Intro to American Criminal Law (Part 4) - Criminal Defenses

In this class, we will study criminal defenses in this class, including the difference between the defenses of insanity, intoxication, infancy, duress, necessity, self-defense, defense of others, consent, and a few others.

What is a criminal defense? A criminal defense is used when you have committed a crime, but you have a reason that you are either not responsible for your actions (insanity, intoxication, etc.) or you have a justification or excuse for your actions (self-defense, defense of others, consent, etc.). Many people believe that if you claim insanity as a defense, you can go free. But is that what really happens? That's just one of the things you will learn in this class.

I will provide videos for the course that will explain each topic along with practice story problems (called fact patterns in law) to help understand each concept. Students will be instructed to listen to a brief lesson, pause the video and try the practice problems themselves, then unpause the video to listen to the answers. Students should pay attention to the thinking behind the answers, not just the answers themselves.