Customer Reviews

Cases and Materials on Criminal Law (American Casebook Series)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book has interesting cases the organization seems to be fairly straight forward for a 1y Crim law class, but in its entirety this book is just very ineffective. Its hard to describe, it is just not very well written. Many times you feel like Dressler is over philosophizing about key simple issues, and your left with no real understanding of the material. When I left for college it seems so long ago but I had a wonderful English teacher and he told me be careful because the further down the road my education takes me the more I will meet intelligent vibrant people-but poor educators. Dressler is a smart intelligent man but he fails miserably at making his material accessible to first year law students.

Good luck to you all who have to choke your way through this book.

I was assigned this book this past spring and found it to be terrible. As the last comment stated, I find the Understanding Criminal law written by Dresler to be much better for learning the material. The casebook even cites to the Understanding series at times. That seems kind of backward to me. This text has lots of excerpts of cases (even shorter than casebooks normally do it), and not very helpful explanation. but anyways, not the best text out there.

It drives me nuts that there is a new edition for the 2007-2008 school year, but at least the cases are interesting and generally illustrative of the concepts being taught. Like most casebooks, don't expect to get everything that you need out of it.

Less interconnective than a pair of Lego building bricks; fewer chase scenes than any good torts class; unable to leap tall buildings in a single bound. All in all, if you understand that somebody had intent, or what the bourgeoise elite call "mens rea," you can frame them for practically any crime. Conversely, if you can show that the defendant wasn't even thinking at the time, you can get him a greatly reduced sentence, if not off entirely. That's the essential theme of this book.

Unfortunately, Amazon won't allow me to rate the book higher -- it's an awesome doorstop.

The book was listed as "new." It was not! The pages were written on, tabbed, and underlined. If I had desired a used book I would have bought one labled used for less money...New means New, not sort of used or it looks new but actually has been used. New means I have never even opened it. Thank you

This was my first time purchasing a used college text book. I could not be more pleased with the condition of the book and the price paid. I will be checking for more used text books in the future. I would buy from this seller again.

The casebook is only ok, so get a good book of briefs. Read the brief first, THEN read the case in the casebook. For briefs I used ISBN 0976871602, which had a well written brief for every case assigned in class, and it was REALLY helpful.

Though I have to agree with many of the other reviewers that this particular casebook is more philosophically grounded, I firmly believe that that basis is what makes it a great casebook. Since criminal law varies with each jurisdiction, the concepts you can learn by using this criminal law casebook will form the basis for understanding and applying criminal law in practice.

I have to admit, however, that it did take me a while to wrap my head around the casebook but, if you're professor is engaging you in the discussion (I'm assuming you are a student) then gradually you will start to see how Dressler's discussion on certain philosophical topics as why the criminal law punishes fits into important criminal law concepts such as: statutory interpretation, the elements of a crime, defenses etc.

As other's have mentioned there is a supplement that Lexis put out in their understanding series that Dressler wrote. Also, if you get your hands on the Sum and Substance CD series Dressler is also the narrator.

In addition, if you do have to use this casebook pay attention to the notes and notecases since many of them deal with important criminal law tests and cases that may show up on your exam. They often times will be buried and you may gloss over them not realizing their importance.

The book was in great shape. There is a lot of highlighting and notes in the margin, which is a little distracting. Other than that everything looks great!

A real page turner.
A terrific romp for the entire family.

It could use a little more character development, but otherwise... I laughed... I cried... I studied... a lot.