Crime and detection

Capital punishment––the ultimate penalty––is one of the most controversial aspects of America's criminal justice system. Its inclusion in the U.S. constitution sparks heated debate with opponents claiming that it is incompatible with the principles on which the world's greatest democracy stands. Although the death penalty has been around for thousands of years, modern America has changed it in fundamental ways. These days no criminal is put...

U.S. prison system is the largest and most innovative in the world. It boasts some of the most technologically advanced prisons in existence, meeting the highest standards in security. Inside these vast, specialized structures, containing thousands of inmates, highly trained corrections officers use technology to anticipate outbreaks of violence and to prevent riots and escape attempts. The tightly regulated prison system relies on many professionals....

Presents the details of several sensational trials from around the world.

The spread of terrorism is perhaps the greatest threat facing the world today. Attacks have occurred in growing numbers during the past fifty years. The destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, and the simultaneous attack on the Pentagon, on September 11, 2001, awakened the attention of the United States to the threat posed to civilian populations throughout the world. Terrorism first assumed an international dimension in 1964 with the establishment...

Traces the history of hate crimes, from the persecution of Native Americans, to modern cases, like the Oklahoma City bombing and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which was aimed at all Americans.

Provides the history of torture, from its earliest uses right up to the present day, explaining the tools and techniques of torture, and also details the fight against torture through the work of international campaigners such as Amnesty International.

Organized crime is a global phenomenon. From Sicily came the Mafia; Japan spawned and then exported the Yakuza, as China did its Triads, and post-Soviet Russia saw the birth and rapid escalation of its very own Mafiya. These criminal fraternities differ from common criminal gangs in that they operate much like legitimate business corporations, highly efficient and massively profitable, with a definite hierarchical structure. There was a time when...

America has long prided itself as a country where people of different races and cultures came together to form a new nationality. "Races didn't bother the Americans," U.S. poet Archibald MacLeish wrote. "They were the first self-constituted, self-created people in the history of the world." Unfortunately, the idea of the harmonious "melting pot" has not always matched the reality in this country. Race crimes, like other forms of criminal behavior,...

Explores the origins and evolution of the greatest democracy's system of justice.

Describes the current drug scene, the level to which drug abuse has risen, and the efforts being made to control drug dealing and drug use.