In United States criminal law, probable cause refers to a standard by which the police can make an arrest, conduct a search of the person or property of the person or obtain a court order for it. It is also used to refer to the standard by which a grand jury may believe that a crime has been committed. This term comes from the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:
The right of the inhabitants that their persons, domiciles, papers and effects are safe from arbitrary searches and apprehensions, will be inviolable, and judicial orders will not be issued for this purpose, but only on a probable cause that is corroborated by oath or affirmation and describe with particularity the place to be registered and the persons or things to be arrested or seized. Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
DefinitionThe most common and well-known definition would be "a reasonable belief that a crime has been committed" and that a particular person is linked to that crime, with the same degree of certainty. An alternative definition has been proposed: "reason to believe that an injury has been committed by a criminal cause", which is believed to result in greater protection of individual rights of the person, as was the intention of the authors of the Bill of Rights. In the context of court orders, the Oxford Companion to American Law defines probable cause as "sufficient information to acquire a court order by which a prudent person would come to believe that a particular individual has committed a crime or evidence of the crime or smuggling would be found through a search (under a court order). " A probable cause is a higher standard of evidence compared to a reasonable suspicion, but weaker than required to secure a criminal conviction. Even a "hearing test" (hearsay), if provided by a reliable source or supported by other evidence. Accidental investigations
The term of accidental investigation is used to describe the findings of a body of investigations as a factor or factors that caused the accident. This is usually seen in airplane crash reports, but the term is used to conclude various transportation accidents investigated in the United States by the National Transportation Safety Board or its predecessor, the Civil Aeronautics Board. Related cases
The Supreme Court's ruling in the Illinois v. Gates (1983) lowered the requirements regarding probable cause, by ruling that a "substantial possibility" or "fair probability" of criminal activities could establish reasonable cause. A "better than possible" possibility is not required.
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