I found Examples and Explanations a great supplement. It clearly explained key concepts and ideas. My one complaint is that the actual "examples and explanations" were rather abstract and I was disappointed with the lack of questions that specifically dealt with applying the Model Penal Code.

I bought this book because of the reviews that says how helpful it is to law students as they prepare for final exams. I believe it's reputation precedes itself. I just bought this book two months ago and had my boyfriend send it to me to the Philippines. I haven't finished reading it yet. That would be almost impossible. But with every page I read, I understand a little bit more about Criminal Law to prep me for law school.

I bought an older edition, and I already think it's good. Probably the newer edition is better.

The Examples and Explanations series is usually very helpful for my studying. However, this particular book has inaccuracies, and the explanations are difficult to understand. I do not recommend buying this book for anything but sample questions. Don't rely on the authors for the answers to those questions.

That said, do check out the other E&E books - they're great.

This book provides a cursory overview of criminal law at best. If you're a fan of Glannon, don't get this book. You'll be disappointed. For example, while courts and scholars debate the effectiveness of distinguishing between general and specific intent crimes, it is probably something you're going to have to learn. This book gives it one page. Worse than that is that the authors literally spend more time saying that the distinction is worthless than they do on helping you understand the difference. In fact, they don't actually try to define either; they provides a couple of mere examples of each.

This is just an example of the problems with this book. Trust me, you'd be better off skimming a treatise.

This book is not in the same league as other E&E books. It is not very clear, the charts are confusing and some parts of the book give downright wrong information. If you have a teacher who emphasizes the MPC, this book is a total waste. Otherwise, it's a total mess. Do NOT use this book to teach yourself the course because some of the information is wrong and unless you already know the material well enough to pick out the bad information, you will be screwing yourself. I would not recommend this to anyone.

Any time I'm studying a subject that has a lot of meticulous ins and outs I turn to Glannon's Examples and Explanations to make certain I understand the subtleties of the subject.

I was glad to have Glannon for Criminal Law, we'll see if it helped to push my essay to the top of the grade pile.

Good book - I use this series to make my outlines, as they are usually more compreshensive with black-letter law than the texts. This one in particular is so much better than the actual text book we used. Buy this if you want to get a good crim law grade.

This is not a bad book for what it purports to be: a companion volume to a criminal law course. If you're consulting it for quick explanations of things you've covered elsewhere and just need some clarification on, it does the job (though, to be fair, this is true of any of dozens of similar books, all available on Amazon).

That said, Crim. isn't the most complicated subject you'll face in law school (it's probably one of the easiest during the first year). If you're seeking out study aids, you're probably making up for a shoddy professor or cramming for an exam. This book isn't much good in either instance.

This book is unlike other volumes from the E&E series that I've used (and found very helpful) in that it really fails to stand on its own. Explanations are very often weak (and too many require you to go searching through chapters a hundred pages back). Tables that attempt to provide handy comparisons of MPC and common law provisions are slapped together and hard to follow (when you've done the studying and know what they're trying to convey, it's particularly striking how badly they fail at it. It's like borrowing notes from a classmate and trying to make sense of their personal shorthand). While the book does a nice job of referencing case law (which may or may not be in your particular casebook) it's less consistent on MPC sections-- explanations are to be accepted without a point of reference, leaving exam takers vulnerable to professors who will (as law professors ALWAYS do) twist the facts beyond the obvious application of the rule.

The upside of this E&E book is the writing. The authors of this book have quite a wicked sense of humor and it definitely shows in the practice example questions. The explanations, on the other hand, were limited in scope since the distinctions between common law jurisdictions and the MPC were not layed out completely. Probably the least helpful of the E&E series.

This book was very good. Dressler's classic "Understanding Criminal Law" has a more thorough (and probably better) explanation of the law. However, the Examples in this book are very helpful and as a result this book rivals Dressler's.

All of the E&E books I've read, including this one, are disappointing. They might be good if you haven't been attending class and need to learn the material for the first time. But I'm not sure why you would waste time on these vague materials if you have kept up in class. I recommend a more advanced study guide. Also, the Q&As at the end of the chapters are too verbose. Most of the answers are pages long, when they should be at most a few paragraphs, if not a few sentences.

Unlike most other Examples & Explanations Series, this one is one of the worst I have read. Authors waste too much time on history of criminal law and MPC, and very little time explaining the law. Common law and MPC are not distinguished and characterized well, and no clear conclusions of law are given. The example are very plane, without exploring the variety and complexity of real-life problems. Unbelievably, only 35 pages are spent on homicide, the most common and complex problem in criminal law, and the examples and explanations for homicide are terrible.

I was required to buy this book for my criminal law class (which should have told me something about my teacher). I find that this book really just restates the same thing the casebook says, but without including cases. I want plain language explanation and law.

I do not recommend this book. I did try Dressler's Understanding Crim Law, and really like it.