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Most students commencing legal studies will have some experience of crime, whether directly, as a victim of crime or indirectly through exposure to media coverage. This means that most offences covered on the syllabus, such as murder, theft and rape will be familiar terms . This tends to give students the impression that they know more about criminal law than they do about other subjects on the syllabus. This can be a real disadvantage in terms of the academic study of criminal law because it tends to lead students to rely on preconceived notions of the nature and scope of the offences and to reach instinctive, but often legally inaccurate, conclusions. It is absolutely essential to success in criminal law that you put aside any prior knowledge of the offences and focus on the principles of law derived from statutes and cases. By doing this , you will soon appreciate just how much difference there is between everyday conceptions of crime and its actuality.