Book excerpt: Bringing criminal law to life. Criminal Law Today, Fifth Edition, brings criminal law to life by relating it to real stories from today's headlines. The text's approach is strongly influenced by the belief that the law has always been, and remains, a vital policy-making tool. As a topic for study and discussion, the nature and life of the law is more important today than ever before. The text highlights the challenges that face the law as it continues to adapt to the needs of a complex and rapidly changing society and features a balanced text/casebook approach that provides a lively introduction to criminal law. Effective in-text learning tools give students the resources they need to master the material presented in the text. MyCJLab was designed to meet the needs of today's instructors and students. MyCJLab provides instructors with a rich and flexible set of course materials, along with course management tools that make it easy to deliver all or a portion of your course online. MyCJLab provides students with a personalized interactive learning environment, where they can learn at their own pace and measure their progress.