LibGuides: Criminal Law: Introduction

About This Guide

Criminal Law defines offenses against the community at large. It encompasses general principles of criminal responsibility, as well as the substantive law establishing specific criminal offenses. For the purposes of this guide, Criminal Law does not include Criminal Procedure or Evidence Law, which both have their own guides. As far as jurisdictions go, this guide covers Georgia Criminal Law and Federal Criminal Law, with a focus on the most essential sources and strategies.

The following sources are good places to begin your research into Georgia's Criminal Law. Secondary Sources like these describe and explain the law, which makes them an ideal entryway for researching an issue or topic. For a more complete selection of the library's secondary sources on criminal law in Georgia, check out the tab below. For a look at the library's entire collection of treatises, here's our Treatise Finder. If these treatises seem too detailed, consider a legal encyclopedia. For help with secondary sources more generally, check out our Secondary Sources Guide. If you want an overview for a law school class, study aids are your best choice.

Georgia Jurisprudence, Vol. 18-19: Criminal Law
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This legal encyclopedia is always a reliable starting point for Ga-related research, and that's especially true in this area of law, where the treatise options are not necessarily geared towards novice researchers.
Kurtz Criminal Offenses & Defenses in Georgia
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This concise treatise features a surprisingly thorough discussion of Georgia's substantive criminal law. However, the overall organizational scheme is alphabetical, which can make it seem like a less-than-user-friendly source, especially if you lack familiarity with criminal law. But the individual sections are actually quite easy to navigate, meaning that once you've narrowed the scope of your research, this treatise has the potential to become exceptionally useful. The print version is actually a bit easier to navigate: find it in our Reference Collection at KFG 566.8 .A39 K87 2020.

It's trickier to choose a single starting point for researching Federal Criminal Law. Because it is more specialized in nature, you can often find helpful treatises focusing on specific topics or statutes within Federal Criminal Law, such as Banking Crime and National Security Law: some of these are included below.

Secondary Sources like these describe and explain the law, which makes them an ideal entryway for researching an issue or topic. For a more complete selection of the library's secondary sources on Federal Criminal Law, check out the tab below. For a look at the library's entire collection of treatises, here's our Treatise Finder. If these treatises seem too detailed, consider a legal encyclopedia. For help with secondary sources more generally, check out our Secondary Sources Guide. If you want an overview for a law school class, study aids are your best choice.

Wharton's Criminal Law
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This well-regarded treatise features broad coverage both state and federal jurisdictions, making it especially helpful if both bodies of law could be implicated. In addition, its overarching focus on the underlying structure of criminal law supplies valuable insights.
Immigration Law & Crimes
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As title suggests, this treatise addresses those aspects of immigration law and practice which pertain to the impact of criminal activity on the status of noncitizens.
White Collar Crime: RICO
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This is another treatise focusing on a particular subset of criminal law. Its coverage of federal racketeering law has a practical slant, with a focus on strategies for all aspects of the case.
Banking Crimes: Fraud, Money Laundering & Embezzlement
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This specialized treatise covers crimes related to banking, including fraud, money laundering, and embezzlement.
U.S. Money Laundering
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This source is intended to be a comprehensive desk reference for criminal defense lawyers, banking lawyers, accountants, and officers and directors of financial institutions or other regulated institutions that face the risk of criminal liability for money laundering. The helpful structure of this treatise follows that of the key federal statutes governing this criminal activity.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Compliance, Investigations and Enforcement
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The FCPA is a highly active area of federal law, making this well-organized treatise an especially valuable tool. In addition to criminal liability under this statute, the treatise covers a variety of practical issues related to compliance and internal investigations.