By the early 1970s, there was a consensus among law enforcement officials, prisoners’
groups, reformers, and bureaucrats that indeterminate sentencing should be replaced
with a more determinate sentencing system.
a. True
b. False
According to research by sociologist Richard Leo, most police interrogations were
coercive.
a. True
b. False
A general ban on the interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications while they
are taking place was enacted in:
a. The Patriot Act.
b. The Crime Control and Safe Streets Act.
c. The Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act.
d. Terrorist Surveillance Program.
Outer clothing pat-downs do not constitute Fourth Amendment searches.
a. True
b. False
The vehicle exception to the warrant requirement is based upon:
a. the inherent mobility of the vehicle and the impracticality of impounding the vehicle
and getting a warrant.
b. the inherent mobility of the vehicle and the reduced expectation of privacy in
vehicles.
c. convenience of the police.
d. the reduced expectation of privacy in vehicles and the convenience of the police.
According to the plurality opinion of the Supreme Court in U.S. v.
Mendenhallinvolving an airport investigation of possible drug law violations:
a. voluntary cooperation is determined by whether the agents actually tell citizens they
are free to leave.
b. seizure is determined by whether reasonable persons, under the circumstances, would
feel or honestly believe they are not free to go.
c. a person is seized whenever they are moved from the place where the encounter with
the police occurs.
d. a person is not seized unless the officer tells the person he or she has been arrested.
A challenge for cause:
a. is made by the prosecutor to strike a potential juror the prosecutor thinks will not be
favorable to the state’s case.
b. is made by defense counsel based on the juror’s race or gender.
c. strikes a juror who is biased or prejudiced toward the defendant or the state.
d. exempts persons from jury service because of their age, criminal record, or ability to
speak and write English.
One of the rules of procedure by which the U.S. Supreme Court operates is the “rule of
four.” According to this rule, the Court issues a written decision in a case only if four or
more justices think a written opinion is desirable.
a. True
b. False
The Fourth Amendment particularity requirement for search warrants:
a. does not require a specific address of the place to be searched, but the items to be
seized must be specifically described
b. requires that the warrant specifically describe the place to be searched and the things
to be seized.
c. requires a specific address but gives police the discretion to search for whatever they
might consider incriminating evidence
d. requires police to describe in detail their reasons for requesting a search warrant
Individual officers or government agencies cannot be sued for failing to stop private
people from violating their rights by inflicting injuries on them. This is known as the:
a. no special relationship rule.
b. no affirmative duty to protect rule.
c. state did not create the danger rule.
d. avoid danger rule.
With respect to the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause:
a. the Supreme court has defined it differently over time.
b. it applied initially to the federal government only.
c. courts did not extend its protection to state criminal justice during the 20th century.
d. due process is synonymous with equal protection.
With respect to the exclusionary rule, the Constitution specifically includes it in the
Fourth Amendment.
a. True
b. False
Draper v. U.S. established that an anonymous tip can _______be used in and of itself to
establish probable cause.
a. selectively
b. never
c. sometimes
d. always
In screening the police procedures that are used during the accusatory stage of the
criminal process, the courts recognize:
a. the needs of law enforcement and the privacy and liberty interests of individual
citizens.
b. the need to have standard procedures for investigating crimes
c. the interests of crime victims
d. the need to make an expeditious arrest
The legal doctrine of holding employers liable for wrongs committed by their
employees if the employee is acting in the scope of employment is known as:
a. no duty to protect.
b. sovereign immunity.
c. color of law.
d. respondeat superior.
The objective basis is also referred to as the quantum of proof.
a. True
b. False
A case citation is composed of a string of letters and numbers.
a. True
b. False
The deterrence rationale for the exclusionary rule is:
a. concerned with deterring judges who issue bad warrants.
b. no longer the primary justification for the rule.
c. based on the belief that excluding good evidence because it was illegally obtained
sends a message to law enforcement.
d. based on the idea that courts need to be discouraged from using illegally seized
evidence.
The right to an impartial jury does not require that a jury be selected from a fair cross
section of the community.
a. True
b. False
According to the Supreme Court in Katz v. U.S., involving an electronic listening and
recording device attached to the outside of a public telephone booth:
a. the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places.
b. a subjective expectation of privacy confers the Fourth Amendment’s protection.
c. there is no search unless there has been a physical intrusion into a place.
d. eavesdropping on a public phone booth is not a search.
Which of the following is NOT a reason for flawed forensic tests?
a. Monopoly
b. Lack of financial resources
c. Poor quality control
d. Information sharing
In order to be considered a “deportable alien”, a person must:
a. admit to his/her deportability when questioned by officials.
b. have been found deportable by an immigration judge.
c. refuse to cooperate with officials.
d. admit to his/her deportability when questioned by officials or been found deportable
by an immigration judge.
Under the holding in Chimel v. California (1969), a leading Supreme Court case on
searches incident to arrest, the police must limit a thorough search incident to arrest to
the arrestee’s:
a. person (body and clothing).
b. person and the area within his immediate control.
c. person and the room in which he is arrested.
d. person and the house or apartment where he is arrested.
In Wilson v. Arkansas, the Supreme Court unanimously decided that:
a. the Fourth Amendment prohibits all “noknock” entries.
b. the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit “noknock” entries.
c. the police are never required to follow the rule of announcement when executing a
search warrant.
d. ordinarily, the Fourth Amendment requires police knock and announce.
Criticism of the incorporation doctrine is particularly harsh when the national standards
established in the incorporation doctrine are applied to:
a. local police.
b. local prosecutors.
c. state supreme courts.
d. federal law enforcement agencies.
The Supreme Court in District Attorney’s Office for the Third Judicial District v.
Osborne(2009) involved prisoner Osborne’s postconviction request to compel officials
to release biological evidence so it could be submitted to DNA testing. What was the
finding of the Court?
a. Osborne has a right under the U.S. Constitution of access to forensic evidence
b. Osborne’s rights under Alaska law were violated
c. there is no right under the U.S. Constitution of access to forensic evidence
d. DNA testing is too expensive to make it a constitutional right
According to the plain view doctrine:
a. plain view is an exception to the search warrant requirement.
b. plain view is a Fourth Amendment search.
c. plain view observations always fall outside of the Fourth Amendment restrictions.
d. once in plain view, an item may be searched to confirm that it is able to be seized.
When a court decides that a prior court decision does not apply to a current case
because the facts of the previous case are different, the court is said to:
a. dispute the holding of the previous decision.
b. overturn legal precedent.
c. distinguish the previous case.
d. reverse the previous case.
Under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, governments are always immune from
lawsuit.
a. True
b. False
Based on their research of 125 proven false confessions, Richard Leo and Steven
Drizen concluded:
a. that the problem of false confessions in not serious
b. most of the false confessions occurred after 2-3 hours of interrogation
c. most of the people who confessed to crimes they did not commit were found not
guilty
d. the problem of false confessions may be more serious than previously thought
The Supreme Court’s use of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination
approach in reviewing state confession cases began with:
a. Miranda v. Arizona.
b. Escobedo v. Illinois.
c. Brown v. Mississippi.
d. Lisenba v. California.
The risk of vexatious litigation interfering with their official duties supports giving
prosecutors absolute immunity for their decisions associated with the judicial phase of
the criminal process.
a. True
b. False
Which of the following is NOT of one Wisconsin’s recommendations for improving
police lineups?
a. Present the suspect and the fillers simultaneously.
b. Instruct eyewitnesses that the real criminal may or may not be present in the lineup.
c. Use a “double blind” procedure.
d. Use fillers that will minimize any suggestiveness that might indicate the suspect.
According to the Supreme Court, the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule:
a. the inquiry is whether a reasonably well trained officer would have known a search
was illegal under all the circumstances.
b. the important issue to decide is if the officer honestly believed his or her actions were
constitutional.
c. violates the fundamental protections of the Fourth Amendment.
d. applies only to situations that arise because of faulty electronic databases.
The ______court opinion is considered the law.
The ________exception to the exclusionary rule is based on an objective test of
whether a well- trained officer would have known his or her actions were illegal under
the circumstances.
The patting down of a suspect’s outer clothing to check for weapons is the type of
search called a __________.
Describe a search incident to a pretext arrest, and explain its significance.
Discuss two U.S. Supreme Court opinions that expend the good-faith exception.
The objective standard necessary to justify a strip search at the border is
__________________.
The idea that evidence illegally obtained by police can still be admitted at trial if the
link between the police illegality and the evidence’s discovery is weak enough is called
the _________exception.
The power of a court to hear case in a particular subject or geographical area is its
________.
Who are the various actors and their roles in the “criminal justice road map?”
Make a list of facts officers can take into account in building probable cause. What use
can officers make of hearsay in building probable cause?
What is the rule regarding searches incident to arrests for minor offenses as created and
applied by the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. v. Robinson?
Identify and explain the rationales behind the three justifications for the exclusionary
rule. Which justification does the U.S. Supreme Court use today?
How, if at all, has the Patriot Act modified the balance between government power and
individual privacy?
The pretrial release mechanism that is based solely on the promise of the defendant to
appear in court is known as ____________.
__________ relies heavily on the discretion of judges and parole boards in exercising
sentencing authority.
In place of the fundamental fairness doctrine, some on the Court argued for the
_______doctrine.