Criminal Law in a Nutshell

Rating:
Summary: There Are More Useful
Review: As a first year law student, I bought this book thinking it would help me and supplement the class. However, I found this book not very useful. In fact, I found it frustrating. I would find it brief in the places I needed the most hope and long and drawn out over issues that were simple. While the book does a nice job of covering basic concepts like mens rea {sorry if spellings wrong its been two years), I felt uncomfortable using it for specific crimes. Too often because either you're working from a model code or your own state's law, this book was only good for a general perspective. In addition, I feel that if you want something to help you and something more than the Emmanuel's, I recommend the "Understanding" Series. I bought that as well for this class, and I felt it was much better written and was focused on helping you to learn the actual issues. This book should probablely be used, if at all by practitioner or individuals who have already studied the material (like for bar review). I would encourage you to go elsewhere for help in learning the material.