Criminal Law: A Contemporary Approach

This refreshing new alternative for the first-year Criminal Law course is a lively coursebook that blends text, statutes, cases, and problems in a presentation that is user-friendly for both students and instructors.

These distinctive characteristics make Criminal Law: A Contemporary Approach both effective and engaging:

• shorter length and with a rich and diverse mix of materials that promotes intellectual challenge without sacrificing accessibility
• the authors treat criminal law as an introduction to both statutes and cases and emphasize statutes as a primary source, with explicit treatment of statutory drafting and interpretation issues
• goes beyond the traditional focus on the judiciary to also examine the role of the legislature and the executive in defining offenses
• clear, direct text introduces statutes, cases, and problems
• the materials support a wide array of teaching techniques to address varied student learning styles
• within each section, the authors introduce the basics and then the materials grow progressively more challenging
• includes both modern and classic criminal cases
• includes material on ethics and highlights criminal law perspectives

 

"I continue to be thrilled with [this] textbook... The text is truly 'contemporary' in that the cases and problems are drawn from recent, high-profile cases. This greatly enhances the pedagogical experience because students remember many of these cases from their own, pre-law school experiences... I love the statutory focus and the fact that the book includes representative statutes from virtually every state."