'... undoubtedly a first-rate companion for any undergraduate or post-graduate law course.'
John Taggart, Criminal Law Review

This outstanding account of modern English criminal law combines detailed exposition and analysis of the law with a careful exploration of its theoretical underpinnings. Primarily, it is written for undergraduate students of criminal law, covering all subjects taught at undergraduate level.

The book's philosophical approach ensures students have a deeper understanding of the law that goes beyond a purely doctrinal knowledge As a result, over its numerous editions, it has become required reading for many criminal law courses. The 8th edition covers all statutory law including the Assaults on Emergency Workers Act 2018 and Domestic Abuse Act, s 71. Case law discussions now cover: Grant (complicity); Barton (dishonesty); Broughton, Field, Kuddus, and Rebelo (homicide) and AG's Ref (No 1 of 2020) (sexual offences).

J J Child is Professor of Criminal Law at Birmingham Law School, UK.
A P Simester is Amaladass Professor of Criminal Justice and Co-Director of the Centre for Legal Theory at the National University of Singapore, and Edmund-Davies Professor of Criminal Law at King's College London, UK.
J R Spencer is Professor Emeritus of Law in the Law Faculty at the University of Cambridge and a Bye-Fellow at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, UK.
F Stark is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, UK.
G J Virgo is Professor of English Private Law at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge, UK.