sample midterm fall 2014

8/10/2019 Sample Midterm Fall 2014

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROCESS

(SOC 3630)

Fall 2014

Howard

SAMPLE EXAMINATION QUESTIONS

REVISED WITH ANSWERS IN BOLDFACE

(8/30/14)

A. True/False Section(Please indicate whether the statements below are true or false. You

may provide a brief explanation for your answers. Your response to each statement is

worth four points.)

1. The Judiciary Act of 1789 contained provisions that led to the unification of statecourts.

FALSE. THE JUDICIARY ACT OF 1789 WAS AN ACT OF CONGRESSTHAT ROLLED OUT INFERIOR COURTS IN LINE WITH THE

PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE III OF THE CONSTITUTION. THIS

LEGISLATION EXPANDED THE FEDERAL COURTS BY CREATING

COURTS OF GENERAL JURISDICTION (I.E., U.S. DISTRICT COURTS)

AND CIRCUIT COURTS OF APPELLETE REVIEW. IN SHORT, THE

JUDICIARY ACT OF 1789 WAS A MAJOR FEDERALIST VICTORY AS

THE FEDERAL COURTS WERE GRANTED CONSIDERABLE POWER.

2. John Sutton argues that the sociology of law is an intellectual project in whichempirical data are used to describe and explain the behavior of legal actors.

TRUE. THIS IS THE DEFINITION THAT SUTTON OFFERS FOR OUR

COMMON PROJECT. ALTHOUGH IT CERTAINLY HAS ITS

LIMITATIONS, IT IS A SUCCINCT REHEARSAL OF SOME ESSENTIAL

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF LAW.

3. The due process model envisions the criminal process as a sort of obstacle coursedesigned to impede crime.

TRUE. HERBERT PACKER NOTES IN HIS ESSAY THAT THE DUE

PROCESS MODEL MIGHT BEST BE CHARACTERIZED AS AN

OBSTACLE COURSE SINCE IT FEATURES MULTIPLE CHECKS AND

TESTS TO OVERSEE INEVITABLE HUMAN ERROR.


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B. Identification Section(Please indicate which important concept, as developed in the

course readings and discussions, is most clearly being discussed or referenced in the

statement below. You should provide a brief explanation for your answer. Your

explanation will be most effective if it indicates specifically what in the statement leads you

to identify a particular concept related to the course materials. Your response to each

statement is worth five points.)

1. Speaking to his mother on the telephone late on a Friday morning, in an effort to

convince her that he was at Waldo Library studying assiduously the previous nightrather than carousing shamelessly at Waldo Tavern, Hayduke reports: So I was

reading this book last night, and I learned that sociologists often look at the way thatcriminal justice actors make choices as they determine whether and how to process an

individual through the criminal justice apparatus. They use a particular concept in thecriminal justice literature to refer to this relatively autonomous decision making

business. The term stresses that while these criminal justice officials often havesignificant powers of free decision, or at least some latitude in terms of their choices,

they cannot make decisions willy nilly since there are typically legal boundaries and

other forms of constraint outside of which the officials move at their peril. Theproblem with this decision making arrangement is that while sometimes criminaljustice actors may use their powers to achieve an individualized form of justice, this

can also lead to differential treatment of individuals that may produce forms ofinjustice. In class, a professor once said that this concept is at the heart of the

sociological enterprise given its interest in the problem of social order and its balancebetween constraint and freedom. . . . So hows the dog? Grandpappys gout? . . . By

the way, can I get twenty bucks to, ehh, buy some more pencils and notebook papertonight?.

DISCRETION. HAYDUKE MENTIONS POWERS OF FREE DECISION

WITHIN LEGAL BOUNDARIES AND OTHER FORMS OF

CONSTRAINT, WHICH IS ONE WAY TO DEFINE DISCRETION AS WE

DISCUSSED IN CLASS. HE ALSO MAKES AN ALLUSION TO THE

PROBLEM OF SOCIAL ORDER, WHICH IS ONE OF THE

LONGSTANDING CONCERNS OF SOCIOLOGY THAT HAS BEEN

ADVANCED THROUGH A STUDY OF DISCRETION.

2. Jeff Ferrell speaking to his research assistant: Crystal, I hope you have had a chance

to look over the rough draft of my latest manuscript on field research. As you know,I have been eager to draw upon the ideas of Max Weber in order to elaborate on my

view of criminological investigation, and I hope that I have been able to defineclearly the central concept on which my methodological stance is founded. In the

manuscript, as you no doubt recollect, I defined this concept broadly as a process ofsubjective interpretation on the part of the social researcher, a degree of sympathetic

understanding between researcher and subjects of study, whereby the researchercomes in part to share the situated meanings and experiences of those under scrutiny.

More narrowly, perhaps, I maintain that researchers must develop a subjectiveunderstanding of crimes situational meanings and emotions its moments of

pleasure and pain, its emergent logic and excitement within the larger process ofinvestigation. I think that a researcher, through attentiveness and participation, can

begin to apprehend and appreciate the specific roles and experiences of criminals,


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crime victims, crime control agents, and others caught up in the day-to-day reality ofcrime. I think this conception of criminological research will advance our discipline

considerably.

CRIMINOLOGICAL VERSTEHEN. FERRELL SIGNALS THIS

IMPORTANT CONCEPT WHEN HE DISCUSSED HOW ONE SHOULD

STRIVE TO UNDERSTAND CRIMES SITUATIONAL MEANINGS ANDFEMOTIONS. THIS IS ONE WAY TO UINDERTAKE THE PROMISE OF

FIELD RESEARCH AS WE DISCUSSED IS CLASS.

B. Falsification Section(Please explain briefly in several complete and informed sentences

how you know the statements that appear below to be false. Make a clear reference to a

piece of evidence found in a course reading or discussion. Make clear how the evidence

falsifies the statement. Your response to each statement is worth five points.)

1. While Neil Postman counsels that attention be paid to definitions, his advice has little

relevance to the study of criminal justice process and the criminal courts.

NONSENSE. LAWS DEFINE CATEGORIES WITH WHICH IDENTIES ARE

CONSTRUCTED, AS JOHN SUTTON OBSERVES WITH HIS

EXAMINATION OF THE CASE OF RENEE ROGERS.

2. The Supreme Court of the United States must respect precedent.

NOT TRUE. THE SUPREME COURT WILL OCCASSIONALLY

OVERRULE ITS PRIOR DECISIONS. FOR INSTANCE, CHIEF JUSTICE

EARL WARREN AND HIS COURT OVERTURNED BETTS V. BRADY IN

THE LANDMARK DECISION OF GIDEON V. WAINWRIGHT, WHICH

EXTENDED THE RIGHT TO COUNSEL FOR INDIGENT DEFENDANTS IN

FELONY CASES IN STATE COURTS.

3. The idea of a criminal justice system became prominent during the Revolutionary

War.

FALSE. SAM WALKER DATES THE SYSTEM IDEA TO THE FIELD

RESEARCH CARIED OUT BY THE AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION IN

THE 1950S. THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM PARADIGM THAT

EMERGED FROM THE ABFS TROUBLING OBSERVATIONS WAS

FORTIFIED BY PROVISIONS IN THE SAFE STREETS AND CRIME

CONTROL ACT OF 1968 SUCH THAT THE SYSTEM OF CRIMINAL

JUSTICE IS A UBIQUITOUS NOTION.


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D. Essay Section(Please respond succinctly in complete and informed paragraphs to the

following questions. Superior responses will thoughtfully incorporate material from course

reading and lecture. Your response to each question will be worth 20 points.)

1. As an epigram to his volume Courtroom 302, a close study of criminal courts inChicago, Steve Bogira quotes the words of G. K. Chesterton from Tremendous Trifles

to this effect:

The horrible thing about all legal officials, even the best, about all judges,magistrates, barristers, detectives, and policemen, is not that they are wicked

(some of them are good), not that they are stupid (several of them are quiteintelligent), it is simply that they have got used to it. Strictly they do not see the

prisoner in the dock; all they see is the usual man in the usual place. They do notsee the awful court of judgment; they only see their own workshop.

How might these words from Chesterton be used to make sense of what Amy Bach

has depicted so far in her book Ordinary Injustice?

USE YOUR IMAGINATION AND CRITICAL SKILLS. ESTABLISH AMY

BACHS THESIS AND HOW SHE DEFINES ONE OR MORE KEY TERMS

IN THE THESIS (E.G., ORDINARY INJUSTICE, COMMUNITY OF

LEGAL PROFESSIONALS, ADVERSARIAL JUSTICE, ETC.). DO

CHESTERONS WORDS REFLECT THIS THESIS AND ONE OR MORE OF

THE KEY TERMS?

2. Uncle Milt, who is bankrolling your college education, will be at the family timeshare

where you will be spending spring break, and you know that he will ask about whatyou have learned in class so far this term as he likes to keep tabs on his little

investment. Taking into consideration the course so far this semester, which conceptwould you tell ol Milt is central to the study of law, justice, and social order and

what two themes or lessons would you tell him are most important to a sociologicalunderstanding of the topic?

ANSWER ALL ELEMENTS OF THE WRITING PROMPT. NOMINATE

AND DISCUSS A KEY CONCEPT AND HOW IT MIGHT BE USEFULLY

DEFINED, MAING USE OF ONE OR MORE COURSE MATERIALS TO

SUPPORT YOUR UNDERTANDING OF THE IDEA. IDENTIFY AND

DISCUSS TWO THEMES IMPORTANT TO A SOCIOLOGICAL

UNDERSTANDING OF LAW AND THE COURTS. THERE ARE MANY

POSSIBLE THEMES THAT COULD BE IDENTIFIED. INDEED, MANY OF

THE CONCEPTS AND TOPICS ON THE STUDY GUIDE MIGHT BE PUT

FORWARD AS THEMES. FOR INSTANCE, INTELLECTUAL

RESPONSIBILITY, DISCRETION, DEFINITIONS. EMPIRICAL

OBSERVATION, AND SO ON.

sample midterm fall 2014

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