Bag - A dose of heroin, usually between $10 and $20.

Bail - Money paid to the court to guarantee the defendant’s attendance at court at a later date. Money paid is more commonly known as a bail bond

Bail Bond - An obligation signed by the accused to secure his or her presence at the trial. This obligation means that the accused may lose money by not properly appearing for the trial. Often referred to simply as "bond."

Bailiff - An officer of the court responsible for keeping order and maintaining appropriate courtroom decorum and has custody of the jury.

Balloon - This often refers to a single does of heroin--usually an eighth gram. Heroin is often distributed in small balloons so that it can be stored in one's mouth and swallowed (without loss) should law enforcement appear.

Bankruptcy - A process governed by federal law where a person cannot pay bills when due and payable – chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcy actions

Bankruptcy Administrator - An officer of the Judiciary serving in the judicial districts of Alabama and North Carolina who, like the United States trustee, is responsible for supervising the administration of bankruptcy cases, estates, and trustees; monitoring plans and disclosure statements; monitoring creditors' committees; monitoring fee applications; and performing other statutory duties.

Bankruptcy Code - The informal name for title 11 of the United States Code (11 U.S.C. §§ 101-1330), the federal bankruptcy law.

Bankruptcy Court - The bankruptcy judges in regular active service in each district; a unit of the district court.

Bankruptcy Estate - All interests of the debtor in property at the time of the bankruptcy filing. The estate technically becomes the temporary legal owner of all of the debtor's property.

Bankruptcy Judge - The judge who determines whether a debtor is entitled to a discharge in bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy Law - The area of federal law dealing with the handling of bankrupt persons or businesses.

Bankruptcy Petition - A formal request for the protection of the federal bankruptcy laws. (There is an official form for bankruptcy petitions.)

Bankruptcy Trustee - A private individual or corporation appointed in all Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 cases to represent the interests of the bankruptcy estate and the debtor's creditors.

Bar Examination- A state examination taken by prospective lawyers in order to be admitted and licensed to practice law.

Barbiturates - Depressant drugs that produce relaxation and sleep. Barbiturates include sleeping pills such as pentobarbital (Nembutal) and secobarbital (Seconal).

Basal Ganglia - The large, complex set of brain structures involved in generating movements, in some cognitive functions, and in some emotional and motivational activities. The basal ganglia and the cerebral cortex work together to refine movements, thoughts, and feelings.

Basic Level - The level of categorization that can be retrieved from memory most quickly and used most efficiently.

Basilar Membrane - A membrane in the cochlea that, when set into motion, stimulates hair cells that produce the neural effects of auditory stimulation.

Battery - A beating, or wrongful physical violence. The actual threat to use force is an "assault;" the use of it is a battery, which usually includes an assault.

Behavior - The observable activity of humans and animals.

Behavior Analysis - The area of psychology that focuses on the environmental determinants of learning and behavior.

Behavior Modification - The systematic use of principles of learning to increase the frequency of desired behaviors and/or decrease the frequency of problem behaviors.

Behavioral Confirmation - The process by which people behave in ways that elicit from others specific expected reactions and then use those reactions to confirm their beliefs.

Behavioral Data - Observational reports about the behavior of organisms and the conditions under which the behavior occurs or changes.

Behavioral Measures - Overt actions and reactions that are observed and recorded, exclusive of self-reported behavior.

Behavioral Rehearsal - Procedures used to establish and strengthen basic skills; as used in social-skills training programs, requires the client to rehearse a desirable behavior sequence mentally.

Behaviorism - A scientific approach that limits the study of psychology to measurable or observable behavior.

Behaviorist Perspective - The psychological perspective primarily concerned with observable behavior that can be objectively recorded and with the relationships of observable behavior to environmental stimuli.

Belief-bias Effect - A situation that occurs when a person's prior knowledge, attitudes, or values distort the reasoning process by influencing the person to accept invalid arguments.

Bench - The seat occupied by the judge. More broadly, the court itself.

Bench Trial - Trial without a jury in which a judge decides the facts.

Bench Warrant - Warrant for arrest issued by a court.

Beneficence - A primary ethical concern of social research. It refers to both doing no harm to people you are studying and at the same time promoting a common good for individuals in the research community because of your study. Its origin in present day social research in America can be traced back to the Belmont Report of 1978.

Beneficiary - Someone named to receive property or benefits in a will. In a trust, a person who is to receive benefits from the trust.

Benzodiazepines - A class of minor tranquilizers with lifetimes anywhere from a few hours to a few days. These are removed by the liver.

Bequeath - To give a gift to someone through a will.

Bequests - Gifts made in a will.

Best Evidence - Primary evidence; the best evidence available. Evidence short of this is "secondary." That is, an original letter is "best evidence," and a photocopy is "secondary evidence."

Best Practice - A technique or method that has been shown through experience and research to reliably lead to a desirable result. The term implies that this technique or method is more efficient and/or effective at delivering a desired outcome than any other technique or method.

Bestiality - Zoophilia; sexual relations between a human being and an animal. See also paraphilia.

Beta-Blocker - An agent that inhibits the action of beta-adrenergic receptors, which modulate cardiac functions, respiratory functions, and the dilation of blood vessels. Beta-blockers are of value in the treatment of hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, and migraine. In psychiatry, they have been used in the treatment of aggression and violence, anxiety-related tremors and lithium-induced tremors, neuroleptic-induced akathisia, social phobias, panic states, and alcohol withdrawal.

Between-Subjects Design - A research design in which different groups of participants are randomly assigned to experimental conditions or to control conditions.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt - The standard in a criminal case requiring that the jury be satisfied to a moral certainty that every element of a crime has been proven by the prosecution. This standard of proof does not require that the state establish absolute certainty by eliminating all doubt, but it does require that the evidence be so conclusive that all reasonable doubts are removed from the mind of the ordinary person.

Bill of Particulars - A statement of the details of the charge made against the defendant.

Bind - What occurs when a neurotransmitter attaches itself to a receptor. The neurotransmitter is said to "bind" to the receptor.

Bind Over - To hold a person for trial on bond (bail) or in jail. If the judicial official conducting a hearing finds probable cause to believe the accused committed a crime, the official will bind over the accused, normally by setting bail for the accused's appearance at trial.

Binge - Uninterrupted consumption of a drug for several hours or days.

Biofeedback - A self-regulatory technique by which an individual acquires voluntary control over nonconscious biological processes.

Biological Constraints on Learning - Any limitations on an organism's capacity to learn that are caused by the inherited sensory, response, or cognitive capabilities of members of a given species.

Biological Perspective - The approach to identifying causes of behavior that focuses on the functioning of the genes, the brain, the nervous system, and the endocrine system.

Biomedical Therapies - Treatments for psychological disorders that alter brain functioning with chemical or physical interventions such as drug therapy, surgery, or electroconvulsive therapy.

Biopsychosocial Model - A model of health and illness that suggests that links among the nervous system, the immune system, behavioral styles, cognitive processing, and environmental factors can put people at risk for illness.

Bipolar Cells - Nerve cells in the visual system that combine impulses from many receptors and transmit the results to ganglion cells.

Bipolar disorder - A mood disorder characterized by alternating periods of depression and mania.

Birth Registry - The database of information contained in orders determining the existence of a parent and child relationship and acknowledgments of paternity; is maintained by the Department of Job and Family Services as part of the Support Enforcement Tracking System.

Bizarre Delusion - A delusion that involves a phenomenon that the person's culture would regard as totally implausible.

Blind Spot  - Visual scotoma, a circumscribed area of blindness or impaired vision in the visual field; by extension, an area of the personality of which the subject is unaware, typically because recognition of this area would cause painful emotions.

Blocking - A sudden obstruction or interruption in spontaneous flow of thinking or speaking, perceived as an absence or deprivation of thought.

Blunted Affect - An affect type that represents significant - reduction in the intensity of emotional expression

Board of Directors - A group of individuals who run a company on behalf of the shareholders

Body Image  - One's sense of the self and one's body.

Bolus - A concentrated amount of drug; a dose injected rapidly into a vein, a rounded mass of matter.

Bond - A written agreement by which a person insures he will pay a certain sum of money if he does not perform certain duties property.

Booking - The process of photographing, fingerprinting, and recording identifying data of a suspect. This process follows the arrest.

Bottom-up Processing - Perceptual analyses based on the sensory data available in the environment; results of analyses are passed upward toward more abstract representations.

Bound Supplement - A supplement to a book or books to update the service bound in permanent form.

Bradykinesia - Neurologic condition characterized by a generalized slowness of motor activity.

Brain - The part of the central nervous system inside our heads. Our brain is the seat of all our perceptions, thoughts, feelings and voluntary movements.

Brain Reward System - A brain circuit that, when activated, reinforces behaviors. The circuit includes the dopamine-containing neurons of the ventral tegmental area, the nucleus accumbens, and part of the prefrontal cortex. We perceive the activation of this circuit as pleasure.

Brain Stem - The brain structure that regulates the body's basic life processes.

Breach - The breaking or violating of a law, right, or duty, either by commission or omission. The failure of one part to carry out any condition of a contract.

Breach of Contract - An unjustified failure to perform when performance is due.

Brief - A legal document that sets out the legal arguments in a lawsuit

Brightness - The dimension of color space that captures the intensity of light.

Broca's Aphasia - Loss of the ability to comprehend language coupled with production of inappropriate language.

Broca's Area - The region of the brain that translates thoughts into speech or sign.

Bruxism - Grinding of the teeth, occurs unconsciously while awake or during stage 2 sleep. May be secondary to anxiety, tension, or dental problems.

Buccal Swab - A recognized form of genetic testing used to determine paternity, which involves a cotton swab type instrument for collecting saliva from individuals submitting to testing.

Bulimia Nervosa - An eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by measures to purge the body of the excess calories.

Bundle - Usually 20 bags of heroin but it depends.

Buprenorphine - A long-lasting opiate analgesic that has both opiate agonist and antagonist properties. Buprenorphine shows promise for treating heroin addiction.

Burden of Proof - The duty to prove disputed facts. In civil cases, a plaintiff generally has the burden of proving his or her case. In criminal cases, the government has the burden of proving the defendant's guilt.

Burglary - The act of illegal entry with the intent to steal.

Business - All the assorted things that a junkie must do to maintain his habit. It is most commonly used in the phrase "Taking care of business."

Business Bankruptcy - A proceeding under the Bankruptcy Code filed by a business entity.

Butorphanol - A narcotic agonist/antagonist used as an analgesic.

Bylaws - Rules or laws adopted by an association or corporation to govern its actions.

Bystander Iintervention - Willingness to assist a person in need of help.