Criminal laws: materials and commentary on criminal law and process in NSW

This third edition of Criminal Laws continues and extends the features that made the second edition the leading tertiary criminal law teaching and resource book in NSW and the ACT, highly influential in other states, and a must for practitioners working in criminal law.It combines: key primary materials for students, in the form of the leading cases and statutes; extracts from secondary literature, which provide context and commentary from a range of perspectives and disciplines; and extensive critical commentary by the authors.Criminal law is approached as a mode of regulation with specific limits, and a sceptical attitude is maintained to traditional claims that it can be learnt via a set of general principles applicable to behaviours across the board. Detailed doctrinal exposition is set within a contextual approach that utilises social policy analysis in assessing the benefits and limits of criminalisation. This makes it ideal for stimulating class or tutorial discussion and developing research skills.Lengthy chapters on criminalisation, criminal process, public order, drugs, sexual assault, sentencing and penality, together with a strong integration of criminal justice statistics and criminological literature and extensive references, give it wide appeal inside and outside law faculties. Its breadth and depth make it suitable for a range of courses and uses including criminal law, criminal justice, criminal justice administration, policing, legal studies, crime prevention, government, politics, social policy, criminology, penology, sociology of law and the sociology of deviance