criminal law essay structure

Criminal law is all about setting the rules and regulations for society related to what’s legally allowed and what’s not. Students pursuing this study mainly focus on various legislative approaches set for the criminal world. But when it comes to writing a criminal law essay, it gets tricky because it demands you to work on its legal rules and analyse them carefully. Students mostly find it extremely tough due to no room for a mistake there.

The following are some important statistics related to criminal law:

• The market size of legal services in 2024 is $786.51 billion , which will grow by a CAGR of 4.52%, reaching 08 billion during 2024-2029.
• The market size of crime risk reports was USD 6 billion in 2023 , which will grow to 10.12 billion by 2024 , with a CAGR of 17.7%.

Coming back towards criminal law essay writing, even the most intelligent students sometimes get lower grades in such tasks. It mostly happens due to a lack of knowledge and skills and not getting enough guidance from the instructors. In such cases, getting assistance from expert essay writers is preferable. They have the best essay writing skills, which is crucial for criminal law and morality essays to ensure 100% success.

In this step-by-step guide, we will discuss writing a perfect criminal law essay and also explore its topics and trending questions.

A Step-by-Step Guide for Criminal Law Essay Writing

Wondering how to write a criminal law essay? Follow the steps given below for a complete guide on your essay writing:

Just like the initial preparations that we often do before a function, essay writing also demands prewriting preparations. It is the phase in which students spend select their topic of research and make a proper plan to write their essays. However, you need to carefully select a topic of your choice for your criminal law essay. Right after selecting your essay topic, you should start doing research on it to cover this topic from every aspect. It will help you to fully understand your topic which will help you in the writing phase.

After that, make a proper structure for your essay and write a first draft of it. Then, give proper time for its editing and proofreading phase for success. You should also explore some strong and weak points of your topic to add more value to your essay. By following all these prewriting steps, you will be ready to start moving towards the actual essay writing.

Criminal Law Essay Structure

Just like any other law essay, criminal law also demands a complete focus on the basic essay structure to cover all the necessary criminal law essay questions and answers. For proper structure and formatting, you should consult your institute for the guidelines. A common structure that we often use for essay writing consists of the following parts:

• Abstract (if needed)

Introduction

• Three or more body paragraphs
• Analysis of your sources
• Conclusions
• Reference page

Start with Research and Analysis

Every masterpiece comes from extensive research on the topic. So, if you are serious about getting the best grades in your criminal law essay, you need to spend more time on this research phase to have a thorough understanding of the topic. In this journey, you should follow all the relevant books, literature, news, articles, journals, case laws and legal documents. Along with it, don’t forget to note down important points side by side related to your topic that you may need later.

After compiling all the data, you should examine the information for further investigation. You should find something crazy for your topic, like legal hearings, relevant case studies and arguments. Critically look at this available data from different aspects and note down all the advantages and disadvantages given in it.

Compose Your Essay Perfectly

For essay writing, you should look at the structure we have discussed above. The first step was writing a title page that mostly consisted of your name, essay topic, submission date, level of education and the name of your institute. After that, if your teachers require you to write an abstract, you should summarise the whole essay in one page for it. Then, the actual part of essay writing begins with an introduction that ends at the conclusion part.

To properly structure your criminal law essay, you should strictly follow these guidelines:

It is the actual beginning of your essay that focuses on the purpose of your study. First of all, introduce your topic of discussion, discuss the questions you will cover and then state your aims for this study. You should clearly add your thesis statement to clarify your main points of study here.

Your introduction should not be boring or confusing because it is the part that will attract your readers and encourage them to read it till the end. So, make the start of your criminal law essay engaging as much as you can.

Background Data

Here, you should add the research data relevant to your topic, such as background knowledge of the laws, case law, and legal precepts. This part shows that you have done enough research and know everything about your topic. So, to express your knowledge, you should understand it first and then state and prove your arguments with the already existing data.

Main Body Section

This is the middle part of your criminal law essay, which mostly consists of 3 or more paragraphs, typically depending on your topic and essay length. Make short and purposeful paragraphs here to concentrate on a different facet of the subject every time.

Also, provide a coherent and logical presentation of your points backed up by research-based data. During this whole process, you should keep focussing on creating a logical flow among all these paragraphs.

Analysis and Discussion

To properly discuss your topic, you should critically analyse all the legal points and arguments made in the essay’s main body. Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of each argument and discuss them as neutral. Your one-sided response will ruin your whole criminal law essay, so avoid doing such acts. Instead, you should discuss everything clearly to ensure your success in it.

It is the last writing phase where you should summarise the whole essay in a few words. It is not the abstract where we only present a summary. No, a good conclusion also includes a thesis statement and also highlights the main results of your essay. But at this point, you should avoid adding any new information because it will leave a negative impact. Furthermore, always prefer to focus on the importance of your results and also discuss the recommendations for further research here.

Add Proper References

Just like any other type of academic writing, criminal law essays also have some data from the existing knowledge that needs proper citations. You may have added a few points as proof of your answers. If you write them without giving credit to their actual authors, it will lead you towards plagiarism. Instead of doing this crime, we prefer to add references to all the data borrowed from others.

It will not only help you to avoid plagiarism but also adds more value and credibility to your criminal law essay. To add these references, you should use your institute’s citation style that your instructors have provided. It may include Chicago, MLA, APA, Harvard or any other. Furthermore, you should be consistent throughout this phase and use the same style for all the references used.

Go Through Editing and Proofreading

After finishing your first draft, give yourself some rest to ease your brain and nerves. After that, start revising and editing your criminal law essay with a fresh mind. You should read aloud to point out mistakes in your writing. To edit and proofread it well, you should mainly focus on removing all the typos, grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes. Also, make sure that you have properly followed your institute’s writing, citation and formatting styles.

For this purpose, you can also seek law essay writing help from a legal resource, as they have years of experience in this field. They have all the expertise to write and edit your essay excellently and ensure your top grades through their work.

Top 8 Criminal Law Essay Topics

We understand that finding the right topic becomes difficult for law students especially when they working on their criminal law essay. So, to ease your burden, we have come up with a list of unique but trending topics in this field. The following are the top 8 criminal justice essay topics:

• Criminal Justice System Racism Issues
• Exploring the Role of Voluntary and Involuntary Actions in Criminal Law
• The Controversy Surrounding Involuntary Manslaughter
• Comparing Key Differences and Implications for Civil Cases and Criminal Law
• Delving into the Intersection of Morality and the Law in Criminal Justice Research
• Understanding the Law Enforcement and Ramifications for Unlawful Killing
• Analysing the Ethical, Legal, and Practical Considerations for the Death Penalty
• Exploring the Purpose of Criminal Law Protection

Criminal Law Essay Examples

The following is an example taken from research about criminal law essay writing. Robin Antony Duff from the University of Stirling is its author:

How to Answer a Criminal Law Essay Question?

As a law student, you must understand the basics behind criminal law and should have the essay-writing skills needed to solve the required questions. So, do you have a question to answer in your criminal law essay? Follow the following simplest guide on how to answer such questions:

• First of all, you should read the assigned essay topic or question many times to understand what you have asked.
• If there are some facts or stats given, read and try to understand them.
• You should mainly focus on the legal issue that your question is talking about.
• Think about or even write some relevant laws that you know about such criminal issues discussed in the given question.
• After that, you should list and analyse the important facts related to that particular legal problem.
• Match the law to the facts and analyse what the outcome would be based on this combination.
• In case you don’t understand what to do, you can seek guidance from UK-based essay writing services .

What is Criminal Law, and What is its Role?

Criminal law covers a wide range of legal matters, from minor offences to serious crimes like murder and fraud. American Public University defines criminal law as behaviours that threaten people’s safety and well-being. Within criminal law, there are various types of crimes, such as murder, theft, drug offences, and fraud, each with its own penalties.

The goal of criminal law is to keep society safe from harm caused by criminal acts. It is meant to stop individuals from doing crimes by punishing criminals for these false acts. It also helps to change their behaviours for an overall positive impact on society.

What is the Difference Between Civil and Criminal Law Essays?

• Civil law: Civil law deals with the common disputes happening between two people or companies. In this type, the victim needs to compensate the affected ones. For example, Landlord issues, property disputes, divorce, and personal injury all come under civil law.
• Criminal law: This is the branch of law that deals with the crimes or criminal offences that are committed against the whole population or society. As a result, those criminals get legal punishments from law establishment. For example, incarceration, fines and the death penalty in some major cases.

Bottom Line

We all are aware of the fact that criminal law plays a vital role in our society to upload various laws. When law students get to write on such an important topic, they mostly get poor grades in these criminal law essays.

So, we thought to provide you with a comprehensive guide about this essay writing that no one has discussed before. It will help you to simplify your essay writing process and make it more interesting. By following these expert tips and step-by-step guide, you will be all set on a journey towards success.

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Whodunit? Solving the Mystery of Writing a First-Rate Criminal Law Essay Exam

I was leaving the post office one day and I saw a license plate that was an acronym for Nancy Drew. I stopped to admire the plate because it immediately took me back to when I was young and would voraciously read Nancy Drew mystery novels. It reminded me that reading the books taught me how to solve mysteries. As a civil litigation attorney, I regularly apply that skill in my practice because, as I go from one case to the next, I solve one mystery at a time.  

Normally, the mystery is the extent of the wrongdoing by the opposing party. However, sometimes it is discovering the relevant facts that my client conveniently failed to share with me. Tapping into your inner sleuth will assist you with learning to write first-rate Criminal Law exam answers as well as answers in any other type of law school exam you may encounter.

Prepare to Solve Your Mystery

Preparation is essential to solving the mystery of writing a Criminal Law exam. As a law student, your preparation commences with reading and briefing all the assigned cases. This teaches you the law and how to reason. Further, it assists with preparing your study outline for the class. It also teaches you the discipline of IRAC, which is fundamental to law exam writing. 

Fleming’s is in a powerful position to assist with your law school exam preparation - as demonstrated by one of our law students receiving the only known perfect score on a Criminal Law Bar exam. The student who wrote the answer implemented what Fleming’s teaches when answering a Criminal Law exam, and the Bar Examiners rewarded him with a perfect 100 score for his presentation.  

So that you can see Fleming’s law exam methods and techniques at work for yourself, I recommend reading our recent article about this student’s impressive accomplishment: 

Bar Examiners Give Fleming’s Law Student a Perfect Score on His Essay Exam Answer  

The question, along with the student’s perfectly scored answer, is appended at the end of the article. You, too, can achieve this result with Fleming’s at your side.

Every Sleuth Needs a Partner

As Nancy Drew had her Bess Marvin, every sleuth needs a partner. For law students, legal study supplements are your Bess Marvin sidekick. Fleming’s has a wide array of supplements that can assist law students with course substantive law outlines as well as fail-safe methods and techniques for law exam writing .  

I highly recommend Fleming’s Sail Through Law School with The Exam Solution® for Criminal Law because it provides a four-hour substantive law lecture, a substantive law outline, and three essay exams with sample California Bar exam answers. This is all you need to tie together everything about the subject that you are learning in the classroom. Reviewing Bar exam answers is invaluable because they assist with how to format, weigh issues, and write persuasive analysis. One of my former students conveyed that the resources from this series really helped her prepare for her recent midterms.  

Identify the Suspects

Now that you are ready to commence your law exam writing, you must start with identifying your suspects. Therefore, the first thing you do is read the call of the question. Read it at least twice because it is imperative to understand the scope of your investigation. You must headnote and write on each call of the question separately because failure to do so will result in a failing grade. 

Examine the Crime Scene

The next step of your investigation is to examine the crime scene, which is the fact pattern for the exam. Read it twice – concentrate solely on the facts. Read it again to prepare your issue outline as outlining is imperative to your success on the exam. It tells you how many issues you have to write on, which ones are major and minor, and how to allocate your writing time so you do not run short in finishing before time is called.

Map Out the Scope of Your Investigation

When writing law school or California Bar exam answers, you must write on the issues in the order that they are spotted in the fact pattern. You strategize this when outlining the exam, which is why outlining is so crucial to your success. 

When drafting your outline make four columns, one for each part of IRAC, to ensure that you write your answer in an orderly manner - including all the required crimes and defenses. 

The first column is for the issue, the next for the rule, then the facts for your analysis/application, and the last column for the conclusion. You should abbreviate whenever possible to keep your outline time between 15 – 20 minutes.  

The example below for outlining the issue of robbery is taken from Fleming’s Writing Workbook p. 43. 

Now that you have examined the crime scene and created your outline, you are ready to write your essay answer. Think about what you want to say before beginning to write. This will help you formulate your thoughts and prevent you from rambling once you get started.

Write Your Investigation Report

A successful answer applies the relevant facts to each element of the rule to persuade the reader as to why the crime or defense succeeds or fails. What you are trying to do is answer the “why” or “why not” regarding each element of the rule, using the facts from the exam. 

As an initial matter, you must weigh the issues to ensure you have enough time for major issues such as homicide. A classic Criminal Law California Bar exam will contain a number of crimes and a homicide at the end. Generally, when there is a homicide, you will need 15 – 20 minutes to write on it because you must write on each required issue/subpart. If you run out of time to write a full homicide analysis, you will likely fail the exam because it is a heavily weighted issue. 

A superior answer will analyze the arguments of each party. You want to argue on behalf of the State first because it is prosecuting the case. Then you write the counterarguments for the defendant. 

Writing both sides will set you apart and increase your score because the majority of students only write on behalf of the prosecution. Developing this skill is essential as an attorney because you must always anticipate the arguments of the opposing party. 

There are certain issues that require writing on the common law rule as well as the modern rule or Model Penal Code. Burglary is a classic example. You must analyze common law burglary as well as the modern law distinctions because the burden of proof is lower. When writing on the insanity issue, you must always write on all four insanity excuses.  

You must write a one-sentence conclusion regarding each issue on the exam as well as an overall conclusion if required by the call of the question.

Justice Is Served

Writing a first-rate Criminal Law exam takes hard work and discipline. This can be achieved by stepping into the exam to spot and solve each mystery of whether or not the crime or defense succeeds or fails. 

Justice will be served when you write a first-class answer and receive your desired passing score. This will put you one step closer to going from law student to lawyer. 

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How to Write a Criminal Law Essay

Maggie worth.

Law students are often asked to write essays, either on assigned or chosen topics, or in response to specific questions. In addition, the bar exam for most states includes an essay section. Criminal law essay assignments are designed to ensure that students understand the laws of their state, and of the nation, and that they know how to use them in a criminal case.

Explore this article

• Read the question
• Address each question
• Summarize your position

1 Read the question

Read the question or essay topic carefully. Criminal law topics are often complex and involve many angles and points of view. Make a list of all secondary questions posed within the main question, or all angles of approach to your topic. Determine whether you are being asked to provide an argument of defense, an argument of prosecution or simply an overview of existing law.

Research all case law that applies to your topic. Expect to spend time in your local law library and on the Internet. Write down the name of the case, such as “Miranda v Arizona.” Also record the year and state in which the decision was rendered.

3 Address each question

Address each question separately and in order if you are responding to a multi-part question. Finish your answer for each section completely before beginning the next. If an answer relates to a previous question, you may refer back to your previous answer.

4 Structure

Structure your essay as a law brief unless the professor instructs you to do otherwise. While most essays consist of sentences and paragraphs that transition naturally, law briefs are divided using outline style. General answers to each posited question should be marked with a Roman numeral. Denote supporting points with a capital letter and indent each section.

Present possible arguments by opposing council if you are writing a position or argument essay. Posit the other sides’ likely response and how you can counter those responses.

6 Summarize your position

Summarize your position by highlighting the main points of your argument, as you would in a closing statement.

• While criminal law is often subject to individual interpretation, neither the courts nor your professor will be impressed with your interpretations if you cannot cite existing precedents to back up your position.

About the Author

Maggie Worth has more than 18 years of marketing and business management experience. She has conducted training classes in resume, fiction and web writing and has written textbooks, resumes, professional and technical documents, ad copy, video scripts and articles for lifestyle magazines. She is director of marketing communications strategy and special projects for a university.

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Chapter 5 Outline answers to essay questions

Q: If individuals wish consensually to inflict harm upon one another the law should not intervene.

Discuss with reference to decided cases.

Essay outline answer

You need to be able to deal with consent by way of a problem question and an essay. A typical problem question could ask you to consider a person’s consent to physical contact such as being touched by someone who appears to be a doctor but in fact is not, or to a partner’s consent to being tattooed or branded, or to sexual intercourse with a partner who has not disclosed a sexually transmitted disease (such as HIV). Most problem questions are based on existing cases ( Tabassum [2000], Wilson [1997], and Dica [2004]), but you need to do more than identify the relevant case by its facts. You must know the legal basis of the decision and provide any relevant critical commentary, bearing in mind that the only House of Lords’ case on consent is Brown [1994] (that consent is no defence if bodily harm is caused, whether intended or not, but note the violent/non-violent crime distinction).

This brings us to the types of essays that are set on consent and such as is set here. You must avoid reciting all you know about consent irrespective of the title. Always answer the question! This will usually be about the extent to which valid consent can be given to acts and/or harm caused, and the public policy reasons for placing limits on the defence. Again, you must know both the facts of, and the law from, the cases, and the apparent conflicts between Brown [1994] at the House of Lords on the one hand and the numerous Court of Appeal cases, on the other, which may appear to conflict with or limit Brown [1994] to the intentional causing of harm in crimes of ‘violence’ (excluding branding another person’s buttocks?). Some analysis of the public interest matters would be expected.

The essay question asks you what the law ought to be. You can discuss here the principles of autonomy (that people should be free to do what they want with their bodies); moralism (that it is appropriate to use the law uphold moral standards); and paternalism (people need protecting from harming themselves). You might also want to consider whether the law can effectively distinguish cases of consensual and non-consensual BDSM

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