Criminal Law

I've been using this book for this past semester in my college class, and I have to say it's like no other textbook out there. This book is a really easy read and actually quite entertaining. The text is not "dry" like most college level textbooks. It has a list of main points and objectives at the end of every chapter, plus detailed relevant court cases, and various "day-to-day" scenarios. It puts students in situations and asks them to apply what they have learned.

I use this book to keep up with what I learned as a student in Samaha's Criminal Law class at the University of Minnesota. He is an excellent teacher. These books are very up to date as he spends many hours working on them to keep up with the latest developments in the field. The text uses the case - text method, which means he uses excerpts from actual Supreme Court (and some lower court) decisions to illustrate fact sets and the principles of criminal law. This makes it easier to understand how these concepts apply in situations that occur in day to day life. For people who simply want to learn the basics, an older edition is fine. For professionals in the criminal justice field, I would recommend the most up to date version so you can be aware of the latest court decisions that are always changing the law.

This book was required for a class I took a couple semesters ago, and I loved it. Easy to use and understand, and it actually helped me learn the material for LIFE instead of just for passing the class. I'm moving on up to law school now, so I guess you could say that this book played a part in that!

The Kindle version is wonderful. I have it on my I-Pad, can refer to it while recording lecture and taking notes, and you can't beat the price. HOWEVER, it is missing most of the quotes used throughout the text, especially those that were in smaller print or italicized in the printed version. Otherwise, I wish more textbooks would be made in Kindle version, sure would save me money and strain on my back from carrying all those other heavy textbooks!

Really enjoying this book. I bought it as an ebook for my Criminal Law class because I wasn't going to have enough time to get it shipped to me. Usually I prefer an actual textbook over an ebook but this has been great! Less things to carry around and the kindle app makes it super easy to highlight and take notes. The book itself is really interesting and this is my first criminal justice class. I love how it incorporates different cases in order to help you understand things. I enjoy this because its not just about memorizing key terms but your able to see exactly how these laws are applied in real life cases.