This website gives a comprehensive overview of the criminal
law of New York State. It is in part designed to dispel the common
misperception that the New
York Penal Law contains an exhaustive list of criminal offenses.
Instead, New York criminal law is dispersed among a wide variety of sources,
covering all branches of the State government and all governmental entities
from the State down to the smallest municipal entity. Criminal offenses
are promulgated by every branch of State government (legislative, judiciary,
and executive) and by every governmental entity in the State (State, counties,
towns, and villages).
Purpose
This website is presented as a public service by the
Buffalo
Criminal Law Center to the bench, the bar, the legislature, and the
interested public of New York State.
Housed by the Law School of the State University of New
York at Buffalo, the Buffalo Criminal Law Center pursues three objectives,
one legislative, one scholarly, and one pedagogic.
to provide state and federal legislatures with in-depth analyses
of criminal justice issues to encourage the development of long-term approaches
to the problem of crime and punishment,
to serve as a forum for innovative research on criminal law
to reinvigorate the study of criminal law in the United States, and
to permit students at the State University of New York Buffalo
School of Law to conduct advanced research on criminal law under close
faculty supervision.
For more information on the Center's projects and activities,
including the Buffalo Criminal Law Review, the Annual Criminal Law Conference,
the Masters Program in Criminal Law, and the Herbert Wechsler National
Criminal Law Moot Court Competition, please visit our website.
Coverage
This compilation includes all New York State criminal
provisions as they appear in the New York State Consolidated
and Unconsolidated Laws. It includes
all felonies
and misdemeanors,
as well as all other violations
or other offenses the commission of which is threatened with incarceration
in prison or jail.
Please note that the compilation does not include criminal
provisions promulgated by the following entities:
the legislatures of lower level governmental entities within
New York State (e.g., counties, cities, towns, and villages)--for criminal
offenses promulgated by Erie County and the City of Buffalo, click here,
otherwise consult the codes and charters of the various entities;
the judicial branch of New York State, including the Court
of Appeals and other New York State courts--for further information, consult
N.Y. Comp. Codes, R. & Regs.;
the State's executive branch, including various administrative
agencies, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Banking Board,
the Civil Service Commission, the Department of Corrections, the Department
of Economic Development, the Department of Education, the Board of Elections,
the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Transportation,
the office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Development, local authorities
(water, electric, etc.), the Department of Health, the New York State Racing
& Wagering Board, the State Board of Real Property Services, the Department
of Taxation & Finance, the Department of Transportation, or the Workman's
Compensation Board--for further information, consult N.Y. Comp. Codes,
R. & Regs.
Source
All links are to the unannotated versions of New York
State legislation available on the New York State Assembly's official
website, with one exception: links to the New York Penal Law
are to the annotated version featured on the Penal
Law Web, an integrated systematic collection of materials on American
and foreign penal law, including annotated and unannotated penal codes,
300+ court opinions, commentary, and the Penal Code Comparer.
