Clear, rigorous, and thoughtfully organized, Criminal Law, Third Edition delivers a comprehensive introduction to the doctrines and principles of modern American criminal law. While written for law students and teachers, it also provides a valuable resource for judges, practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and all those seeking a deeper understanding of how criminal law addresses blameworthiness and punishment. Paul H. Robinson provides an authoritative perspective on the field from decades spent as one of the world’s leading experts on criminal law, while new co-author Jeffrey C. Seaman adds a fresh perspective grounded in contemporary debates over criminal law and policy. 

The Third Edition reflects significant recent developments in American criminal law, integrating new case law, statutory reforms, and evolving scholarly debates, all while retaining the tried-and-true, student-friendly presentation format that has made the treatise a standard text in teaching criminal law.

New to the Third Edition: 

• A Brand-New Part VII that introduces and examines key criminal justice issues, including mass incarceration and decarceration, capital punishment, underenforcement of crime, and racial, socioeconomic, and gender-based disparities within the system 
• A Thoroughly Revised Discussion of Sex Offenses, offering in-depth coverage of the 2022 revision to Model Penal Code Article 213, along with analysis of current legal debates and emerging trends in this area 
• An Expanded Analysis of Distributive Principles presenting a wider spectrum of perspectives and sources on the purposes and justifications of punishment, and exploring new approaches to reducing tensions among competing distributive theories 
• New Topics, Perspectives, and Sources Throughout, including renewed attention to excuse and mitigation doctrines, recent changes in self-defense law, trends toward decriminalization, and the potential impact of emerging technologies on punishment 

Professors and students will benefit from: 

This accessible and engaging introduction to Criminal Law offers: 

• Clear and accessible explanations of criminal law rules 
• A comprehensive account of the Model Penal Code’s approach to the full range of criminal law doctrines and offenses 
• Student-friendly hypotheticals and margin headings to guide understanding of even complex criminal law topics 
• A logical seven-part organization 
  • Part I. Introduction 
  • Part II. General Principles in the Definition of Offenses 
  • Part III. Principles of Imputation 
  • Part IV. General Defenses 
  • Part V. Inchoate Liability
  •  Part VI. Specific Offenses 
  • Part VII. Current Criminal Justice Topics 

Engaging and analytically precise, this edition equips readers with both the foundational framework and the contemporary perspective necessary to understand criminal law today.