Q
• R
• S
• T
• U
• V
• W
• X
• Y
• Z
• Publisher Note