Full Description
Historically, prime-time television has devoted at least one-third of its programming to crime. The extreme popularity of crime shows continues unabated. From Law & Order to CSI, Americans are riveted by crime TV. Court TV and other cable channels produce true crime series, too, that take viewers through both current crimes and trials and cold cases. Yet, despite efforts in these shows to depict real investigative and legal techniques, chances are, viewers have questions about criminal procedure, legal issues, and related concerns. For instance, why do police get angry when a suspect just asks for a lawyer? Or, what's the difference between being an accomplice to a crime and being a conspirator? The Crime Junkie's Guide to Criminal Law is written specifically for the millions of crime junkies who make up the audiences for the variety of crime dramas, both real and fictional, that blaze across our screens night after night.
The news media know that crime is inherently interesting because it involves things we all understand — like passion, greed, revenge and the urge to make very close friends in prison. Television broadcasts and major magazines drip with salacious details about the infamous evildoings of the moment. From the sports to the style sections, newspaper headlines scream out reports of the latest celebrity picked up for one transgression or another. This one-of-a-kind book is an indispensable guide to criminal law that uses actual trials alongside plots and characters from popular television shows to illustrate criminal law issues like degrees of murder, the defense of intoxication, search warrants, insanity pleas, and the purposes of various pretrial hearings. Silver offers a concise, informative, and entertaining explanation of everything readers need to know to truly appreciate crime stories (real and fictional) and understand how criminal law really works.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Setting the Stage
2. Recipe for Crime
3. Homicide
4. Murder
5. Voluntary Manslaughter
6. Involuntary Manslaughter
7. Rape
8. Assault
9. Kidnapping
10. Acquisition Offenses
11. Burglary
12. Arson
13. Perjury
14. Solicitation
15. Conspiracy
16. Attempt
17. Accomplice Liability
18. Justification
19. Necessity and Duress
20. Entrapment
21. Intoxication
22. Insanity
23. The Exclusionary Rule
24. The Fourth Amendment: Arrests
25. The Fourth Amendment: Search and Seizure
26. Self-Incrimination
27. Pretrial Proceedings
28. Trial
29. Right to Counsel
30. Guilty Pleas
31. Sentencing
32. Double Jeopardy
Index
