Students today expect learning to be both efficient and interesting. They use online materials and study aids to supplement class-assigned materials and to "hack" the law. This textbook cuts out the middle person by integrating challenging principal cases that are aggressively edited into an engaging overview of the black letter law. The explanatory sections describe the law through lively language and colorful examples that students can readily grasp and remember. Providing students with a clear doctrinal overview permits the selection of cases that drill down deeper into fundamental or cutting-edge issues.
Many of the principal cases put the old wine of the criminal law into new bottles that students will find meaningful and interesting. In addition to homicide, rape, assault, traditional property crimes and drug offenses, the cases selected include environmental and white collar crime, obstruction of justice, criminal copyright infringement, hate crimes, sex trafficking, online threats, revenge porn and computer crimes. Short discussion questions follow each case that stimulate understanding of the holding and the deeper issues at stake. Additional materials raise important critical perspectives dealing with issues of race, class and gender. Practice problems and links to online video clips allow students to apply what they are learning, and the appendix contains numerous materials for engaging lawyering exercises.
