NCJ Number
184342
Date Published
1999
Length
602 pages
Annotation
This text explains the law and the legal proceedings in which substantive criminal law matters arise, details the general principles of the criminal law, addresses specific crimes, and presents defenses to criminal liability.
Abstract
The first section introduces the law and criminal legal proceedings and discusses the origin and current status of the Model Penal Code. The next section considers the criminal law’s formulations of the actions required for criminal liability, the culpable mental state demanded, the results sometimes required and causation issues presented when this is the case, and the law defining liability for a crime on the part of those who are not the primary actors. The chapters on specific crimes cover the homicide offenses; offenses against physical integrity, including assault, kidnapping, and related matters; sexual assault; property crimes; burglary and arson as offenses against habitat; and the inchoate or preparatory crimes of attempt, solicitation, and conspiracy. The next four chapters introduce the differences among the various defensive doctrines and relate these doctrines to the law governing claims of ignorance and mistake regarding both fact and law. They also focus on self defense; defense of others; defense of property; the defensive implications of showings that accused persons are abnormal through infancy, intoxication, insanity, and other conditions; and other issues, including necessity, duress, entrapment, and law enforcement. Case examples presenting judicial decisions, excerpts from the Model Penal Code, index, and footnotes