Criminal Law 2 continues the examination of substantive criminal offences undertaken in Criminal Law 1, while exploring their operation and connection to the broader social context that they operate in and claim to operate on. There are a number of undergraduate and postgraduate elective offerings in the criminal justice stream broadly defined, which all draw or build on the Criminal Law courses. In fact there are few areas of law that do not incorporate criminal offences as one arm of regulation of conduct in that area. It is therefore important to understand both how the criminal law has developed and currently operates in its areas of main impact in order to appreciate the potential that criminal offences have to change the nature of regulation of conduct in other areas.