More than most other books about the criminal law, this presentation focuses on "Learning Criminal Law as Advocacy Argument." In each criminal-law topic, it presents in building-block form the limited repertoire of core issues and related arguments so that you can concentrate on learning and practicing those that your professor has stressed in class, in her materials, and on her old exams. You can know the issues on the exam before you go into the exam room.In each criminal-law topic there is a limited repertoire of core issues that must be identified and then resolved with advocacy argument. This pattern of issues and arguments arises from embedded and recurring factual patterns and the resulting criminal law performance of prosecutors, defense lawyers, and trial and appellate judges over decades and even centuries. Your professor presents only some of the core issues and related arguments from these repertoires in her course and on her criminal-law exam. Thus, you can systematically learn the set of core issues and arguments in each topic presented by your and know the issues before you go into the exam room. The exam then presents no surprises.What do you mean by resolving the core issues "with advocacy argument?"Identifying the core issues from your professor?s course is the first critical task. The second critical task is resolving these issues with advocacy argument. Advocacy argument is the lawyer?s single-minded marshalling of the relevant facts and doctrine that are necessary to resolve the identified issues in favor of either the prosecution or defense. This book helps you with both tasks: identifying the exam issues and resolving them.

The approach of A First-Year Course in Criminal Law: Trials, Appeals, Theories, Third Edition focuses students on preparing to discuss a single case per lecture. The author’s philosophy is “Teach one case a day and do it well.” To help students understand the big picture as well as the details, the organization strives for unification rather than departmentalization. Rather than treat crimes and defenses as “tubs on their own bottoms,” the defenses within the crimes are presented. In other words, the book brings out that crime occurs only in the absence of fully or partially successful exculpatory pleas. Although homicide is the crime that organizes the book, the elements and scope of other crimes are presented within the context of the law of homicide. Comprehension of assault, burglary, kidnapping, mayhem, robbery, and rape is crucial to the cases used to present the law of felony murder. Those crimes are analyzed in the cases, questions, and notes sufficiently to provide students with competency in the grammar of those crimes. New to the Third Edition: More patient explication of chapter introductions and sub-sections Reorganization of questions and notes to improve flow and avoid unintended redundancies Improved internal cross-references Increased emphasis on the function of mental illness in the role of fear in homicide cases Enhanced searchable citations Elaborated index Accounts for intervening changes in the law

Criminal Law in Focus

Criminal Justice 101: A First Course is an introductory level book intended for beginning criminal justice students. It provides students with a practical, reader-friendly experience and we present and explain our materials, as much as possible, in an easy-to-read, conversational style. The fundamentals and basic tenets of criminal justice are explored in 12 chapters (easily covered in one semester) and we avoid the sometimes lengthy and oftentimes cumbersome information that is prevalent in so many other publications. Our text also attempts to eliminate the unnecessary legal formulations and esoteric terminology that the beginning criminal justice student may not always need. The book provides basic and fundamental information that can easily be absorbed by the beginning criminal justice student in one semester. It is our intent to provide a book that will engage students, rather than burdening them with information that may, at times, be overwhelming and unnecessary at the introductory level.

Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on CasebookConnect, including: lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities; practice questions from your favorite study aids; an outline tool and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes. Now in its 11th edition, Criminal Law and Its Processes: Cases and Materials covers all the doctrinal material and key criminal justice policy questions an instructor may want to explore for a either a one-semester or year-long course in criminal law. From a preeminent authorship team, Criminal Law and its Processes: Cases and Materials, Eleventh Edition, continues in the tradition of its best-selling predecessors by providing students not only with a cohesive policy framework through which they can understand and examine the use of criminal laws as a means for social control, but also analytic tools to understand and apply important criminal law doctrines. Criminal Law and its Processes: Cases and Materials focuses on having students develop a nuanced understanding of the underlying principles, rules, and policy rationales that inform all criminal laws. A cases-and-notes pedagogy along with scholarly excerpts, questions, and notes, provides students with a rich foundation for not only the academic examination of criminal laws but also the application of the law to real-world scenarios. New to the Eleventh Edition: Enhanced treatment of America’s long-overdue reckoning with over-criminalization, mass incarceration, and discriminatory law enforcement Discussion of abolitionist critiques of American penal law and consideration of restorative justice as a possible alternative to traditional punishment The chapter on rape makes more readily understandable the major split between states that still require proof of some kind of force and those that now make absence of consent sufficient. The material also contains more depth for discussion of the increasingly important question of what “consent” means, including several of the most recent cases and the new Model Penal Code provisions on rape approved by the ALI membership in June 2021. In-depth treatment of racial profiling and police use of excessive force, and a broader discussion of structural pressures and biases in the context of exploring the expansion of excuses Broader exploration of what society chooses to criminalize and prioritize for enforcement Updated notes to incorporate contemporary cases and recent news touching on criminal law Inclusion of additional preeminent cases in the field of criminal law, including: Kahler v. Kansas as a principal case in the material on the insanity defense Two new cases on the actus reus of conspiracy – the first in a drug distribution context and the second addressing Apple’s strategy for marketing ebooks on its iPad Professors and students will benefit from: Cohesive Intellectual Framework Grounds student understanding of criminal law as an instrument of social control?and provides analytical tools to interpret and understand doctrine Holistic approach encourages students to develop an understanding of principles and rules applicable to all crimes Cases-and-notes pedagogy Includes excerpted materials, questions, and problems useful for Socratic instruction and policy discussions Challenging Problems ? Places discussion of the law and policy in relevant, real-world scenarios Enhance students’ understanding of basic principles and test their application of these principles to particular offenses

Whether you’re new to higher education, coming to legal study for the first time or just wondering what Criminal Law is all about, Beginning Criminal Law is the ideal introduction to help you hit the ground running. Starting with the basics and an overview of each topic, it will help you come to terms with the structure, themes and issues of the subject so that you can begin your Criminal Law module with confidence. Adopting a clear and simple approach with legal vocabulary explained in a detailed glossary, Claudia Carr and Maureen Johnson break the subject of criminal law down using practical everyday examples to make it understandable for anyone, whatever their background. Diagrams and flowcharts simplify complex issues, important cases are identified and explained and on-the- spot questions help you recognise potential issues or debates within the law so that you can contribute in classes with confidence. Beginning Criminal Law is an ideal first introduction to the subject for LLB, GDL or ILEX and especially international students, those enrolled on distance learning courses or on other degree programmes.

The U.S. death penalty is a peculiar institution, and a uniquely American one. Despite its comprehensive abolition elsewhere in the Western world, capital punishment continues in dozens of American states– a fact that is frequently discussed but rarely understood. The same puzzlement surrounds the peculiar form that American capital punishment now takes, with its uneven application, its seemingly endless delays, and the uncertainty of its ever being carried out in individual cases, none of which seem conducive to effective crime control or criminal justice. In a brilliantly provocative study, David Garland explains this tenacity and shows how death penalty practice has come to bear the distinctive hallmarks of America’s political institutions and cultural conflicts. America’s radical federalism and local democracy, as well as its legacy of violence and racism, account for our divergence from the rest of the West. Whereas the elites of other nations were able to impose nationwide abolition from above despite public objections, American elites are unable– and unwilling– to end a punishment that has the support of local majorities and a storied place in popular culture. In the course of hundreds of decisions, federal courts sought to rationalize and civilize an institution that too often resembled a lynching, producing layers of legal process but also delays and reversals. Yet the Supreme Court insists that the issue is to be decided by local political actors and public opinion. So the death penalty continues to respond to popular will, enhancing the power of criminal justice professionals, providing drama for the media, and bringing pleasure to a public audience who consumes its chilling tales. Garland brings a new clarity to our understanding of this peculiar institution– and a new challenge to supporters and opponents alike.