CJCENTRAL: Criminal Justice Brief, 5E: Glossary

ECPA
An acronym for the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

element of a crime
(1) Any conduct, circumstance, condition, or state of mind which in combination with other conduct, circumstances, conditions, or states of mind constitutes an unlawful act; (2) the basic components of crime; (3) in a specific crime, the essential features of that crime as specified by law or statute.

embezzlement
The misappropriation, or illegal disposal of legally entrusted property, by the person(s) to whom it was entrusted, with intent to defraud the legal owner or intended beneficiary.

emergency searches
Those searches conducted by the police without a warrant, that are justified on the basis of some immediate and overriding need, such as public safety, the likely escape of a dangerous suspect, or the removal or destruction of evidence.

entrapment
An improper or illegal inducement to crime by agents of enforcement. Also, a defense that may be raised when such inducements occur.

equity
A sentencing principle, based upon concerns with social equality, which holds that similar crimes should be punished with the same degree of severity, regardless of the social or personal characteristics of offenders.

espionage
The "gathering, transmitting or losing" of information related to the national defense in such a manner that the information becomes available to enemies of the United States and may be used to their advantage.

ethnocentrism
The phenomenon of culture-centeredness, by which one uses one's own culture as a benchmark against which to judge all other patterns of behavior.

evidence
Anything useful to a judge or jury in deciding the facts of a case. Evidence may take the form of witness testimony, written documents, videotapes, magnetic media, photographs, physical objects, and so on.

exclusionary rule
The understanding, based on Supreme Court precedent, that incriminating information must be seized according to constitutional specifications of due process, or it will not be allowed as evidence in criminal trials.

ex post facto
Latin for "after the fact." The Constitution prohibits the enactment of ex post facto laws, that make acts punishable as crimes which were committed before the laws in question were passed.

excuses
A category of legal defenses in which the defendant claims that some personal condition or circumstance at the time of the act was such that he or she should not be held accountable under the criminal law.

expert systems
Computer hardware and software which attempt to duplicate the decision-making processes used by skilled investigators in the analysis of evidence and in the recognition of patterns which such evidence might represent.

expert witness
A person who has special knowledge recognized by the court as relevant to the determination of guilt or innocence. Expert witnesses may express opinions or draw conclusions in their testimony, unlike lay witnesses.

extradition
The surrender by one state to another of an individual accused or convicted of an offense in the second state.

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