A peace bond is a court-required surety bond or conditional fine, criminal or quasi-criminal in nature, that an individual must pay to guarantee that he or she will not commit a breach of the peace, be it through threats, public disturbance,...
THE LEGAL PROCESS
peculation
Peculation is the wrongful appropriation of public property, money, or goods entrusted to another’s guardianship, typically a public official, for personal use. Depeculation, a related phrase, is used to specify an act of peculation which...
peculator
A peculator (also referred to as an embezzler) refers to a person who steals money that was under their supervision, by utilizing the benefit or convenience created by their position. The money is not limited to cash, and can include vouchers...
pedophilia
Pedophilia is a mental disorder where an individual seeks sexual gratification from children. Spelled Paedophilia in British English. The American Psychological Association (APA) Dictionary of Psychology defines pedophilia as “a paraphilia in...
peeping Tom
A person who peeps through a window, door, or other aperture of a building for the purpose of spying on people engaging in intimate activities, such as undressing or sexual acts. The term “peeping tom” may also include “video voyeurism,”...
peer review
Peer review is the evaluation of someone’s work by a group of people in the same profession or field (peers). Peer review is mostly used to maintain the quality of the performance of professionals.
In medical field, peer-review is often being...
pen register
A pen register is a device or process that traces outgoing signals from a specific phone or computer to their destination; it is often used by law enforcement as the advanced counterpart of an outgoing call log. A pen register produces a list...
penal
In reference to law, “penal” is used primarily as a descriptive term relating to punishments or crimes. For example:
A penal code is a set of statutes that concern criminal offenses (e.g., California Penal Code, Texas Penal Code). A...penalty
A penalty is the punishment imposed upon a person who has violated the law, whether or a contract, a rule, or regulation. A penalty can be in response to either civil or criminal violations, though civil penalties are usually less severe....
pendent jurisdiction
Pendent jurisdiction was a doctrine which gave federal courts exercising federal question jurisdiction the power to hear related state-law claims that did not independently meet the requirements of federal subject-matter jurisdiction. The...