Criminal Justice Practice Exam

Probable cause refers to the legal standard that law enforcement must meet in order to make an arrest, conduct a search, or obtain a warrant. This standard requires that there is a reasonable belief, based on factual evidence, that a crime has been committed or that evidence of a crime can be found in the location being searched. It serves as a critical safeguard against arbitrary intrusions by the state and ensures that individuals are afforded due process rights.

In contrast, reasonable suspicion is a lower standard than probable cause and applies to brief stops and detentions, rather than full arrests or searches. Preponderance of evidence is a standard used primarily in civil cases, indicating that one side's evidence is more convincing than the other's. Circumstantial evidence refers to indirect evidence that implies something occurred, but does not directly prove it. Thus, these options do not meet the criteria for valid arrests and searches in the same way that probable cause does.