Criminal Justice 102
Assignment 11
Punishment and Sentencing
Name:
1. Theories of retribution rely on the principle of ______, which holds that the severity of the punishment must be in proportion to the severity of the crime.
a. / just desertsb. / utilitarianism
c. / collective retribution
d. / fairness
2. The basic idea behind theories of general deterrence is that:
a. / a person, after being punished for committing a crime, will be less likely to repeat that criminal act because he or she does not want to be punished again.b. / all people who commit similar crimes should be given similar punishments.
c. / the severity of the punishment must be in proportion with the severity of the crime.
d. / by punishing one person, an example has been set that will dissuade other people from committing the same or similar crimes.
3. The basic idea behind theories of specific deterrence is that:
a. / criminals can be "treated" and possibly even "cured" of their criminal tendencies.b. / people more likely to commit crimes in the future should be imprisoned for longer periods of time.
c. / by punishing one person, an example has been set that will dissuade other people from committing the same or similar crimes.
d. / a person, after being punished for committing a crime, will be less likely to repeat that criminal act because he or she does not want to punished again.
4. After Rick has been found guilty of armed robbery, Judge Prine sentences him to six to twelve years in prison. The jurisdiction where Judge Prine serves operates under a penal code that provides for which type of sentencing?
a. / Judicial sentencingb. / Indeterminate sentencing
c. / Determinate sentencing
d. / Truth in sentencing
5. Elizabeth is convicted of aggravated assault, the first time she has even been convicted of a crime. To determine the length of her sentence, the judge who presided over her case consults the state penal code and finds that the penalty of a first-time offender convicted of aggravated assault is five years. The judge is operating in a jurisdiction that has which type of sentencing?
a. / Determinate sentencingb. / Judicial sentencing
c. / Indeterminate sentencing
d. / Truth in sentencing
6. Which of the following statements best explains why parole boards have been given the authority to determine when an inmate will be released?
a. / In the early 1900s, legislators became angry with judges for their leniency and sentencing, and decided to take away the judicial ability to determine release dates.b. / Prisoners were earning too much "good time" and as a result were returned to the community well before the release date stipulated in their original sentences.
c. / The parole board consists of persons who are supposedly better qualified than the judge to determine when a prisoner has been rehabilitated.
d. / State governors, who are usually experts in criminal behavior, appoint the members of parole boards.
7. As a prank, Angelina glued the locks on all the doors in her high school, making it impossible for students or teachers to enter the classrooms. In juvenile court, Angelina appeared before Judge Gonzales, who, as punishment, ordered Angelina to apologize to the students and faculty of her school at an assembly called specifically for that purpose. The apology is a form of what type of sentencing philosophy?
a. / Community justiceb. / Alternative sanctions
c. / Restitution
d. / Restorative justice
8. Bob, a thirteen-year-old, was walking down the street with Nick, his twenty-year old brother. Nick picked up a rock from the side of the road, turned to Bob, and said, "I'll bet you won't throw this at that car parked over there." Bob shook his head, and Nick began calling him, "chicken." Finally, Bob threw the rock and shattered the windshield of a Mercedes G500 SUV, causing $2,000 of damage. In deciding the proper punishment for Bob, a judge may consider his tender years and the fact that he was pressured into committing the crime as ______circumstances.
a. / irrelevantb. / mitigating
c. / real
d. / aggravating
9. Kurt robbed a convenience store, using a shotgun to threaten the attendant into giving him the contents of the cash register. After he already had the cash in his hand, Kurt hit the attendant in the head with the butt-end of the shotgun, fracturing his skull. In deciding the proper punishment for Kurt, a judge may consider his use of the shotgun and the vicious nature of the harm he caused the attendant as ______circumstances.
a. / aggravatingb. / meaningless
c. / important
d. / mitigating
10. Research shows that members of minority groups are more likely to be sent to prison than whites that have committed similar crimes. Research also shows that even within minority groups, imprisonment rates rise dramatically when the offender is young and unemployed. What conclusion have some experts reached based on this information?
a. / Many American judges are racist and will consciously give harsher sentences to members of minority groups that appear before them.b. / Defendants who are poor and uneducated, no matter what their race, cannot afford to hire competent legal representation and therefore will be punished more harshly.
c. / Many American prosecutors are racist and will demand harsher penalties form members of minority groups.
d. / American judges do not consciously hand down harsher penalties to members of minority groups, but do rely on stereotypes concerning not only race but also age and unemployment in making the sentencing decision.
11. Which of the following statements best describes the "double-edged sword" of judicial discretion in sentencing matters?
a. / Even though we expect all judges to treat "like cases" alike, every case is different.b. / Legislatures expect judges to make "just" decisions when deciding how to punish an offender while at the same time passing laws that restrict the judge's decision-making ability where sentencing is concerned.
c. / The sentencing task is left to judges, but judges do not have enough time to gather enough information on each defendant to help them make the proper sentencing decision.
d. / Even though concepts of "individualized justice" support the idea that judges must be allowed to choose punishments based on specific criminal situations, the lack of state control over judicial decision-making inevitably leads to sentencing disparity and perhaps discrimination.
12. What keeps prosecutors from aggressively using three-strikes laws to ensure that every offender who is convicted of a third felony is punished with a lengthy prison term?
a. / Juries, who tend to frown upon long prison sentences for minor criminal offenses, can limit a prosecutor's ability to seek "three-strikes" penalties.b. / "Three-strikes" laws tend to send older prisoners, who are less likely to commit crimes and more expensive to care for while incarcerated, to prison for longer periods of time.
c. / Many prosecutors feel that "three-strikes" penalties are too harsh.
d. / Judicial departures restrict a prosecutor's ability to charge criminals under "three-strikes" laws.
13. Which of the following mitigating circumstances will not prevent a defendant found guilty of first-degree murder from receiving the death penalty?
a. / Povertyb. / A mental handicap
c. / An age of fifteen years or less
d. / Insanity
14. Which of the following justifications for capital punishment is not offered by supporters of the death penalty?
a. / The punishment is "just deserts" for those who commit the most heinous of crimes.b. / The punishment permanently incapacitates those who are executed, ensuring that these dangerous and violent criminals will never again commit a crime.
c. / The punishment is so severe that it deters potential criminals from committing crimes that may lead to execution.
d. / An innocent person will never be executed because the criminal justice system is infallible.
15. In the 1980s, a study of about two thousand murder cases in Georgia showed that although African Americans were the victims of six of every ten murders in the state, over 80 percent of the cases in which the defendants were executed involved murders of whites. When presented with this study, the U.S. Supreme Court:
a. / ruled that the constitutional rights of certain defendants were being violated in Georgia, and ordered all inmates on death row after being convicted of the murder of a white victim to be spared execution.b. / found that race played an improperly large role in Georgia's executions, and ordered the state to revamp its death penalty process.
c. / ignored the study completely, refusing to even mention it in the opinion of the case in which if was offered as evidence.
d. / ruled that this statistical evidence did not prove discriminatory intent on the part of Georgia's lawmakers because the data failed to prove that race was the only determining factor in decisions to execute those who murdered whites at a much higher rate than those who murdered African Americans.
16. In 1890, William Kemmler, the first person in the United States sentenced to die in an electric chair, challenged his execution by electrocution as "cruel and unusual" punishment under the Eighth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed, and held that the death penalty as carried out by electrocution was unconstitutional.
TrueFalse
17. In Furman v. Georgia (1972), the U.S. Supreme Court held that capital punishment in and of itself violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment" and the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of due process.
TrueFalse
18. Today, every state provides for capital punishment.
TrueFalse
19. In the 1980s, the federal government and many state governments implemented sentencing guidelines, which limit judicial discretion by providing judges with "road maps" that must be followed in making the sentencing decision.
TrueFalse
20. A departure is a stipulation in sentencing guidelines that allows a judge to adjust the legally-mandated sentence depending on the special circumstances of a particular case. Neither the prosecutor nor defense attorney may question a judicial departure.
TrueFalse
21. Most state laws give juries a role in the sentencing decisions for noncapital cases.
TrueFalse
22. Inconsistencies in sentencing are often blamed on the inability of state lawmakers to come to an agreement on how specific crimes should be punished.
TrueFalse
23. Sentencing discrimination occurs when differences in punishment can be attributed to a defendant's gender, race, economic standing, or other non-legal variables.
TrueFalse
24. The theory of "individualized justice" holds that judges need to able to consider the specific circumstances of each individual offender in choosing the most appropriate form of punishment.
TrueFalse
25. Once the guilt of a defendant has been established, the prosecutor and defense attorney play no further role in the trial process.
TrueFalse
26. The primary factor in the judge's sentencing decision is usually the seriousness of the crime.
TrueFalse
27. Truth-in-sentencing laws are designed to ensure that convicts will serve approximately the prison term to which they were originally sentenced.
TrueFalse
28. For most of the twentieth century, a judge's ability to choose the proper sentence was generally unquestioned.
TrueFalse
29. Retribution is a synonym for revenge in the context of sentencing.
TrueFalse
30. Proponents of deterrence believe that the severity of punishment in the criminal justice system should be based on the need to discourage other people from committing crimes.
TrueFalse
31. Someone who believes that crime is a "social phenomenon" caused by person's environment is likely to support rehabilitation as a purpose of sentencing.
TrueFalse