Overview
Did you break any laws today? How would you know? America now has over 300,000 federal laws--and that doesn’t include state laws. In this video, John Stossel and Rafael Mangual discuss overcriminalization and how more laws creates more criminals out of ordinary Americans.

Enter your email address below to access these resources

To help ensure our emails reach your inbox, you may provide a personal email address to bypass school spam filters.

Grade level and subjects
• Recommended for grades 6-12
• Subjects: Government
• Works in Classroom, Hybrid, and Homeschool settings

What students will learn
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
• explain the concept of overcriminalization;
• identify laws that represent overcriminalization;
• discuss some reasons for overcriminalization;
• summarize the consequences of overcriminalization including social and economic costs, and the impact on relationships between people and between people and their government; and
• propose solutions to the problems of overcriminalization.

Key concepts and terms covered
Overcriminalization, Federal Crimes, and State Crimes.

Sample discussion questions
• Why are some actions that are against the law?
• Why do we have police?
• In the video, we heard about Tammy Hedges, who sheltered animals during a hurricane to keep them from drowning. She was charged with a misdemeanor for practicing or attempting veterinary medicine without a license. The prosecutor said she put those animals at risk. Didn’t the hurricane do that?
• How is our justice system harmed by overcriminalization?
• How would any of us go about fighting overcriminalization?

What’s in the free teacher’s guide
This printable 17-page Teacher's Guide includes a lesson description, learning objectives, key vocabulary, a fill-in viewing guide with answer key, discussion and analysis questions, and classroom activities.

Standards alignment
Aligned to state standards — use the SITC Standards Tool to match this video to the standards in your state.