50 Fun Facts About Criminal Justice

The 1966 Supreme Court case requiring police to inform suspects of their rights is named after which defendant?

He was arrested in Phoenix in 1963. The ruling rests on the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) required state courts to provide defendants with what?

Clarence Earl Gideon, accused of burgling a Florida pool room, filed his appeal to the Supreme Court in pencil from prison.

Mapp v. Ohio (1961) applied which doctrine to state prosecutions?

Evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment cannot be used. The federal version dates to Weeks v. United States in 1914.

Terry v. Ohio (1968) held that police may 'stop and frisk' someone on what standard?

The person must be reasonably suspected of being armed and involved in a crime. Such stops are still called 'Terry stops'.

Batson v. Kentucky (1986) barred prosecutors from using peremptory challenges to exclude jurors based on what?

An objection on these grounds is now called a 'Batson challenge'.

Brady v. Maryland (1963) requires prosecutors to hand the defence what?

Any significant evidence suggesting the defendant is not guilty. Withholding it is a 'Brady violation'.

Furman v. Georgia (1972) led to what across the United States?

The Court found arbitrary imposition of capital punishment cruel and unusual. Gregg v. Georgia allowed executions to resume in 1976.

Which amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures?

Warrants must be issued on probable cause, under oath, and describe the place and things to be searched.

The right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury comes from which amendment?

It guarantees eight distinct rights, including confronting witnesses and having counsel.

Which amendment forbids excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment?

Courts have read it to ban punishments such as drawing and quartering outright.

The double jeopardy principle traces to the Roman maxim 'non bis in idem', meaning what?

In the US it lives in the Fifth Amendment. Separate sovereigns, such as a state and the federal government, can still each prosecute.

A US federal grand jury usually has how many members?

Its job is to decide whether to indict, not to determine guilt. Virginia uses smaller panels.

Roughly what share of US criminal cases are resolved by plea bargain?

The practice has spread in various forms to many other legal systems.

The Latin phrase habeas corpus, the writ challenging unlawful detention, literally refers to what?

The procedure was first codified in England's Habeas Corpus Act of 1679. Lincoln suspended it during the Civil War.

The word 'felony' comes from a medieval French term for an offence that resulted in what?

Lesser crimes were misdemeanours. In modern US usage a felony is typically punishable by more than a year in prison.

The FBI was established in 1908 under what original name?

It became the Division of Investigation in 1933 and took its present name in 1935, with J. Edgar Hoover in charge.

London's Metropolitan Police was founded in 1829 by which Home Secretary?

The first constables walked their beats on 29 September that year. 'Bobbies' and 'Peelers' both take their name from him.

The oldest US federal law enforcement officers were created by the Judiciary Act of 1789. Which agency?

George Washington signed the act on September 24, 1789. Marshals still guard federal courts and hunt fugitives.

The US Secret Service was founded in 1865 with what original mission?

It sat inside the Treasury until 2003 and only took on presidential protection in 1901, after McKinley's assassination.

The Drug Enforcement Administration was created in 1973 under which president?

It was set up by Reorganization Plan No. 2 as part of the 'war on drugs'.

The RICO Act, used against organised crime, was enacted in which year?

It came in as Title IX of the Organized Crime Control Act, signed on October 15 that year.

Interpol was founded in 1923 in which city?

It began as the International Criminal Police Commission after a five-day congress. It is now headquartered in Lyon with 196 member states.

Interpol moved its headquarters in 1989 to which French city?

It runs seven regional bureaus and a National Central Bureau in each member country.

Colin Pitchfork, sentenced in 1988, was the first person convicted of murder using what?

Alec Jeffreys' technique also cleared the man who had confessed. Pitchfork killed two girls in Leicestershire villages.

In which year did Francis Galton publish his statistical model of fingerprint identification?

The book was simply titled Finger Prints. Juan Vucetich's rival system spread across South America.

The polygraph was invented in 1921 by John Larson, a Berkeley medical student who was also what?

Since Daubert (1993), polygraph evidence must meet a scientific-validity standard, and it remains largely inadmissible.

The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and which other attorney?

Both later served on O. J. Simpson's 'Dream Team'. By 2025 the project had helped overturn 254 convictions through DNA.

Which Boston cobbler began US probation in 1841 by persuading a judge to release a 'drunkard' into his custody?

He went on to bail out and supervise hundreds of offenders at his own expense.

Alcatraz operated as a federal penitentiary from 1934 until it closed in which year?

The 1962 escape by Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers remains unsolved; the three were never found.

Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, pioneer of solitary confinement, opened when?

Its wagon-wheel design later held Al Capone and Willie Sutton. It closed in 1971 and reopened as a museum in 1994.

The Auburn system of the 19th century had prisoners work together by day under what rule?

They were locked in solitary cells at night. It competed with Pennsylvania's fully separate system.

Sing Sing prison, which gave English the phrase 'up the river', is in which New York village?

It opened in 1826 under Auburn warden Elam Lynds and was briefly renamed Ossining Correctional Facility from 1970 to 1985.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons was established within the Justice Department in which year?

It took over 11 existing federal prisons. Alcatraz joined the system four years later.

What was Cesare Beccaria's 1764 treatise condemning torture and the death penalty titled?

It shaped the classical school of criminology and influenced the American founders.

Which philosopher conceived the Panopticon prison design?

The founder of utilitarianism got the idea visiting his brother in the Russian Empire in 1785 and published it in 1791. Foucault later made it famous as a metaphor.

The 'broken windows' theory of policing was introduced in a 1982 article in which magazine?

James Q. Wilson and George Kelling argued that visible disorder invites more serious crime; the idea shaped 1990s New York policing.

Where did the landmark 1972-73 experiment on whether patrol levels affect crime take place?

The Police Foundation study found that varying patrol levels made no significant difference to crime or public fear.

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program, the main source of US crime statistics, began in which year?

The International Association of Chiefs of Police designed it. Its published series is Crime in the United States.

The first true 'three-strikes' sentencing law was passed by voters in which state in 1993?

Initiative 593. California's Proposition 184 followed a year later with 72% support.

Approximately how many people are held in US prisons and jails, the world's largest known prison population?

By rate, the World Prison Brief in 2023 put the US sixth in the world at 531 per 100,000.

The modern jury trial evolved in England during the reign of which king in the mid-12th century?

Juries of 6 or 12 men were already an 'ancient institution' in parts of England by then.

Evidence derived from an illegal search is known by what botanical phrase?

It can be excluded along with the illegally obtained evidence itself.

The Miranda ruling rests chiefly on which constitutional amendment?

Statements made in custody cannot be used unless the suspect was told of the right to a lawyer and the right to remain silent.

The Secret Service has protected US presidents since which year?

The change followed William McKinley's assassination. It moved from Treasury to Homeland Security in 2003.

The Innocence Project found mistaken eyewitness identification was a factor in what share of wrongful convictions?

The project is affiliated with the Cardozo School of Law in New York.

Which Berkeley police chief set up a criminal justice programme at UC Berkeley in 1916?

His student O. W. Wilson carried on the push to professionalise policing and cut corruption.

Which US city established the country's first police department, in 1838?

New York followed in 1844; early forces were little respected because corruption was rampant.

The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration grew out of which 1968 US law?

The LEAA funded criminology research, and by the 1970s the US had 729 academic programmes in the field.

Which verdict can a US jury never actually return, whatever the evidence?

The adversarial system has two parties argue their versions before the court rather than a judge leading an inquiry.

Which religious group pushed Pennsylvania to revive its humane penal reforms in the late 1700s?

William Penn's original code banning torture had been reversed after his death in 1718; the revival brought a marked drop in crime.