Mapping American Criminal Law: Variations across the 50 States

(Hardback)

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Description

Containing 40 visually coded maps of the fifty states, this book offers an unprecedented look at America's diverse legal landscape. This first-of-its-kind volume sketches the diversity implicit in United States criminal law doctrine through its examination of a range of criminal laws pertaining to murder, sexual assault, drug offenses, the insanity defense, and more and the way in which different states deal with those issues. In addition to providing insights into the most widely invoked standards in criminal law, it raises awareness of the enormous discrepancies among the criminal laws of states, documenting them using dozens of visually coded maps that showcase geographic, political, and socioeconomic differences to explain patterns of agreement and disagreement. Mapping American Criminal Law: Variations Across the 50 States is for political scientists, criminologists, sociologists, legal scholars, policy advisors, legislators, lawyers, judges, and scholars and students of these fields. In addition, each chapter is highly accessible to laypersons and includes an explanation of the subject matter as well as explanations of the various approaches to criminal law taken by states.

Reviews

What Robinson and Williams do especially well is provide a balance between the theoretical foundation necessary to best understand criminal law and numerous examples of how each issue is worthy of further study. For those interested in understanding criminal law and beyond, this book is invaluable. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. * Choice *

Author Bio

Paul H. Robinson is the Colin S. Diver Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and one of the world's leading criminal law scholars. Tyler Scot Williams is an associate at a large law firm in Washington DC. He holds a juris doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and masters degrees in philosophy, medical ethics, and theology.