Customer Reviews

Perkins and Boyce's Cases and Materials on Criminal Law and Procedure, 3D (University Textbook Series)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was invaluable for my crim law test. Dressler's casebook is poorly organized; his understanding criminal law is good for learning justifications and reasons for the black letter but is not organized to be a test-reference book.

This book is particularly well focused and well organized. It is perfectly designed for use on the test because you can find the black letter answer you are looking for very quickly. It also has an invaluable section on how best to organize a crim law essay answer, seperately identifying each of the necessary elements for each of the actors and making it so clear that the professor cannot miss any of the points you touch on.

Note that you will need other resources for utilitarian / retributivist justifications, etc.

If not for this book I would not have gotten an A in criminal law. That's about as good of an endorsement as I can give it.

I

These tapes provide a great overview for exam study. I also used to the tapes to determine how I would structure my essay answers. Worth the price. Note that the content of the tapes is similar to Dressler's "Understanding Criminal Law." The tapes provide an advantage, howevever, because Dressler often gives exam strategies on the tapes.

The lecture is value packed, a terrific course overview. Methodical and thoughtfully designed. It was a great supplement to my studies. Interestingly, the author, wrote the textbook assigned to my class. I also would highly recommend Dressler's "Casenote" Criminal law outline as source for tons of practical hypo's.

Prof. Dressler is decent to listen to, but the overview given was too narrow in scope to be of much use in my Crim Law class. My professor was much more concerned with all the areas of Crim Law that are different from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. These CDs just give the basics.

This book has been helpful to me as a One-L preparing for my Crim Law exam, but I found the small hornbook written by Joshua Dressler, "Understanding Criminal Law" ISBN:0-8205-7001-X to be more concise and direct. They both have hypotheticals explaining concepts, but I would buy the small one first. If you're still having trouble with a concept, then get this one. It may explain the concept in a slightly different way that will make it "click" for you.

Maybe I just dont like the Lexis-Nexis style review books, but I thought Dressler's hornbook was just not readable to me..

I picked up this audio package on tape today from half price books for $14.95 and figured "hey why not"

WOW was I amazed. Dressler really knows how to explain Criminal Law. I was barely hanging in after midterms but I ended up pulling a very respectable grade in the course because of this supplement.

I found the package of cds convenient and easy to use in the car. I use Dressler's book Understanding Criminal Law for my forensic psychology graduate students. I find Dressler's easy to understand style yet comprehensive and scholarly review of criminal law, legal concepts and legal analysis to be perfect for these students. I have decided to add the Sum and Substance cds to the library reserve for them to review as needed and also to experience first hand an excellent law school professor.

Dr. Reed phd jd

This lecture is very helpful as an introduction to criminal law or a fast review. Dressler is very easy to follow and he is a delight to listen to.

I didn't have much time to prepare for my criminal law final but luckily I found this gem of an outline. My professor's exam required you to know both the common law and model penal code approaches to the crim law doctrines, and this book recited concisely that exact information. The book went into the perfect depth to study for exams -- you can learn the major doctrine and most (if not all) of the exceptions and caveats.

My outline looked superb after combing through this outline.

Note: It does not really cover cases in any detail, so if your prof. goes case heavy you will need to rely on the textbook or get another supplement.

GREAT book if a) you have the Dressler case book, or b) you have a professor that likes comparing and contrasting the common law with the MPC (Model Penal Code).