Criminal Justice Review and Assessment 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which Eighth Amendment principle limits sentences that are grossly disproportionate to the offense?
- Prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment (Correct answer)
- Right to a speedy trial
- Prohibition on excessive bail only
- Right to confront witnesses
Correct answer: Prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment
The cruel and unusual punishment clause bars sentences grossly disproportionate to the crime.
Question 2: A grand jury's primary function in the criminal justice process is to:
- Decide guilt or innocence at trial
- Set the defendant's bail amount
- Determine whether probable cause exists to indict (Correct answer)
- Impose the sentence after conviction
Correct answer: Determine whether probable cause exists to indict
Grand juries review evidence to decide whether probable cause supports formal charges.
Question 3: A judge sentences an offender to probation with the condition of completing drug treatment. This approach best reflects which correctional goal?
- Retribution
- Incapacitation
- Rehabilitation (Correct answer)
- General deterrence
Correct answer: Rehabilitation
Treatment-focused conditions aim to reform the offender, the core of rehabilitation.
Question 4: Which scenario illustrates entrapment as a legal defense?
- An undercover officer pressures a reluctant person with no criminal intent into committing a crime (Correct answer)
- Police observe a drug sale and arrest the seller
- An informant buys drugs from a willing dealer
- An officer leaves a bait car unlocked and someone steals it
Correct answer: An undercover officer pressures a reluctant person with no criminal intent into committing a crime
Entrapment occurs when government agents induce a crime the defendant was not predisposed to commit.
Question 5: The 'wedding cake' model of criminal justice suggests that:
- Cases are treated differently based on their seriousness and notoriety (Correct answer)
- All cases receive identical formal processing
- Federal cases always outrank state cases
- Sentencing must follow strict layered guidelines
Correct answer: Cases are treated differently based on their seriousness and notoriety
The wedding cake model shows that celebrated cases get full formal process while lower layers are handled routinely.
Question 6: Which pretrial release mechanism allows a defendant to be freed based solely on a promise to appear in court?
- Surety bond
- Cash bail
- Release on recognizance (ROR) (Correct answer)
- Property bond
Correct answer: Release on recognizance (ROR)
Release on recognizance requires no money, only the defendant's written promise to appear.
Question 7: Under the exclusionary rule's good faith exception, evidence may be admitted when officers:
- Reasonably relied on a warrant later found to be invalid (Correct answer)
- Acted on an anonymous tip alone
- Conducted a warrantless home search without exigency
- Ignored a suspect's request for counsel
Correct answer: Reasonably relied on a warrant later found to be invalid
United States v. Leon allows evidence when police reasonably relied on a facially valid warrant.
Criminal Justice Review and Assessment 4
Which Eighth Amendment principle limits sentences that are grossly disproportionate to the offense?