Crime and Justice
Glossary
- Appeal
- To ask a more senior court to review a decision.
- Bail
- A commitment made (and possibly secured by cash or property) to secure the release of a prisoner being held in custody and suspected of a crime, to provide some kind of guarantee that the suspect will appear to answer the charge at some later date.
- Crown
- Criminal or civil cases taken or defended by the government are done so in the name of the Crown or head of state.
- Custody
- Charge or control of a person or item of property.
- Due process
- Fundamental procedural safeguards of which every citizen has an absolute right when a court purports to take a decision that affects the rights of the citizen.
- Evidentiary
- Proof of facts presented at a trial.
- Evidence-based
- The term "evidence-based" implies there is research of sufficient quality and quantity to indicate the effectiveness of a program or service.
- Incarceration
- Confinement in a jail or penitentiary.
- Indictable
- Refers to the most serious of criminal offences.
- Information
- An accusation exhibited against a person for a criminal offence.
- Judges
- Title given to decision makers in the Provincial Court of B.C.
- Justices
- Title given to decision makers in the B.C. Supreme Court, B.C. Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada.
- Laying a charge
- To state or allege the specific crime the defendant is accused of committing.
- Leave to appeal
- Permission to appeal.
- Officers
- General name applicable to all persons concerned with the administration of justice, but commonly used only for the class of officers whose duty is to serve in the courts.
- Probation
- A kind of punishment given out as part of a sentence which means that instead of jailing a person convicted of a crime, a judge will order that the person report to a probation officer regularly and according to a set schedule.
- Recidivism
- Tendency to relapse into crime or anti-social behaviour.
- Rehabilitation
- Restoring a person's state of physical, mental and moral health through treatment and training.
- Restitution
- Financial compensation to place a person in the position they had prior to the commission of an offence.
- Summary
- Refers to a less serious offence than indictable offences for which both the procedures and punishment are less onerous.
Further definitions can be found at:
- www.legalglossary.ca/dictionary
, a multilingual legal glossary
