NCJ Number
188212
Date Published
2000
Length
792 pages
Annotation
This volume presents and discusses approximately 350 judicial decisions to assist law students in understanding the legal doctrines that govern criminal law.
Abstract
The first chapter introduces issues related to culpability in general and covers major doctrinal areas and problems of the traditional criminal law and the concepts used in the Model Penal Code that has been the basis for penal code reform in about half the States. The next chapter focuses on discretion and the rule of law, with emphasis on issues related to vagueness, strict construction, the principle of legality, sentencing discretion, and capital punishment. Additional chapters focus on legal doctrines related to criminal homicide; the role of mental illness in relation to the insanity defense and culpability; and justification and excuse through claims of duress, self-defense, defense of property, consent, and entrapment. A chapter on criminal trials and appeals presents and discusses cases related to the right to counsel and equal treatment, prosecutor discretion and the charging process, the right to trial by jury, and the prosecution’s burden of proof, confrontation and cross-examination of witnesses, and the privilege against self-incrimination. The next chapter examines attempt, conspiracy, and complicity and covers preparatory conduct, intent and impossibility in relation to intent, the elements of conspiracy, complicity and conspiracy, and the RICO statute. The final chapter focuses on theft and white-collar crime and presents cases involving larceny, embezzlement, robbery, extortion, false pretenses, and fraud. Footnotes