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This criminal justice trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the whole system: policing, courts and corrections. You will find the landmark Supreme Court cases every student learns (Miranda, Gideon, Mapp, Terry, Batson, Brady, Furman and Gregg), the amendments behind them, and how grand juries, plea bargains, bail and habeas corpus actually work. The history side runs from Cesare Beccaria and Bentham's Panopticon to Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police, the first DNA conviction, the invention of the polygraph, Alcatraz's famous escape and the Kansas City patrol experiment. Agencies like the FBI, DEA, Secret Service, US Marshals and Interpol get their own questions. It suits criminology students, pre-law classes, police academy study groups and true-crime fans. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The 1966 Supreme Court case requiring police to inform suspects of their rights is named after which defendant?
Ernesto Miranda
He was arrested in Phoenix in 1963. The ruling rests on the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Q 02Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) required state courts to provide defendants with what?
A lawyer
Clarence Earl Gideon, accused of burgling a Florida pool room, filed his appeal to the Supreme Court in pencil from prison.
Q 03Mapp v. Ohio (1961) applied which doctrine to state prosecutions?
The exclusionary rule
Evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment cannot be used. The federal version dates to Weeks v. United States in 1914.
Q 04Terry v. Ohio (1968) held that police may 'stop and frisk' someone on what standard?
Reasonable suspicion
The person must be reasonably suspected of being armed and involved in a crime. Such stops are still called 'Terry stops'.
Q 05Batson v. Kentucky (1986) barred prosecutors from using peremptory challenges to exclude jurors based on what?
Race
An objection on these grounds is now called a 'Batson challenge'.
Q 06Brady v. Maryland (1963) requires prosecutors to hand the defence what?
Exculpatory evidence
Any significant evidence suggesting the defendant is not guilty. Withholding it is a 'Brady violation'.
Q 07Furman v. Georgia (1972) led to what across the United States?
A de facto moratorium on executions
The Court found arbitrary imposition of capital punishment cruel and unusual. Gregg v. Georgia allowed executions to resume in 1976.
Q 08Which amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures?
Fourth
Warrants must be issued on probable cause, under oath, and describe the place and things to be searched.
Q 09The right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury comes from which amendment?
Sixth
It guarantees eight distinct rights, including confronting witnesses and having counsel.
Q 10Which amendment forbids excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment?
Eighth
Courts have read it to ban punishments such as drawing and quartering outright.
Q 11The double jeopardy principle traces to the Roman maxim 'non bis in idem', meaning what?
Not twice against the same
In the US it lives in the Fifth Amendment. Separate sovereigns, such as a state and the federal government, can still each prosecute.
Q 12A US federal grand jury usually has how many members?
16 to 23
Its job is to decide whether to indict, not to determine guilt. Virginia uses smaller panels.
Q 13Roughly what share of US criminal cases are resolved by plea bargain?
About 90%
The practice has spread in various forms to many other legal systems.
Q 21The RICO Act, used against organised crime, was enacted in which year?
1970
It came in as Title IX of the Organized Crime Control Act, signed on October 15 that year.
Q 22Interpol was founded in 1923 in which city?
Vienna
It began as the International Criminal Police Commission after a five-day congress. It is now headquartered in Lyon with 196 member states.
Q 23Interpol moved its headquarters in 1989 to which French city?
Lyon
It runs seven regional bureaus and a National Central Bureau in each member country.
Q 24Colin Pitchfork, sentenced in 1988, was the first person convicted of murder using what?
Q 14The Latin phrase habeas corpus, the writ challenging unlawful detention, literally refers to what?
Having the body
The procedure was first codified in England's Habeas Corpus Act of 1679. Lincoln suspended it during the Civil War.
Q 15The word 'felony' comes from a medieval French term for an offence that resulted in what?
Confiscation of land and goods
Lesser crimes were misdemeanours. In modern US usage a felony is typically punishable by more than a year in prison.
Q 16The FBI was established in 1908 under what original name?
Bureau of Investigation
It became the Division of Investigation in 1933 and took its present name in 1935, with J. Edgar Hoover in charge.
Q 17London's Metropolitan Police was founded in 1829 by which Home Secretary?
Robert Peel
The first constables walked their beats on 29 September that year. 'Bobbies' and 'Peelers' both take their name from him.
Q 18The oldest US federal law enforcement officers were created by the Judiciary Act of 1789. Which agency?
US Marshals
George Washington signed the act on September 24, 1789. Marshals still guard federal courts and hunt fugitives.
Q 19The US Secret Service was founded in 1865 with what original mission?
Combating counterfeit currency
It sat inside the Treasury until 2003 and only took on presidential protection in 1901, after McKinley's assassination.
Q 20The Drug Enforcement Administration was created in 1973 under which president?
Richard Nixon
It was set up by Reorganization Plan No. 2 as part of the 'war on drugs'.
DNA profiling
Alec Jeffreys' technique also cleared the man who had confessed. Pitchfork killed two girls in Leicestershire villages.
Q 25In which year did Francis Galton publish his statistical model of fingerprint identification?
1892
The book was simply titled Finger Prints. Juan Vucetich's rival system spread across South America.
Q 26The polygraph was invented in 1921 by John Larson, a Berkeley medical student who was also what?
A city police officer
Since Daubert (1993), polygraph evidence must meet a scientific-validity standard, and it remains largely inadmissible.
Q 27The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and which other attorney?
Peter Neufeld
Both later served on O. J. Simpson's 'Dream Team'. By 2025 the project had helped overturn 254 convictions through DNA.
Q 28Which Boston cobbler began US probation in 1841 by persuading a judge to release a 'drunkard' into his custody?
John Augustus
He went on to bail out and supervise hundreds of offenders at his own expense.
Q 29Alcatraz operated as a federal penitentiary from 1934 until it closed in which year?
1963
The 1962 escape by Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers remains unsolved; the three were never found.
Q 30Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, pioneer of solitary confinement, opened when?
1829
Its wagon-wheel design later held Al Capone and Willie Sutton. It closed in 1971 and reopened as a museum in 1994.