A Criminal Law outline is a two column document with a ladder in the middle. Two columns because the course runs on the common law and Model Penal Code split, and the exams that separate students are built in the gaps between the regimes; a ladder because homicide is the centerpiece, and the grading of a killing up and down its rungs is the single most tested move in the course. The general build is in how to outline; this is the Crim architecture, with the ladder written out as the exemplar.

The skeleton

• The elements framework: actus reus with the omission triggers, mens rea with the MPC hierarchy, purposely, knowingly, recklessly, negligently, defined tightly, concurrence, and causation
• Homicide: the ladder page, detailed below
• Inchoate crimes: attempt with its preparation versus perpetration line, conspiracy with its scope rules, solicitation, plus a merger box
• Accomplice liability: the aid plus intent formula and its reach
• Theft crimes: a precision table, one line each distinguishing larceny, embezzlement, false pretenses, robbery, burglary, by how the property moves and what mental state attaches
• Defenses: sorted justifications versus excuses, with a reach matrix showing which defenses touch which crimes, self defense with the initial aggressor and proportionality limits, necessity, duress, insanity by the test your course used, intoxication split voluntary and involuntary, mistake of fact and law

The exemplar: the homicide ladder

One page, drawn as rungs, each with its mental state and the doctrine that moves a killing between them. First degree murder: premeditation and deliberation, with your jurisdiction's formulation of how little time suffices. Second degree murder: malice, satisfied by intent to kill, intent to inflict serious bodily harm, or the depraved heart, extreme recklessness showing indifference to human life.

Felony murder: a killing during an enumerated or inherently dangerous felony, with the limits stacked beneath as flags, independence from the killing itself, the res gestae window, the agency versus proximate cause split on who did the killing. Voluntary manslaughter: the mitigation rung, adequate provocation, heat of passion, no cooling period, with the words alone are generally inadequate rule and, in the right column, the MPC's broader extreme mental or emotional disturbance standard judged from the actor's situation.

Involuntary manslaughter: criminal negligence, plus the misdemeanor manslaughter rule where covered. Beside the ladder, the two standing exam moves: argue up, does deliberation defeat the mitigation, and argue down, does provocation reduce, because every homicide question is built to straddle a rung, per the worked example in the Crim hub.

The merger and reach boxes

Two small boxes prevent the course's most common structural errors. The merger box: attempt and solicitation merge into the completed offense, conspiracy does not, one line, permanently visible. The defense reach matrix: a grid of defenses against crime categories, because voluntary intoxication can negate specific intent and almost never general, insanity reaches everything, self defense reaches force crimes, and exams are engineered to punish outlines that store defenses as an undifferentiated list.

What survives compression

The attack outline keeps the elements framework as its opening checklist, run these four for every charged crime, the ladder nearly whole, the theft table intact because it is already one line per crime, the merger box verbatim, and the reach matrix compressed to its surprising cells. The regime split compresses to flag words at each divergence, provocation versus EED, common law intent versus MPC hierarchy. Weight by your professor's demonstrated signature, felony murder annually, conspiracy's reach, per the Crim exam guide.

The structural mistakes

Storing crimes as names with descriptions instead of element tables, which reproduces the naming without elements error the exam punishes hardest. Writing the MPC mental states loosely, when their precise definitions, especially recklessness's conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk, are the course's most cited language. Filing felony murder without its limits, which converts a nuanced doctrine into a false automatic.

Letting the theft crimes run as prose, when the entire section is distinctions. And omitting the both directions flags from the ladder, which is where the exam's points concentrate. The shell with the ladder and boxes pre drawn is in the template library.

FAQ

How long should a Crim outline be?

Twenty five to thirty five pages at the master stage, among the leaner 1L outlines, because so much of the course reduces to tables, the ladder, and the two boxes.

Do I outline my state's actual criminal statutes?

Only if your professor assigned them, in which case their formulations join the right column as the governing text. Most 1L courses run on the common law and MPC pairing alone.

Which insanity test goes in the outline?

The one your course taught, usually M'Naghten's cognitive test, with one line noting the alternatives your professor mentioned. As everywhere, their chosen formulation is the exam's correct answer.

Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.

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