Criminal Law

Clear and easy to understand, Joel Samaha's best-selling text helps you apply criminal law's enduring foundations and principles to fascinating, current court cases and specific crimes. With a blend of case excerpts and author commentary, the author guides you as you sharpen your critical thinking and legal analysis skills. As you progress through the book, you'll learn about the general principles of criminal liability and its defenses, as well as the elements of crimes against persons, property, society, and the state. You'll also see these principles at work in the cases and crimes that illustrate them. Featuring the latest topics and court cases, real-world illustrations, and study tools to maximize your course success (including MindTap), CRIMINAL LAW, 12th Edition will serve as a valuable reference long after you graduate. In fact, former users report that this is the only book they keep, and those who go on to law school say that it helps them in their criminal law course.

“"[This book provides] a great balance of black letter law (elements of the crime) and text case study."”

"I wish my law school textbooks had been this straightforward and clearly written."

Joel Samaha is University Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure. He received his B.A. (History), J.D., and Ph.D. (History) from Northwestern University and studied under Sir Geoffrey Elton at Cambridge University, England. Professor Samaha was admitted to the Illinois Bar, briefly practiced law in Chicago, and then taught at UCLA. In 1971, he joined the University of Minnesota, where he served as Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice Studies for four years, taught television and radio courses in criminal justice, co-taught a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar in legal and constitutional history, was named College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Teacher in 1974, and named University Distinguished Teaching Professor in 2007. Professor Samaha's works have appeared in Historical Journal, American Journal of Legal History, Minnesota Law Review, William Mitchell Law Review, and Journal of Social History.

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