COURSE DESCRIPTION:  A study of common law and statutory concepts of substantive criminal law.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:  The primary course objective is to provide students with a basic foundation in criminal law.  This objective is achieved through mastery of the following:

1. Essential legal vocabulary that will enable the student to understand basic concepts of criminal law.

2. Elements of criminal offenses, including both statutory and common law offenses.

3. Defenses to common law and statutory criminal offenses.

4. Analytical application of vocabulary and elements to various factual situations.

5. Understanding the impact of statutory modification to common law.       

Required Text and Materials:

Criminal Law and Procedure (5^th Edition)

Authors: Scheb and Scheb

Web Site: http://www.iejs.com/CriminalLaw/index.htm 

  You must learn how to access the LexisNexis database made available through the university library. 

 UAM will no longer mail grade reports to all students.  You may access your grades through Campus Connect on the UAM homepage, http://www.uamont.edu/.  To have your grades mailed to you, complete the grade request form available in the Registrar’s Office in Monticello or the Student Services offices in Crossett and McGehee.

 Class Decorum:

 Plagiarism is the presentation of the work or ideas of another as one’s own.  Plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the course and be referred to the Dean of Students for additional review (see the UAM Catalog for a description of the University’s disciplinary procedure).  

You are expected to act in a professional manner in this course.  The fact that the course is online changes some things, but you are still required to act in accordance with University regulations and maintain a respectful demeanor toward your classmates. 

Flame wars on my site will not be tolerated.  You may attack ideas, but not people.  Debates are encouraged, but they must be intellectual, not emotional or belligerent. 

Any violation of University policy will result in your administrative withdrawal from the course.  [Some of you will be happy to note that my usual rule about cell phones is suspended for this course.]

When setting up your accounts, please use your real name, not an internet shorthand.  Please identify yourself in all correspondence--Don't make me look up your email address to see who you are.  Consider your interactions with this course as a professional environment.

Any student who fails to turn in two consecutive assignments without communicating a compelling reason for doing so to me may be administratively withdrawn from the course.

 Students with Disabilities:

 It is the policy of the University of Arkansas-Monticello to accommodate individuals with disabilities pursuant to federal law and the University’s commitment to equal educational opportunities.  It is the responsibility of the student to inform the instructor of any necessary accommodations at the beginning of the course. Any student requiring accommodations should contact the Office of Special Student Services located in Harris Hall, Room 219, phone 870–460-1154; TDD 870-460-1251; or fax 870-460-1810.

 Technology and Course Format Issues:

Unless a question specifically states otherwise, you must answer all questions in the form of an essay.  Consider these formal writing assignments.  That means you need to

• use proper English

• spell things correctly

• have a well organized presentation of your points

• not use contractions

• and so forth

• Use BLACK 12-point Times New Roman font, 1” margins all around, single space.

• DO NOT CUT AND PASTE your answers.  You must express everything in your own words.  Merely providing me with the text of a statute does not constitute an explanation or a discussion. 

When sending me files, please follow the following filename convention:

LastName_FirstName_Assignment_X.doc

For example, if I were turning my first assignment, I would name the file as follows:

McKee_Adam_Assignment_1.doc

Of course, if you are using a word processor other than Word, you will save your file in Rich Text and it will have the .rtf file extension. (On most windows applications, it is not enough to just add .rtf to the end of your file name; you must select rich text as the file type from the dropdown menu on the save file dialog).   

Failure to follow this file naming convention will incur a 5% penalty for each paper or assignment. 

Computer Literacy

If you are confident in the fact that you know nothing about computers, please don't take this course unless you have someone to provide you with technical assistance.  You need to be able to complete course requirements with confidence.  You must have or do the following:

• Have an email address (capable of sending attachments) that you check on a regular basis.  All private communications will be conducted by email. If you do not use your UAM email account, you must email me the one that you do check.

• Check the message boards frequently.  These boards will take the place of our classroom discussions. Participation is important to your success in the course.

Equipment

To complete this course successfully, you will need access to a computer with internet access, email, and a web browser [MS Explorer is recommended].  You can survive without a printer, but attempting it is highly discouraged.  (You will be required to keep a notebook with hard copies of your work.)  Most of the course content is specifically designed to be compact, so older computers and the use of a modem (rather than broadband) should not present a problem.   

Files

This course will require you to send many documents to the professor as email attachments.  Your professor does not have every word-processing program ever created.  Thus, there are some file conventions that you MUST follow when sending attachments.  Simply put, your documents must be readable in Microsoft Word.  This means that you must either create them in a relatively recent version of Word or save them in Rich Text Format.  This latter format has the file extension .rtf.  Most word processors allow you to select this as the file type when you are saving a document.

A Note from the Provost’s Office

 The following action is prohibited under the Student Conduct Code: Disorderly Conduct: Any behavior which disrupts the regular or normal functions of the University community, including behavior which breaches the peace or violates the rights of others.