Customer Reviews

Understanding Criminal Law

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Among legal study guides, this book is superior. The author clearly lays out the principles and discusses all the important facets of each area very clearly. The book is textual (so if you are looking for a study guide and prefer outlines, look elsewhere). It is somewhat long, but a good read, and very well organized.

I completely agree with the reviews below: this is a thorough and infintely readable supplement for any student of criminal law OR for the interested layperson. It was especially useful for my studies because I had the pleasure of being assigned Prof. Dressler's casebook as well, which I regard as the best (among many) of my first year casebooks. This is a clearly written and thoughtfully designed book covering all the basic concepts of modern criminal law in the U.S. I highly recommend it.

As a first year law student, I found this book to be a valuable companion to class lectures and other homework assignments, providing clarification, elaboration and insight into this complex and rich subject. If you have not yet had the privilege of adding this to your library, I especially recommend it at this critical period for many -- a few weeks before final examinations!

DRESSLER is heavy in political correctness and Model Penal Code and is also anti - Common Law tradition, and anti-anything to do with moral principles - hence the recurring theme of "Legality". However, if you can get past all that - & if you are using the DRESSLER Casebook - this treatise is keyed to it .. Also, His Audio lecture on CD-ROM is also keyed to the casebook. A nifty package that is throughly integrated. Tab the table of cases in the treatise & refer to it when doing case following hypo problems. ALSO, GET LaFave's Treatise / Hornbook - as a source for great exam prepping Hypos..Overall a very concise treatise in a small package.

This book does an excellent job of going through the rationales, policies, and histories of the different aspects of criminal law. It includes summeries of the Model Penal Code view on all topics and compares this with the common law and majority rules of law. Overall it is an excellent supplement to any casebook.

The book itself is not really that great. Some law students might think it is a good outline because they haven't seen the other outlines that are out on the market. In reality, you would be better off with an Emanuel or Gilbert criminal law outline.

However, there is ONE situation and one situation only, that it would be a good idea to buy this book. If your hapless Criminal Law professor made you buy "Cases and Materials on Criminal Law" by Joshua Dressler, then this book can come in handy. This book is keyed to Dressler's textbook. Without this book, understanding Dressler's unorganized philisophical chaos is near impossible. This book makes some sense out of some of the concepts that Dressler failed to explain in the textbook (or purposely made confusing so that you would have to buy "Understanding Criminal Law").

In fact, if it wasn't for the danger of being called on and asked to summarize a case from the textbook, I would recommend that you buy this book INSTEAD of the textbook and save yourself a hundred bucks.

This book explains all of the basic concepts of criminal law in a clear, intelligent manner. His explanations were so clear that I could easily incorporate them into my outline, even though the guide was not keyed into the assigned casebook. I used this book to study for my crim law exam. My professor wasn't very well organized, so I really did not feel very confident about the exam before using this book. This book helped me get one of the highest grades in the class.

This was unlike any other supplement I have bought. First, the bad news, there's no Q&A at the end of each chapter so no real way to test your understanding of the subject matter. But, you can get other supplements for that purpose. This book excels when it comes to explaining complicated topics like felony murder, specific v general intent, and mistake of fact/impossibility of fact. It also gives good examples to demonstrate the concepts. In short, this book explains the concepts exceptionally well. It reads like a treatise but that just made it easier to read.

The book is organized well and flows well even though it didn't match my casebook. Each main topic begins with an short overview, then it delves into history of the law, how various jurisdictions cover each sublaw, and the MPC's take on the law. The coverage was concise yet thorough with ample footnotes.

I would suggest looking supplements up in the law library and reading a few sections. I used Understanding when Emanuel Law Outlines: Criminal Law and my casebook Criminal Law: Cases and Materials didn't cover the topics well. I only began using Casenote Legal Briefs Criminal Law: Keyed to Kaplan Weisberg & Binder 6 Ed (Casenote Legal Briefs) near the end and really wished I had used it from the start. Emanuel just didn't cut it like the keyed versions, but Casenote and Understanding got me through.

I found Siegels Criminal Law: Essay Multiple Choice Question Answer 2009 (Siegel's Series) far more useful and wish I had used from the start. Also Acing Criminal Law was useful for brief info when outlining and working through outlines. The checklist/flowchart format is remarkably useful.

Unless your prof's exam questions draw heavily from the E+E, like my prof did, this is the BEST crim law study aid out there. I used both it and the E+E and Dressler just had a way of explaining crim law that helped me much more than the E+E did. I am a firm believer in a lot of test prep, however, and would suggest that you get a study aid with practice questions or make sure your school has an old exam bank. This book is great, if not the best, at explaining crim law to you but it can't help you write your crim law essays better. Used in conjunction with other aids or materials, it's excellent though.