Deck 6: Police Discretion and Dilemmas

Question 1

Civilians who are used to obtain information about criminal activity and/or participate in it so evidence can be obtained for an arrest are called:

A) snitch
B) informants
C) tattlers
D) witness

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Lies that are used to control the person or to make the job easier in situations where force could be used are called:

A) deviant lies
B) blue lies
C) tolerated lies
D) accepted lies

Answer 2

B

Question 3

According to Barker and Carter,accepted lies must meet all of the following standards except:

A) they must be in furtherance of a legitimate organizational purpose
B) there must be a clear relationship between the need to deceive and the accomplishment of an organizational purpose
C) the nature of the deception must be one wherein officers and the management structure acknowledge that deception will better serve the public interest than the truth
D) those involved in the lie must readily admit lying if prompted by a superior officer or legal authority

Answer 3

D

Question 4

There are two approaches used to determine whether entrapment has occurred:

A) the primary and the secondary approaches
B) the objective and the subjective approaches
C) the before- and after-the-fact approaches
D) whether entrapment has occurred cannot be determined

Question 5

In Barker and Carter's proposed typology of lies,tolerated lies are:

A) those that are "necessary evils"
B) used to control the person
C) those used during undercover investigations
D) never acceptable in police work

Question 6

In Barker and Carter's typology of lies,accepted lies are:

A) those that are "necessary evils"
B) used to control the person
C) those used during undercover investigations
D) never acceptable in police work

Question 7

"The 'end' of drug interdiction justifies the 'means' of harassing and inconveniencing a racial or ethnic minority group." This statement is most likely to be supported by:

A) an ethical formalist system
B) a utilitarian system
C) a relativist system
D) a rational system

Question 8

Which of the following statements is false?

A) Most studies indicate that blacks express more distrust of police than whites or Hispanics.
B) Blacks are more likely than Hispanics to believe police will use excessive force.
C) More blacks report disrespectful language or swearing by police officers.
D) Hispanics are less likely than blacks to report feeling that the police would treat them fairly.

Question 9

The term entrapment refers to when an otherwise innocent person commits an illegal act because:

A) of police encouragement or enticement
B) they were told by police that it was not against the law
C) he or she was forced to do so by a police officer
D) they were trapped in the location

Question 10

According to Klockars,lying to a mentally ill person by telling him/her that the police will take care of laser beams from Mars is an example of:

A) blue lies
B) deviant lies
C) police placebos
D) tolerated lies

Question 11

According to South,some of the ethical problems with informants include all except:

A) engaging in love affairs with informants
B) overestimates of veracity
C) being used by informants
D) informant being killed

Question 12

The _____________________ approach looks at the defendant's background,character,and predisposition toward crime to determine if entrapment occurred.

A) secondary
B) objective
C) subjective
D) primary

Question 13

Which of the following is not included in Barker and Carter's typology of lies?

A) Accepted Lies
B) Deviant Lies
C) Normative Lies
D) Tolerated Lies

Question 14

Barker and Carter proposed a typology of lies that included:

A) accepted lies
B) blue lies
C) necessary lies
D) placebo lies

Question 15

The strongest ethical argument against undercover officers having intimate relationships with suspects comes from:

A) utilitarianism
B) ethical formalism
C) ethics of care
D) religion

Question 16

Which of the following statements is true?

A) one of the biggest problems with informants is that their reliability is highly questionable
B) in most cases, officers have manufactured informants
C) generally speaking, informants tend to be cost-prohibitive
D) "confidential informants" are usually more trustworthy than witnesses

Question 17

In May 2010,Arizona passed a controversial law requiring police officers in the state to:

A) ask for proof of citizenship or residency from everyone they stopped
B) ask for proof of citizenship or residency from all motorists
C) ask for proof of citizenship or residency if there was reasonable suspicion that the person was an illegal immigrant
D) ask for proof of citizenship or residency if the person looked Hispanic

Question 18

Which approach to determine entrapment has the U.S.Supreme Court endorsed?

A) the objective approach
B) the subjective approach
C) the combined approach
D) the U.S. Supreme Court has not endorsed any approach as of yet

Question 19

In Barker and Carter's proposed typology of lies,deviant lies are:

A) those that are "necessary evils"
B) used to control the person
C) those used during undercover investigations
D) those used in the courtroom to make a case or cover up a wrongdoing

Question 20

The _______________________ approach examines the government's participation and whether it has exceeded accepted legal standards to determine in entrapment occurred.

A) secondary
B) objective
C) subjective
D) primary

Question 21

Deontological ethics would focus on the duty of the officer when determining whether physical coercion or deception is ethically justified.

Question 22

Which one of the following incidents is an example of deadly force?

A) the Rodney King incident
B) the Amadou Diallo incident
C) the Abner Louima incident
D) the Michael Mineo incident

Question 23

Research indicates that lack of empathy and antisocial and paranoid tendencies are associated with police officers who use greater than average amounts of force.

Question 24

The use of informants is regulated by CALEA standards.

Question 25

The use of physical force to obtain a conviction became illegal with:

A) Diaz v. Texas
B) Bartley v. Montana
C) Brown v. Mississippi
D) Miranda v. Connecticut

Question 26

The U.S.Supreme Court has defined legal force as the force which is objectively reasonable.

Question 27

Telling a complainant that a tinfoil helmet will stop "gamma rays" from "messing up" his brain is an example of a police placebo lie.

Question 28

Which of the following statements about use-of-force statistics is false?

A) it is difficult to determine the true number of incidents of excessive force because they often do not find their way into official statistics
B) researchers use civil rights complaints to ask people what their experiences with police have been
C) researchers use official documents, such as police incident reports, to help guide them
D) the vast majority of people believe that excessive force is used fairly frequently

Question 29

The fact that the suspect had an extensive criminal record would be considered significant in the subjective test for entrapment.

Question 30

Legal proscriptions on torture are based on the rationale that it is unethical.

Question 31

Police are required to divulge the name of the informant on affidavits for search warrants unless there is evidence that revealing the informant's identity would be dangerous.

Question 32

Which of the following statements about interrogations is true?

A) the "third degree" approach involves a sympathetic paternal figure for the defendant to confide to
B) the "third degree" is only used in extreme cases
C) the "third degree" is no longer legitimate
D) the father confessor approach typically involves physical force

Question 33

The objective test for entrapment focuses on:

A) the criminal record of the defendant
B) law enforcement involvement in the crime committed
C) the "moral character" of the defendant
D) the "moral character" of the police officer

Question 34

In terms of undercover operations,ethical formalism would most likely:

A) condemn undercover operations where innocent people are deceived because the actions could not be justified under the categorical imperative
B) support undercover operations even if innocent people are deceived or involved in any other way
C) support undercover operations under any circumstances
D) justify the idea that the ends justify the means

Question 35

According to the objective approach,if the state provided an "essential element" that made the crime possible,or if there was extensive and coercive pressure on the defendant to engage in the actions,a court might rule that:

A) the defendant was guilty
B) the case can move to the trail stage
C) entrapment had occurred
D) entrapment had not occurred

Question 36

Schoeman,in criticizing the deception in undercover operations,argues from a utilitarian perspective.

Question 37

The classic father confessor approach to interrogations involves:

A) physical force in the form of beatings to get a confession
B) a sympathetic figure for the defendant to confide to
C) a nice guy and a seemingly brutal, threatening officer
D) a nice guy and a seemingly uncaring, withdrawn officer

Question 38

The question of whether police should use immoral means to reach a desired moral end is addressed by the term:

A) Clint dilemma
B) Dirty Harry problem
C) Abu Ghraib curse
D) the Robocop problem

Question 39

Despite some high profile cases involving deadly force,which police department actually has a relatively low shooting rate when compared with the size of their force?

A) The New York Police Department
B) The Washington D.C. Police Department
C) The Los Angeles Police Department
D) The San Francisco Police Department

Question 40

Klockars' "Dirty Harry" problem is essentially a question as to the ethical validity of utilitarianism or,more specifically,ends-based policing.

Question 41

When forensics labs "make up" scientific results it is referred to as __________________.

Question 42

List and discuss Barker and Carter's typology of lies.

Question 43

Define and describe what is meant by 'reactive investigations.' Give an example.

Question 44

List and discuss the two approaches used to determine whether entrapment has occurred.Give an example of each.

Question 45

List and discuss the three standards that accepted lies must meet.

Question 46

In the ______________________ model police investigators receive and investigate complaints and the resolution of the investigations are handled internally.

Question 47

A _________________________ refers to a situation where citizens are included in an outside agency or board that monitors and/or investigates misconduct complaints.

Question 48

Discuss what the law says about the use of force by police officers.

Question 49

The term _______________ refers to a situation where an otherwise innocent person is enticed or encouraged by police to commit a crime.

Question 50

List and describe the ethical problems of using informants summarized by South.

Question 51

The _______________________ of entrapment is a test that determines an offender's predisposition to commit a crime to determine if the police created the crime.

Question 52

____________________,as defined by Klockar,are lies that are told to make a job easier or to control a person.

Question 53

_______________________ thinking is a type of utilitarian thinking.

Question 54

List and discuss the types of police lies described by Klockars.Give examples.

Question 55

List and discuss the psychological traits associated with officers that are likely to use excessive force.

Question 56

Klockars' concept of ___________________ refers situations in which the police office's lie is in the best interest of those being lied.

Question 57

Compare and contrast the "third degree," the father confessor," and the "good cop/bad cop" approaches to police investigations.

Question 58

List the questions posed by Marx that police should use before engaging in undercover operations.

Question 59

Alpert and Dunham's ratio illustrating the amount of force used by an officer in relation to the resistance by a citizen is called the ___________________.

Question 60

________________________ are civilians who are used to obtain information about criminal activity and/or participate in it so that evidence can be obtained for an arrest.