This refreshing new alternative for the first-year Criminal Law course is a lively coursebook that blends text, statutes, cases, and problems in a presentation that is user-friendly for both students and instructors.These distinctive characteristics make CRIMINAL LAW: A CONTEMPORARY APPROACH both effective and engaging: shorter length and with a rich and diverse mix of materials that promotes intellectual challenge without sacrificing accessibilitythe authors treat criminal law as an introduction to both statutes and cases and emphasize statutes as a primary source, with explicit treatment of statutory drafting and interpretation issuesgoes beyond the traditional focus on the judiciary to also examine the role of the legislature and the executive in defining offensesclear, direct text introduces statutes, cases, and problemsthe materials support a wide array of teaching techniques to address varied student learning styleswithin each section, the authors introduce the basics and then the materials grow progressively more challengingincludes both modern and classic criminal casesincludes material on ethics and highlights criminal law perspectivesThe casebook is part of a comprehensive teaching package that includes a videotape discussion of one of the homicide cases in the book, PowerPoint slides, and an extensive Teacher's Manual featuring: support for a range of teaching options on each topic, such as problems, simulations, role plays, and the traditional question-and-answer approachvideo suggestionsgraphics that can be easily reproduced and customizedRecognition of the potential difficulty of teaching topics such as rape and domestic violence and detailed suggestions for teaching approaches to themsample syllabi for three- and four-credit courses