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Why is a squatter who let a mattress smoulder guilty of arson, when someone who walks past a drowning child commits no crime at all? Why can a person who only meant to break someone's legs end up convicted of murder? This book takes the questions people actually ask about the criminal law and shows how the law answers them, starting with the basics of guilty acts and guilty minds and the defences that get people off, then working through assault, homicide, sexual offences, theft and fraud, attempts and accomplices, and the messy rules on speech, protest and online abuse.
After that it follows a case from the police station to the prosecutor, the courtroom and sentencing, and finishes with the things the law still hasn't sorted out, from children and mental illness to companies and miscarriages of justice. It's serious when it needs to be and funny when the law is, which happens more than you'd expect. Everything is stated as it stood in October 2026, with the year's big reforms flagged.
Why is a squatter who let a mattress smoulder guilty of arson, when someone who walks past a drowning child commits no crime at all? Why can a person who only meant to break someone's legs end up convicted of murder? This book takes the questions people actually ask about the criminal law and shows how the law answers them, starting with the basics of guilty acts and guilty minds and the defences that get people off, then working through assault, homicide, sexual offences, theft and fraud, attempts and accomplices, and the messy rules on speech, protest and online abuse.
After that it follows a case from the police station to the prosecutor, the courtroom and sentencing, and finishes with the things the law still hasn't sorted out, from children and mental illness to companies and miscarriages of justice. It's serious when it needs to be and funny when the law is, which happens more than you'd expect. Everything is stated as it stood in October 2026, with the year's big reforms flagged.