CRIMINAL JUSTICEUnit 2

Physical Evidence

• PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: An object or material relevant in a crime. A tangible item. • a.k.a. Real Evidence• Tangible: Perceptible by the senses• 4 Types of Physical Evidence

Types of Physical Evidence

• 1. Circumstantial Evidence: a collection of evidence that implies a fact or event without proving it

• Supports truth or guilt indirectly • Indirectly meaning more evidence is needed in order to convict a

guilty party or proclaim innocence• Over time Circumstantial evidence accumulates into a collection

so that each piece corroborates with the other pieces. The pieces then become Corroborating Evidence

Types of Physical Evidence cont…

2. Corroborating Evidence: Evidence that supports a proposition that is already supported by other evidence

Circumstantial Evidence

• Example:• A gray Honda was

seen swerving back and forth • DUI?

Corroborating Evidence

• Example (stemming from previous slides):• A receipt was found on the

back seat of the car. The receipt for the purchase for the bottle of Jack Daniels states that the bottle was purchased on the same day of the crash (5 hours before the crash)

Types of Physical Evidence

• 3. Class Evidence: Evidence that has characteristics common to a group• Example: Blue Jeans• Although we can we can take

lengths to individualize blue jeans by classifying them by maker, model, size, color shade, etc there are still thousands of people who own the same pair of jeans

How do we make Class Evidence better?• Decrease the PROBATIVE VALUE• Probative = supplying proof or evidence

• Probative Value Example:• A young person was seen leaving a high school

parking lot after having been near a car with a broken window. The car’s CD player was missing. The suspect was identified as having brown hair and wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, and dark-colored sneakers. In a school of 1,600 students how common are these characteristics?

Probative Value

•An example to try on your own.• A victim has been murdered in an office

building where a total of 2,700 people work. To prevent the suspect from getting away the entire building is closed off and sealed by police officials. An eye witness says she say a peculiar man from behind who had blonde hair, glasses, and was about 5’10” tall. Using the people in this class how many people out of the 2,700 would fit this description?

Types of Evidence

• 4. Individual Evidence: Material that can be linked to an individual• Fingerprints• DNA• Handwriting • Broken Glass

Role of Public Opinion• “If it bleeds, It leads” (New York Times, July 6, 1997)• http://www.cnn.com/

• Fear and Consumption• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NOFSOeOBsk

Crime Statistics in U.S.A. • http

://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/preliminary-annual-uniform-crime-report-january-december-2012/tables/table_3_percent_change_for_consecutive_years_2012.xls

Definitions• CRIME: A specific act of commission or omission in violation

of the law, for which a punishment is prescribed

• LAW: A system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior

• Policies should control crime by enforcing the law and protect individual rights• Amount of power police officers have• Rules judges must follow to decide what is evidence • Power of prison wardens to punish inmates.

Crime Control vs. Due Process• These are the two competing models of the administration of

criminal justice• Opposing ways of looking a the goals and procedures of the

criminal justice system• No one official or agency functions according to one model or the

other• Elements from both used• Reveals key tensions within criminal process

• Judge Judy makes $123,000 • PER EPISODE!!!!!

Due Process Model• DUE PROCESS: A model of the criminal justice system that

assumes freedom is so important that every effort must be made to ensure that criminal justice decisions are based on reliable information1. Rights of the defendant2. Formal decision-making procedures

• For Example: Because people are poor observers of events, police and prosecutors are likely to be wrong in presuming a defendant to be guilty

• INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY• Likely to have a guilty person go free due to a lack of evidence

Casey Anthony

• Caylee (3) body found in woods near her home

• Caught lying about the events that occurred during Caylee’s 31 day disappearance

• Car smelled like dead body• 400 pieces of evidence• 90 eye witnesses

• INNOCENT!!!!

O.J. Simpson

• Heisman Trophy winner by largest margin in history

• Hall of Fame Football player was 1st ever to rush for 2,000 yards

• 45 pieces of BLOOD DNA evidence including his blood with Goldman and Nicole Brown’s

• INNOCENT!!!

Crime Control Model• CRIME CONTROL: A model of the criminal justice system that

assumes that freedom is so important that every effort must be made to repress crime. Emphasizes:1. Efficiency2. Speed3. Finality4. Dispose of a high proportion of offenders

• Due to high crime rates and limited resources, speed and finality or necessary

• Promotes bargaining between the state and the accused• Guilty pleas and closed cases• http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-and-death-penal

ty

Peter LimoneMassachusetts Conviction1968-2001

• Thirty -three years after being convicted and sentenced to death for a 1965 murder, Peter Limone's conviction has been overturned and the case against him officially dropped. The move came as a result of a Justice Department task force's discovery of compelling new evidence that Limone and his co-defendants Joseph Salvati, Henry Tamelo, and Louis Greco were actually innocent of the murder of Edward Deegan. In 1968, all four were convicted and Limone was sentenced to die in Massachusetts' electric chair, but was spared in 1974 when Massachusetts abolished the death penalty and his sentence was commuted to life in prison. At trial, the main witness against the four men was Joseph Barboza, a hit man cooperating with prosecutors, who later admitted that he had fabricated much of his testimony. The recently revealed FBI documents show that informants had told the FBI before the murder that Deegan would soon be killed and by whom, and a memorandum after the crime listed the men involved. Neither list included Limone, Salvati, Tamelo or Greco.

Crime and Justice in a Multicultural Society

• African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and other minorities are subjected to the criminal justice system at much higher rates than the white majority• African Americans account for 1/3 of all the arrests• African Americans account for ½ of all Incarcerations

• Incarceration: The state of being confined in prison• Since 1980 the proportion of Hispanic Americans among all

inmates in U.S. prisons has more than doubled (7.7%-16%)• About 1/3 of all black males in their twenties are under criminal

justice supervision• The crime victimization rate is 260 per 1,000 in Hispanic

households versus 144 per 1,000 in non-Hispanic households• Assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, rape, and robbery

• Among 100,000 black males aged 15 to 19, 68 will die as a result of a homicide involving a gun, compared with about 6 among 100,000 white males in the same age group

Question!• Are racial and ethnic DISPARITIES such as the ones listed in the

previous slide a result of DISCRIMINATION?

• Disparity: The inequality of treatment of one group by the criminal justice system, compared with the treatment accorded other groups.• Can be explained by legitimate factors.

• Discrimination: Differential treatment of individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or economic status, instead of on their behavior or qualifications

Racial Disparities• Racial Disparities in criminal justice are often explained in one

of three ways:

• 1. PEOPLE OF COLOR COMMIT MORE CRIMES• Self report studies show that nearly everyone has committed a crime

although most are never caught• Disparities may stem from legitimate factors

• Judges and prosecutors take into account • Differences in serious and petty offenses• Repeat and first time offenders

• So why the disparity in racial arrests?

• MONEY $$$$

1. People of Color Commit More Crimes

• Link between crime and economic disadvantage is significant. • 46% of African American children are poor• 39% of Hispanic children are poor• 16% of White children are poor

• You know what else doesn’t help?• Most crime in America is Intraracial, not interracial

2. The Criminal Justice System is Racist

• 29% of rape victims report a black assailant• 43% of persons arrested for rape are black

• 22.6% of assault victims report a black assailant• 34% of persons arrested for assault are black

• Odds of arrest are higher for African American offenders• Higher arrests = Higher incarceration rates

• Can this be explained?

2. The Criminal Justice System is Racist cont…• Police patrols are more heavily concentrated in poorer areas• Poverty and Crime link makes this necessary

• So I guess the real question is WHY are African American and Hispanic races on average more poor than White?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqh6Ap9ldTs

3. America is a Racist Society• Recent research suggests whites’ approve of police use of

force and judicial system is higher than all other races• Federal sentencing guidelines punish users of crack cocaine about

100x more harshly than users of powder cocaine even though the drugs are almost identical.• Cocaine much more expensive• Blacks in inner cities tend to use crack cocaine. Whites tend to use

powder. • Stronger links between UNEMPLOYMENT RATES and

IMPRISONMENT RATES than between CRIME RATES and IMPRISONMENT RATES. • Blacks are amongst highest in unemployment