Criminal Law and Procedure: A Courtroom Approach
Chapter Summaries
Chapter 4 introduces the student to the crimes against the person such as assault and battery (pp. 102–103), kidnapping and false imprisonment (pp. 104–105) illustrated by the case excerpt of U.S. v. Lussier (2017) (p. 106), where the defendant was convicted of kidnapping even though the victims were in an unlocked crawl space because the defendant Lussier increased the risk of harm to the victims. Stalking crimes including cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and revenge porn crimes are explored particularly as such laws often run counter to the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment, illustrated in the case excerpt of People v. Marquan M. (2014) (pp. 109–110), where a high school student escaped criminal responsibility for posting embarrassing information about his classmates on Facebook because the cyberbullying law could not withstand constitutional scrutiny. The import of the teaching tool of sex offenses (pp. 111–115) is to confirm for the student rape is a crime of violence where sex is the tool to commit the crime. The evolution of sex crimes is discussed from a woman having to prove she physically resisted the attack to the women’s rights movement push for the enactment of rape shield laws. Title IX investigations of sex crimes on college campuses and statutory rape are highlighted (pp. 113–114). Special emphasis on child sex abuse and the child molesters’ motivation continuum illuminates for the students the difference between the impulsive situational molester and the predatory preferential molester (pp. 115–117). Making the Courtroom Connection explains the importance of sex crimes training for all criminal justice personnel (p. 116). Separating the differences between the major crimes against the person: first, second-degree murder and voluntary and involuntary manslaughter; kidnapping and false imprisonment; threatening and stalking behavior; and different manner of legal fiction and how it operates as an umbrella to put intent on offenders, such as the deadly weapon and felony murder doctrines and vehicular homicide where one may be found guilty for the ultimate harm even if not their original intent. In the State v. Williams (2014) case excerpt, Williams’s conviction for armed robbery was sustained despite him not using a real weapon.