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Legal Research Guides by Course - Federal Criminal Law

Course Description

Most introductory criminal law courses tend to focus on crimes defined by state law. This is perfectly understandable as state crimes provide the basis for the majority of prosecutions in this country. Federal crimes also tend to be more complex in their definitions than state crimes and federal criminal cases tend to be considerably more complex than state cases. In this advanced course we will consider a number of those crimes defined by Congress. We will examine white collar crimes such as mail and wire fraud, distinguishable from their state law fraud and theft analogs by the required use of the mail or a wire. We will not limit our consideration of this or other federal crimes, however, to their unique federal components. We will consider how these often complex frauds are perpetrated, detected, and prosecuted. Political crimes, extortion, bribery and illegal gratuities, will be examined. We will then consider drug crimes. All states proscribe drug possession and trafficking but seldom are these topics covered in traditional criminal law courses and drug crimes are the bulk of most criminal dockets. The federal scheme of drug regulation is representative of most state drug schemes, making the study of federal drug crimes particularly useful to anyone anticipating a criminal practice, state or federal. The course will consider uniquely federal forms of punishing group conduct. The Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act and Continuing Criminal Enterprises will be examined. Crimes relating to terrorism will be considered. Finally, an introduction to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines will be provided. (3 credits)

Faculty Who Teach This Course

  • Laurie Serafino (Director of Clinical Legal Education and Associate Professor of Law)
  • Wesley M. Oliver (Associate Professor of Law)

Subject Covered Presently in Collection by

Print Collection

KF9300-KF9461 Criminal Law - Particular Offenses (Federal Statutory Law)

Legal Research Databases

White Collar Crime Sources

Wire and Mail Fraud Sources

Political Crimes Sources

Bribery and Extortion Sources

RICO Sources

Drug Crimes Sources

DCLI Webpage Links

  • Primary Legal Research: Case Law, Statutory Law, Administrative Law (contains uick links to our federal and state statutes, our federal and state administrative codes, federal and state case law)
    Legal Research Guides: Criminal Law

Course Listed Under the following Law School Concentrations:

  • Criminal Law

 

created by Patricia Horvath
12/3/2012