This popular casebook, through the selection of classic and modern cases, provides an excellent tool for teaching students the common law foundations of the criminal law and modern statutory reform, including the Model Penal Code. Along the way, the casebook considers modern controversies (e.g., shaming punishment, capital punishment, broadening sexual assault law, self-defense by battered women, euthanasia, the role of culture in determining culpability), and creatively uses literature (e.g., examining insanity through Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart) and even brain teasers to confront (as the Preface states) the Big Questions . . . that philosophers, theologians, scientists, and poets, as well as lawyers, have grappled with for centuries. The Eighth Edition, as in the past, includes new cases, as well as updates in the notes that bring current issues of criminal law to the fore.

CasebookPlus Hardbound - New, hardbound print book includes lifetime digital access to an eBook, with the ability to highlight and take notes, and 12-month access to a digital Learning Library that includes self-assessment quizzes tied to this book, leading study aids, an outline starter, and Gilbert Law Dictionary.