Leander A.

Salazar
BS Crim 1 blk. 1
Intro to Criminal Justice System
DEFINITION OF TERMS

1. Arrest – is the taking of a person into custody in order that he may be bound to answer for the commission of an
offence.
2. Apprehending offenders – is also known as arresting offenders.
3. Article 234 of the RPC. – Refusal to Discharge Elective office - This is committed by any person who has been
elected by popular election, but he refuses without legal motive, to be sworn in or to discharge the duties of said
office.
4. Article 342 of the RPC. – Forcible abduction- the abduction of any woman against her will and with lewd
designs shall be punished by reclusion temporal. The same penalty shall be imposed in every case, if the abducted
be under twelve years of age.
5. Criminal Justice System - Is the system in the community charged with direct responsibility for the prevention,
reduction and control of crime. It is widely look upon as the conglomeration of government agencies involve in
the law enforcement, prosecution, defense, adjudication, punishment and rehabilitation of all the means to enforce
those standards of conduct, which are deemed necessary to protect individual and to maintain general community
wellbeing.
6. Criminal - Is a person who committed a crime and convicted of a crime by final judgement.
7. Crime – Is an act or omission punishable by law, forbidding or commanding it. (Reyes, 2008).
8. Justice – Is the act of rendering what are due and treating persons equally. This person must, however, fall within
the same classification. (Gacayan, 2006).
9. Classification – Means that the congress may classify a group or groups of persons whom a certain law is
applicable.
10. System – Is a combination of related elements organized into a complex whole. It may also refer to the process to
be followed. (Bloomsbury, 2007).
11. Prevention of Crime – is intended to prevent root causes of crime.
12. Repression of Suppression of Crime – is done reduce the opportunity of committing crime a crime like the act
of conducting patrol.
13. Public Relation – is the act of bringing about better understanding, confidence, and acceptance of an individual
or organization.
14. Police Public Relation – is the continuing process by which endeavors are made to obtain the goodwill and
cooperation of the public or the effective enforcement of the law and the accomplishment of police purpose.
15. Human Relation – consist of fundamental precepts, both moral and legal, which governs the relationships among
men in all aspects of life. (Tradio, 1996).
16. Warrant of Arrest – Is an order in writing issued in the name of the people of the Philippines, signed by the
judge and directed to a peace officer, commanding him to arrest a person or persons stated therein and deliver
them before the court. (Gacayan, 2005).
17. Unlawful Arrest – committed by a person who, in any case other than those authorized bay law, shall arrest or
detain another for the purpose of delivering him to proper judicial authorities. (Art. 269 of the RPC).
18. Expulsion – (Art. 127 of the RPC.) is committed bay any public officer or employee who, not being authorized
by law, shall expel any person from the Philippine island or shall compel such person to change his residence.
19. Search Warrant – is an order in writing issued in the name of the people of the Philippines, signed by a judge
and directed to a peace officer, commanding him to search for personal property describe therein and bring it
before the court. (Sec. 1, Rule 126 of the Rules of Court).
20. Custodial Investigation – is any questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been take to
custody of otherwise deprive of his freedom of action in any significant way. (Gacayan, 2005).
21. Information – is the knowledge which the investigator gathered and acquired from another person.
22. Interrogation – questioning of a person suspected having committed an offence or of a person who is reluctant to
make a full disclosure of information in his possession which is pertinent to the investigation.
23. Interview – is the questioning of a person who is believed to possess knowledge that is of official interest to the
investigator.
24. Instrument – is the application of instruments and methods of physical science to the detection of crime.
25. Judicial Confessions/Admissions – are those done in open court in the presence of the judge.
26. Extra – Judicial Confessions/Admissions – are those made outside trial. (Fianza, 2005).
27. Information – is an accusation in writing charging a person with an offence, subscribed by the prosecutor and
filed in court. (Sec 4, Rule 110 of the Rules of Court).
28. Probable cause – is the existence of sufficient ground to engender a well-founded belief that: A crime has been
committed; and the respondent is probably guilty thereof.
29. Complaint – is a sworn written charging a person with an offence, subscribed by the offended party, any peace
officer, or other public charged with the enforcement of the law violated. (Sec 3, Rule 110 of the Rules of Court).
30. Temptation – Satan’s favorite method of attack. But God has promised that we can have victory over
temptation.
31. Deception – if temptation doesn’t work, Satan does not give up. He goes “plan B” which is deception. The way to
keep free from deception is to stay in God’s word and stay in fellowship with God’s people.
32. Accusation – the most subtle weapon in Satan’s arsenal is accusation. He is the master accuser l. He accuse God,
producing doubt. He accuses our fellow Christians, resulting in division. He accuses our spiritual leaders, creating
gossip. He even accuse us to ourselves, causing condemnation.
33. Article 1. of the RPC. - Time when Act takes effect - This Code shall take effect on the first day of January,
nineteen hundred and thirty-two.
34. Logomacy- “nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege” - A statement that would have no crime if we had no
criminal law, and that we could eliminate all crime merely by abolishing criminal laws.
35. Felony - is an act or omission that is punishable by the Revised Penal Code. (RPC).
36. Offence - is an act or omission that is punishable by special laws.
37. Imprudence - means deficiency of action, lack of skill.
38. Negligence - refers to deficiency of perception, lack of foresight. Meaning, the failure to foresee what a
reasonable man ought to foresee.
39. Mistake of Fact - is an misapprehension of fact on the part of the person who caused injury to another. He is not,
however, criminallybliable because he did not act with criminal intent.
40. Grave felonies - are those to which tha law attaches the capital punishment or penalties which in any of their
periods are afflictive.
41. Less Grave Felonies - are those which the law punishes with penalties which in their maximum period are
correctional.
42. Light Felonies - are those infraction of law for the commission of which the penalty of arresto menor or a fine not
exceeding 200 pesos, is provided.
43. Instigation - public officer or private detective induces an innocent person to commit a crime and would arrest
him upon or after the commission of the crime by him.
44. Entrapment - a person has planned or is about to commit crime and ways and means are resorted to by a public
officer to trap and catch the criminal; not a defense.
45. Accident - any happening beyond control of persons, consequences of which are not foreseeable.
46.

47. Treachery - when the offender commits any of the crime against the person, employing means, methods or form
in the execution thereof which tend directly and specially to insure its execution, without risk to himself arising
from the defense which the offended party might make.
48. Habitual delinquency - within ten years from the last release or last conviction of the crime of falsification,
robbery, estafa, theft, serious or less serious physical injuries, the offender is found guilty of any said crimes a
third time or oftener.
49. Penalty - penalty is the suffering that is inflicted by the state for the transgression of a law.
50. Appeal - a request to a higher (appellate) court for that court to review and change the decision of a lower court.
51. Assault - a threat or use of force on onather that causes that person to have a reasonable apprehension of
imminent harmful or offensive contact; the act of putting another person in reasonable fear or apprehension of a
immediate battery by means of an act amounting to an attempt or threat to commit a battery.
52. Criminal law - is that branch or division of law which defines crimes, treats of their nature, and provides for their
punishment
53. Crime - crime is defined as an act committed or omitted in violation of public law forbidding or commanding it.
54. General (characteristic of criminal law) – general, in that criminal law is binding on all persons who live or
sojourn in Philippine territory.
55. Territorial (characteristic of criminal law) - in that criminal law undertakes to punish crimes committee within
Philippine territory.
56. Prospective-(characteristic of criminal law) - in that a penal law cannot make an act punishable in a manner in
which it was not punishable when committed.
57. French rule - such crimes are not triable in courts of that country, unless their commission affects the peace and
security of the territory or the safety of the state is endangered.
58. English rule - such crimes are triable in that country, unless they merely affect things within the vessel or they
refer to the internal management thereof.
59. Felonies - felonies are acts and omissions punishable by the revised penal code.
60. Act - any bodily movement tending to produce some effect in the external world.
61. Omission - is meant inaction, the failure to perform a positive duty which one is bound to do.
62. Mistake of Fact- is a misapprehension of fact on the part of the person who caused injury to another.
63. Mala in se- wrongful from their nature, those so serious in their effects on society as to call for the almost
unanimous condemnation of its members and defined and penalized by the Revised Penal Code.
64. Mala Prohibita - wrong merely because prohibited by statute, are violations of mere rules of convenience
designed to secure a more orderly regulation of the affairs of society. The term mala prohibita refers generally to
acts made criminal by special laws.
65. Intent - intent is the purpose to use a particular means to effect such result.
66. Motive - motive is the moving power which impels one to action for a definite result.
67. Consummated Felony - a felony is consummated when all the elements necessary for its execution and
accomplishment are present.
68. Frustrated felony - when the offender performs all the acts of execution which would produce the felony as a
consequence but which nevertheless, do not produce it by reason of causes independent of the will of
theperpetrator.

69. Attempted felony - when the offender commences the commission of a felony directly by overt acts, and does
not perform all the acts of execution which should produce the felony by reason of some cause or accident other
than his own spontaneous desistance.
70. Over acts - an overt act is some physical activity or deed, indicating the intention to commit a particular crime,
more than a mere planning or preparation, which if carried to its complete termination following its natural
course, without being frustrated by external obstacles nor by the voluntary desistance of the perpetrator, will
logically and necessarily ripen into a concrete offense.
71. Intermediate offense - one where purpose of offender in the performing an act is not certain. Its nature in
relation to its objective is ambiguous.

72. Conspiracy - conspiracy exists when two or more persons come to an agreement concerning the commission of a
felony and decide to commit it.
73. Proposal- there is a proposal when the person who has decided to commit a felony proposes its execution to some
other person or persons.
74. Imputability - is the quality by which an act may be ascribed to a person as its author or owner. It implies that the
act committed has been freely and consciously done and may, therefore, be put down to the doer as his very own.
75. Responsibility - is the obligation of suffering the consequences of crime. It is the obligation of taking the penal
and civil consequences of the crime.
76. Grave felonies - are those to which the law attaches the capital punishment or penalties which in any of their
periods are afflictive.LESS GRAVE FELONIES- are those which the law punishes with penalties which in their
maximum period are correctional.
77. Light felonies - are those infractions of law for the commission of which the penalty of arresto menor or a fine
not exceeding 200 pesos, is provided.
78. Justifying circumstances - are those where the act of a person is said to be in accordance with law, so that such
person is deemed not to have transgressed the law and is free from both criminal and civil liability.
79. Exempting circumstances (non-imputability) - are those grounds for exemption from punishment because there
is wanting in the agent of the crime any of the conditions which make the act voluntary, or negligent.
80. Mitigating circumstances - those which, if present in the commission of the crime, do not entirely free the actor
from criminal liability but only serve to reduce the penalty.
81. Aggravating circumstances - are those which, if attendant in the commission of the crime, serve to increase the
penalty without, however, exceeding the maximum of the penalty provided by law for the offense. (kind of
aggravating circumstances) - those that can generally apply to all crimes.
82. Specific (kind of aggravating circumstances) - those that apply only to particular crime.
83. Qualifying (kind of aggravating circumstances) - those that change the nature of the crime.
84. Inherent (kind of aggravating circumstances) - those that must of necessity accompany the commission of the
crime.
85. Alternative circumstances - aggravating or mitigating according to the nature and effect of the crime and other
conditions attending its commission.
86. Instigation - public officer or private detective induces an innocent person to commit a crime and would arrest
him upon or after the commission of the crime by him.
87. Entrapment - a person has planned or is about to commit crime and ways and means are resorted to by a public
officer to trap and catch the criminal; not a defense.
88. Accident - any happening beyond control of persons, consequences of which are not foreseeable.
89. Treachery - when the offender commits any of the crime against the person , employing means, methods or
forms in the execution thereof which tend directly and specially to insure its execution, without risk to himself
arising from the defense which the offended party might make.
90. Ignominy - moral suffering
91. Cruelty - deliberate intention to prolong physical suffering of the victim
92. Habitual delinquency - within 10 years from last release or last conviction of the crime of falsification, robbery,
estafa, theft, serious or less serious physical injuries, the offender is found guilty of any of said crimes a third time
or oftener.
93. Recidivism - when the time of trial for one crime, shall have been previously convicted by final judgment of
another crime embraced in the same title of the revised penal code.
94. Quasi-recidivism - commits a felony after having been convicted by final judgment, before beginning to serve
such, or while serving the same, shall be punished by maximum period of penalty prescribed by law for new
felony.
95. Reitaracion or habituality - accused is on trial for an offense, he has previously serves sentence for another
offense to which the law attaches an equal or greater penalty, or for two or more crimes to which it attaches
lighter penalty than that for the new offense and that he is convicted of the new offense.
96. Offense - is an act or omission that is punishable by special laws such as Republic Acts, Presidential Decrees,
Executive Orders, Memorandum Circulars, Ordinances and Rules and Regulations.
97. Penalty - penalty is the suffering that is inflicted by the State for the transgression of a law.
98. Complex crimes - when a single act constitutes two or more grave or less, grave felonies, or when an offense is a
necessary means for committing the other, the penalty for the most serious crime shall be imposed.
99. Continued crime - a continued crime is a single crime, consisting of a series of acts but all arising from one
criminal resolution.
100. Aberration ictus - mistake in the blow
101. Error in persona - mistake in the identity of the victim
102. Praetor intentioned - the injurious result is greater than that intended.
103. Restitution - in theft, the culprit is duty bound to return the property stolen.
104. Reparation - in case of inability to return the property stolen, the culprit must pay the value of the
property stolen.
105. Appeal - a request to a higher (appellate) court for that court to review and change the decision of a lower
court
106. Assault - a threat or use of force on another that causes that person to have a reasonable apprehension of
imminent harmful or offensive contact; the act of putting another person in reasonable fear or apprehension of an
immediate battery by means of an act amounting to an attempt or threat to commit a battery.
107. Acquittal - a jury verdict that a criminal defendant is not guilty or the finding of a judge that the evidence
is insufficient to support a conviction.
108. Battery - the application of force to another, resulting in harmful or offensive contact.
109. Bribery - The corrupt payment, receipt, or solicitation of a private favor for official action.
110. Counterfeiting - the forging, copying, or imitating of something (usually money) without a right to do so
and with the purpose of deceiving or defrauding.
111. Treason - is a breach of allegiance to a government committed by a person who owes allegiance to it.
112. Allegiance - is meant the obligation of fidelity and obedience which the individuals owe to the
government under which they live or to their sovereign, in return for the protection they receive.
113. Neutrality - a nation or power which takes no part in a contest of arms going on between others is
referred to as neutral.
114. Correspondence - is communication by means of letters, or it may refer to the letters which pass between
those who have friendly or business relations.
115. Document - is any written statement by which a right is established or an obligation extinguished. A
document is a writing or instrument by which a fact may be proven and affirned.
116. Piracy -it is robbery or forcible depredation on the high seas, without lawful authority and done with
animo furandi and in the spirit and intention of universal hostility.
117. Mutiny - it is the unlawful resistance to a superior officer, or the raising of commotions and disturbances
on board a ship against the authority of its commander.
118. Probable cause - probable cause can be defined as such facts and circumstances which would lead a
reasonable discreet and prudent man to believe that an offense has been committed and that the object sought in
connection with the offense are in the place sought to searched.
119. Search warrant - is an order in writing issued in the name of the People of the Philippines signed by a
judge and directed to a peace officer, commanding him to search for personal property described therein and bring
it before the court.
120. Misprision of treason- every person owing allegiance to the government of the Philippine Islands,
without being a foreigner, and having knowledge of any conspiracy against them, conceals or does not disclose
and make known the same, as soon as possible to the governor or fiscal of the province, or the mayor or the fiscal
of the city in which he resides.
121. Sedition - in its general sense, is the raising of commotions or disturbances in the State.
122. Charivari -the term charivari includes a medley of discordant voices, a mock serenade of discordant
noises made on kettles, tins horns, etc.., designed to annoy and insult.
123. Espionage - Without authority therefor, enters a warship, fort, or naval or military establishment or
reservation to obtain any information, plans, photographs, or other data of a confidential nature relative to the
defense of the Philippine Archipelago; or (2) Being in possession, by reason of the public office he holds, of the
articles, data, or information referred to in the preceding paragraph, discloses their contents to a representative of
a foreign nation.
124. Inciting to war or giving motives for reprisals. — The penalty of reclusion temporal shall be imposed
upon any public officer or employee, and that of prision mayor upon any private individual, who, by unlawful or
unauthorized acts provokes or gives occasion for a war involving or liable to involve the Philippine Islands or
exposes Filipino citizens to reprisals on their persons or property.
125. Violation of neutrality — The penalty of prision correccional shall be inflicted upon anyone who, on the
occasion of a war in which the Government is not involved, violates any regulation issued by competent authority
for the purpose of enforcing neutrality.
126. Flight to enemy's country. — The penalty of arresto mayor shall be inflicted upon any person who,
owing allegiance to the Government, attempts to flee or go to an enemy country when prohibited by competent
authority.

127. Piracy in general and mutiny on the high seas — The penalty of reclusion temporal shall be inflicted
upon any person who, on the high seas, shall attack or seize a vessel or, not being a member of its complement
nor a passenger, shall seize the whole or part of the cargo of said vessel, its equipment, or personal belongings of
its complement or passengers
128. Expulsion — The penalty of prision correccional shall be imposed upon any public officer or employee
who, not being thereunto authorized by law, shall expel any person from the Philippine Islands or shall compel
such person to change his residence.
129. Violation of domicile. — The penalty of prision correccional in its minimum period shall be imposed
upon any public officer or employee who, not being authorized by judicial order, shall enter any dwelling against
the will of the owner thereof, search papers or other effects found therein without the previous consent of such
owner, or having surreptitiously entered said dwelling, and being required to leave the premises, shall refuse to do
so.
130. Dwelling- means any building or structure exclusively devoted for rest and comfort as distinguished from
places devoted to business, offices, etc..,
131. Inhabited house- is any shelter, ship or vessel constituting the dwelling of one or more persons even
though the inhabitants thereof are temporarily.
132. Public building - is every building owned by the government or belonging to a private person but used or
rented by the government, although temporarily unoccupied by the same.
133. Premises - premises signifies distinct and definite locality. It may mean a room, shop, building or definite
area, but in either case, locality is fixed.
134. Grave threats - any person who shall threaten another with the infliction upon the person, honor, or
property of the latter or of his family of any wrong amounting to a crime.
135. Unjust vexation - unjust vexation includes any human conduct which, although not productive of some
physical or material harm would, however, unjustly annoy or vex an innocent person.
136. Seize - it means to place in the control of someone a thing or to give him the possession thereof.
137. Robbery - is the taking of personal property belonging to another, with intent to gain, by means of
violence against, or intimidation of any person, or using force upon things.
138. False keys- are genuine keys stolen from the owner or any keys other than those intended by the owner
for use in the lock forcibly opened by the offender.
139. Brigandage - is a crime committed by more than three armed persons who form a band of robbers for the
purpose of committing robbery in the highway or kidnapping persons for the purpose of extortion or to obtain
ransom, or for any other purpose to be attained by means of force and violence.
140. Philippine highway - it shall refer to any road, street, passage, highway and bridges or other parts
thereof, or railway or railroad within the Philippines used by persons, or vehicles, or locomotives or trains for the
movement or circulation of persons or transportation of goods, articles, or property or both.
141. Theft - theft is committed by any person who, with intent to gain but without violence against or
intimidation of persons nor force upon things, shall take personal property of another without the latter’s consent.
142. Fencing - is the act of any person who, with intent to gain for himself or for another, shall buy, receive,
possess, keep, acquire, conceal, sell or dispose of, or shall buy and sell, or in any other manner deal in any article,
item, object or anything of value which he knows, or should be known to him, to have been derived from the
proceeds of the crime of robbery or theft.
143. Encumbrance - the term incumbrance includes every right or interest in the land which exists in favour
of third persons.
144. Malicious mischief - malicious mischief is the wilful damaging of another’s property for the sake of
causing damage due to hate, revenge or other evil motive.
145. Adultery - adultery is committed by any married woman who shall have sexual intercourse with a man
not her husband and by the man who has carnal knowledge of her, knowing her to be married, even if the
marriage be subsequently declared void.
146. Lewd - lewd is designed as obscene, lustful, indecent, and lecherous. It signifies the form of immorality
which has relation to moral impurity; or that which is carried on a wanton manner.
147. Concubinage - any husband who shall keep a mistress in the conjugal dwelling, or, shall have sexual
intercourse, under scandalous circumstances, with a woman who is not his wife, or shall cohabit with her in any
other place.
148. Cohabit - the term cohabit means to dwell together, in the manner of husband and wife, for some period
of time, as distinguished from occasional, transient interviews for unlawful intercourse.
149. Confession – an acknowledgement of guilt.
150. Jurisdiction – as the authority to hear and determine a cause.