Federal Criminal Law

Catalog description

Course Requirement: exam Fulfills Concentration Elective: Criminal Law Most introductory 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 that 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 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.