Criminal Law

by Guyora Binder

Overview

Many controversies in American criminal law reflect the tension between older and newer conceptions of the purposes of punishment. The English common law of crimes enforced a royal peace by conditioning punishment on unauthorized force and harm to particular victims. The story of American criminal law has been the emergence of a more utilitarian conception of criminal offending as the imposition of risk or the violation of consent, combined with culpability. This conception is reflected in the Model Penal Code and many state codes. Yet understanding contemporary criminal law requires that we also remember the model of offending as trespass against sovereignty out of which it emerged.

The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Criminal Law reviews the development of American criminal law and explains its key concepts and persistent controversies in light of its history. These key concepts include retribution and prevention as purposes of punishment; the requirements of a criminal act and a culpable mental state; criteria of causal responsibility; modes of violating consent; inchoate offenses, including attempt and conspiracy; doctrines of participation in crime; and defenses of justification and excuse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195321203
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/20/2016
Series:	Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Guyora Binder is Distinguished Professor, Hodgson Russ Faculty Scholar, and Vice Dean for Research and Faculty Development at SUNY Buffalo Law School. He was previously a law clerk to federal Judge Jack B. Weinstein, Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor of Human Rights at Stanford, and a visiting professor at the law schools of the University of Michigan, Georgetown University, and Vanderbilt University. Professor Binder authored Treaty Conflict and Political Contradiction (1988), and Felony Murder (2012), and he was a co-author of Criminal Law (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016), and Literary Criticisms of Law (2000). His articles have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, University of Chicago Law Review, Stanford Law Review, Texas Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Boston University Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, University of Toronto Law Review, and the Yale Journal of Law and Humanities.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

About the Editor

About the Author


Chapter 1 What is Criminal Law?
I. Introduction
II. Prohibition
III. Punishment
IV. State Punishment
V. Why Criminal Law Matters
VI. Conclusion


Chapter 2 The American Criminal Justice System
I. Introduction
II. The English Origins of Criminal Law
III. The Transformation of English Criminal Law During the Colonial Period
IV. Colonial American Criminal Justice
V. Criminal Justice in the New Republic
VI. Crime as a National Political Issue
VII. The Processing of Criminal Cases Today
VIII. Conclusion

Chapter 3 Why Punish?
I. Why We Need Theories of Punishment
II. Corrective and Preventive Theories
III. Preventive Purposes
IV. Retribution
V. Proportional Punishment and Sentencing Process
VI. Conclusion

Chapter 4 The Criminal Act
I. Offenses
II. Legality
III. Wrongful Acts
IV. Omissions
V. A Constitutional Requirement of Conduct
VI. A Constitutional Requirement of Voluntariness?
VII. Possession
VIII. Conclusion

Chapter 5 The Criminal Mind
I. Introduction
II. The Idea of Mens Rea in Ancient and Medieval Law
III. Transferred and Presumed Intent in Early Modern English Law
IV. The Idea of a Mental Element in 19th Century England and America
V. Public Welfare Offenses and the Question of Strict Liability
VI. Strict Liability, Statutory Interpretation, and Due Process in the Supreme Court
VII. The Model Pebal Code's Culpability Scheme
VIII. The Model Penal Code's Default Rules
IX. Mistake of Law
X. Incapacity for Culpability
XI. Conclusion

Chapter 6 Homicide, From Killing to Causing
I. Introduction
II. Origins of English Homicide Law
III. English Homicide Law in the Age of Blackstone
IV. American Codification of Homicide
V. The Utilitarian Critique of Homicide Law
VI. The Emergence of Causation as an Element of Homicide
VII. Factual Causation
VIII. Legal Causation
IX. The Model Penal Code's Causation Test
X. The Model Penal Code's Homicide Scheme
XI. American Homicide Statutes After the Code
XII. Death Penalty Law After the Code
XIII. Conclusion: The Persistence of Normative Judgment

Chapter 7 Rape and Theft, From Force to Non-consent
I. Two Offenses Against Consent
II. Reflections on Consent
III. The "Metamorphosis" of Theft
IV. Frauds
V. Extortion
VI. Robbery and Burglary
VII. The Emergence of Rape Liability
VIII. The Requirement of Resistance
IX. Reform Standards: Force or Nonconsent?
X. The Mental Element of Rape
XI. Rape by Incapacity, Extortion and Fraud
XII. Conclusion

Chapter 8 Anticipatory and Participatory Liability
I. Introduction
II. Punishment of Attempt
III. Mental Element of Attempt
IV. The Act of Attempting
V. Impossible and Abandoned Attempts
VI. Solicitation
VII. Punishing Conspiracy
VIII. Conspiracy: Act and Intent
IX. Complicity
X. Accomplice Conduct
XI. Accomplice Culpability
XII. Innocent Agents, Relatively Innocent Agents, and Discrepant Liability
XIII. Co-Conspirator and Accomplice Liability for Secondary Crimes
XIV. Vicarious and Corporate Liability
XV. Conclusion

Chapter 9 Justification and Excuse
I. Introduction
II. Distinguishing and Comparing Justification and Excuse
III. Law Enforcement (and other exercises of public authority)
IV. Defensive Force
V. Necessity
VI. Duress
VII. Insanity

Conclusion

Index

Editorial Reviews

"This elegant work will revive interest in substantive criminal law. Binder covers all of the relevant issues and highlights the classic controversies of criminal law for a new generation. This impressive effort should be welcomed by students, lawyers, judges, and the general public."
—George Fletcher, Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence, Columbia University Law School

"From his many decades as an active scholar and an effective teacher Guyora Binder has given us a concise tour of the highlights of American criminal law. His conversational tone is ideal for introducing students to the subject and showing just how enormously interesting the subject can be."
—Paul H. Robinson, Colin S. Diver Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School

From the Publisher