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Criminal Law: Cases and Materials has long been respected for its distinguished authorship. The late John Kaplan’s extraordinary work continues with the scholarship of Robert Weisberg, Guyora Binder, and now in this Tenth Edition of criminal law and feminist scholar Aya Gruber. This casebook’s renowned interdisciplinary approach fuels class discussion as it enriches study. Logically organized, the text addresses the purposes and limits of punishment and considers the meaning and types of crime. Well-edited cases, interesting materials, and clear notes combine with cutting-edge issues and important social questions, such as whom and why we punish. Especially strong are the sections addressing the phenomenon of mass incarceration (including the movement towards prison abolition), the theme of and challenges to racial justice in our criminal law system, and the evolution of our laws on sexual assault.
New to the 10th Edition:
• On the voluntary act requirement, full treatment of the dramatic new Grant’s Pass v. Johnson case addressing the constitutionality of laws, imposing criminal liability on homeless encampments, and the new limited reading of the Eighth Amendment under Robinson, v. California.
• On the Guilty Mind, the new Supreme Court case of Counterman v. Colorado, which is the constitutional law complement to Elonis v. United States on the mens rea theme for threats; also, some historically important new state law cases on strict liability
• Notes on the implications for substantive criminal law of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, including application to the principle of legality and expanded liability under complicity and conspiracy.
• On Causation, the dramatic case of the parents of school shooter, Ethan Crumbley, where we have not only a verdict, but also its important appellate opinion extending liability for parents’ failure to prevent homicidal action by a child.
• Tilotta v. United States, addressing the abandonment doctrine in federal criminal law in the special context of the use of a confidential informant in a sting operation.
• New context notes for the famous Griffin case to illuminate its racial implications, as well as a comparative and historical note about the difference between the aversion to conspiracy doctrine under civil law systems as compared to its popularity in American federal law.
• A new framing of Crimes against Persons that begins with an introductory primer on assault and battery, and then subsumes the chapters on homicide law, along with Rape and Sexual Assault. On the latter, some important new cases on nonconsent and mens rea, and a new opening section with some academic excerpts directly addressing the question of the challenges of teaching and learning this sensitive subject in in the basic criminal law course.
• Under Additional Offenses, a new frame for Offenses against Property. The theft section includes updated excerpts on the Supreme Court’s narrow readings of federal corruption statutes, and then a new subsection on the common law of trespass as a crime against private property, but also as a substitute for vagrancy law when defined as trespass on public property. Then a streamlined section on Offenses against Government and legal system, focusing on perjury and false statements—now a much more efficiently teachable unit that avoids the almost undigestible complexities of obstruction of justice law.
Professors and student will benefit from:
• Strong authorship team: The late John Kaplan, a storied teacher and scholar; Weisberg and Binder, noted scholars in criminal law, and new co-author Aya Gruber
• Interdisciplinary approach
• Well-edited cases, interesting materials, and clear notes
• Logical organization
• “Snapshot Review” exercises to aid students in exam preparation
