This text, the only criminal law casebook authored by two progressive female law professors of color, provides the reader with both critical race and critical feminist theory perspectives on criminal law. The book focuses on the cultural context of substantive criminal law, integrating issues of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation where relevant

Premised on the belief that criminal law is an exciting subject to learn and teach, this popular casebook provides a balanced and creative overview of classic and modern criminal law cases and issues while covering both common law foundations and modern statutory reform, including the Model Penal Code. The casebook invites classroom consideration of many controversies in the field (e.g., rape law, race-based jury nullification, Internet crime, and anti-stalking legislation) and defenses (e.g., battered women?s self-defense). Using imaginative examples from literature and music to illustrate criminal law issues (e.g., examining insanity with Edgar Allen Poe?s The Tell-Tale Heart and homicide with Willa Cather?s O Pioneers!), the casebook allows law students to confront some of the Big Questions with which philosophers, theologians, scientists, poets, and lawyers have grappled for centuries.

This casebook provides the most comprehensive treatment available, including the theoretical foundations, the common-law origins, the statutory structure, and the procedural context of modern criminal law. The book concentrates on doctrinal materials that can support both rigorous technical and sophisticated theoretical discussions. The purposes and limits of punishment are addressed through Supreme Court decisions, a focus on statutes throughout the substantive law sections enables training students in the legal art of statutory interpretation as well as exposing them to the hard moral and political problems of legislative choice, and the sentencing materials reprise the theory of punishment in the context of the practically most important stage of the modern process. The 12th edition carries forward the comprehensive approach of prior editions, empowering the teacher to design a course suited to the needs of the teacher's students and teacher's institution. New Supreme Court's decisions, changing the landscape of both substance and procedure, include Skilling v. United States, McDonald v. City of Chicago, Graham v. Florida, United States v. Jones, and Michigan v. Bryant. The material on self-defense has been comprehensively revised, both for the sake of clarity and to include discussion of so-called "stand your ground laws." Statutes (e.g., the New York and California homicide statutes) and the caselaw (e.g., up-to-the-minute material on "willful blindness") have been updated. We also now include a case about the admissibility of neuro-imaging evidence to support a diminished-capacity defense, thus acknowledging how modern brain science has begun to raise both practical evidentiary issues and a substantial challenge to important theoretical premises of the criminal law.

In his student treatise, noted authority Paul Robinson uses the Model Penal Code, realistic hypotheticals, and lucid explanations to describe the existing rules of American criminal law. (In fact, professors consistantly remark on how well written and clear Robinson's text is.) He explains the reasoning behind those rules, The interrelation among them, and their application. Robinson gives the MPC's position on each topic, along with the most common deviations from it. Rather than viewing each rule in isolation, he examines each part of criminal law as a piece of a machine for determining criminal liability. The six parts of the book define those interrelationships: Introduction General Principles in the Definition of Offenses Principles of Imputation General Defenses Inchoate Liability Specific Offenses Since lawyers who know the reasoning of the drafters have a powerful advantage in arguing for a particular interpretation of a code provision, Robinson points students to important bibliographic sources at the end of each section. Each chapter starts with a hypothetical based on a real case. Throughout the chapter, Robinson refers back To The hypothetical, using it as a vehicle to analyze and clarify abstract concepts. Numerous footnotes, case references, and bibliographies make this text a lasting research tool. For a meaningful exploration of this fascinating area of study, you can depend on Paul Robinson's Criminal Law . Be sure to recommend this vital work to your next criminal law class.

This newly designed casebook provides the perfect balance between the challenges of the case method and the needs of undergraduate and graduate students who may, or may not, be headed to law school. The Law of Criminal Investigations: A College Casebook makes use of many of your favorite U.S. Supreme Court cases; edited to reflect the needs of undergraduate students, with Notes and Questions that help illuminate the case and show how it works in the real world. Also included are narratives and summaries that explain and synthesize some of the more complicated legal nuances found in the world of criminal procedure. Written by renowned law professors and authors, Joshua Dressler and George Thomas, who are now joined by Dr. Stephanie Lipson Mizrahi, this book will appeal to all criminal procedure teachers who want to offer their students more in-depth coverage and analysis of this important topic. Stephanie Lipson Mizrahi teaches in the Division of Criminal Justice at California State University, Sacramento in the areas of law, terrorism, homeland security, and emergency management. In addition to co-authoring The Law of Criminal Investigations: A College Casebook, Dr. Mizrahi has published in the areas of terrorism and homeland security, the death penalty and the International Criminal Court. Joshua Dressler is the author of law school treatises in both the Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure fields, as well as casebooks and numerous articles in both areas. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the most recent edition of the Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice. Professor Dressler is a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus and the Frank R. Strong Chair in Law Emeritus at the Michael E. Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University George Thomas's research specialties include double jeopardy, police interrogation, and wrongful convictions. He has published numerous articles and books, including The Supreme Court on Trial and Confessions of Guilt (co-authored with Richard Leo). He is a Rutgers University Board of Governors Professor of Law.