Reference Reviews

Doug’s Student Reference Room

The Crime Junkie’s Guide to Criminal Law: From Law & Order to Laci Peterson, by Jim Silver. 198 p. Westport, CT.: Praeger Publishers, 2008. ISBN: 978–0–275–99414–3. $39.95.

Presenting actual trials alongside plots and characters from popular television shows, this volume capitalizes on the general public’s ongoing fascination with crime stories. Using the lens of real and fictional crime cases to examine relevant issues of criminal law, the author explores a variety of aspects related to the subject, including degrees of murder, defense of intoxication, search warrants and insanity pleas. The thirty-two chapters, typically 5 to 10 pages long, cover the spectrum of criminal law, from types of crimes and defenses to the trial and the sentencing. Entertaining sidebars either clarify (“What Is a Warrant?”) or offer tie–ins to film and television (“Ripped from the Script?”). Many of the chapters open with a story that raises curiosity while also introducing the topic at hand. The chapter entitled “Assault,” for example, begins, “What would happen if you bit your girlfriend several times on her back or struck a police officer who was trying to stop your friend from commandeering a police horse, or threw a phone at a hotel employee, or dumped a bottle of whiskey over the head of a romantic rival?” Some readers may not be surprised to learn that celebrities committed these acts; the chapter then delves into the various forms of assault, using anecdotes about Mike Tyson, Naomi Campbell, Tim McGraw and Russell Crowe (among others), as well as episodes from "The Closer" and "Cold Case", to engage readers. This book’s unique angle may make it an effective resource for classroom teachers, especially in a time when growing numbers of students express interest in the field of criminal justice. Research projects could be organized so that students examine the correlation between real and fictional crime stories, study criminal procedure and learn about legal issues. A short glossary of terms, “Legal Briefs,” concludes each chapter and a general subject index rounds out the volume. Recommended for public and high school libraries.
—Doug Achterman