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Criminal Law
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What is Criminal Law?

Criminal law is a foundational area of legal study concerned with defining offenses, establishing standards of culpability, and determining appropriate punishment for those who commit crimes against individuals or society. It appears across undergraduate and graduate curricula in law, criminal justice, and political science programs, often as a required course. The field is academically significant because it sits at the intersection of ethics, government authority, and individual rights, demanding that students analyze how societies decide which acts constitute crimes and how defendants are treated within formal legal systems. Texts such as Herring's Criminal Law: Text and Cases are among the assigned sources students engage with when building this analytical foundation.

Student papers on this topic approach the subject from several distinct angles. Some examine procedural dimensions, tracing how a case moves through the criminal justice process from arrest to sentencing. Others focus on substantive doctrine, analyzing concepts like the reasonable person standard or the principles underlying criminal liability. Applied angles are also common, with papers exploring how criminal law intersects with business activity, property offenses, and specific criminal statutes. Evidence problems and the role of police subculture within the broader criminal justice system represent additional threads that students pursue, often through case-study or policy-analysis frameworks.

A strong essay on criminal law requires a clearly bounded thesis — focusing on a specific offense category, legal standard, or procedural question rather than attempting to survey the entire field. Legal cases, statutory text, and scholarly commentary carry the most analytical weight as evidence. The most common pitfall is treating criminal law as purely descriptive; examiners expect students to evaluate why particular rules exist, how they function in practice, and whether they achieve just outcomes for defendants and society alike.

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Essay Undergraduate

HIV transmission and criminal liability in homicide law

Scenario 1: Is it considered homicide when a person who knows he or she has HIV deliberately and knowingly infects another person who then dies as a result of contracting AIDS?

Paper Doctorate

Racial disparities in arrest rates and criminal justice system bias

The paper explores the relationship between race and arrest rates. It provides a description of the issue and its significance as well as the hypothesis. The paper provides literature on independent and dependent variable summarizing what is learnt from the variables. It provides a summary of the data collection methods used for research.

Research Paper Doctorate

Legal limits on self-defense force and necessity

One of the fundamental concepts of any free, democratic society is the idea of the individual's right to self-defense -- that one may use any means at one's disposal to protect one's person or property from assault from…

Research Paper Doctorate

The dangers of cell phone use while driving and the case for a national ban

¶ … cell phone use while driving. Specifically it will discuss the increased use of cell phones in the United States, and the dangers of driving while talking on a cell phone. Talking on a cell phone while driving is…

Paper Undergraduate

The war on drugs: four decades of American drug policy and enforcement

Four decades ago, the American government declared a war on drugs. As has been the case with some other American wars, the battle continues with the American government continuously investing money and resources in the stubborn hope of defeating its enemy. The enemy persists with government and violators playing a cop-robber squall, people continuing to harm themselves, the government raising taxes and steepness of penalties, and the jails and social programs filling – not emptying – with substance abusers. This despite a plethora of research, interventions, material on the subject, conventions, legal policies, brainstorming, and so forth The essay suggests that it may be time to consider a wiser, more effective, strategy.

Research Paper Doctorate

Arguments against legalizing positive euthanasia in the United States

Euthanasia is the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing death, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, often painful, disease or condition (Euthanasia,…

Essay Doctorate

Plea bargaining, justice, and the power imbalance in criminal proceedings

Plea bargaining represents the primary method of disposing of criminal cases in the United States, yet little attention is paid to this legal process by political representatives or the courts. Some of the drawbacks to plea bargaining include a lack of oversight by the courts and the public, becoming a vehicle for personal and political agendas, and serving as an engine for false confessions. This essay examines these and other controversial issues surrounding plea bargaining and concludes more public oversight is warranted.

Paper Undergraduate

Minnesota's Good Samaritan law and drug possession liability

Vic lives in Minnesota. One day, while driving from work to head for a party, he sees a car that has collided with a tree. He slows down but does not stop to check if the driver needs medical assistance.

Paper Undergraduate

Police discretion, probable cause, and diversity in law enforcement

¶ … police and law enforcement officers have more or less discretion? Why? Give an example of a specific discretionary power in your answer. What parameters may be used to set the limits to discretion, apart from the…

Paper Undergraduate

Child sexual abuse material: legal and investigative challenges

Crofts, T and Lee, M. (2008). 'Sexting', Children and Child Pornography'. Journal of Criminology. Vol 35:85

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