Criminal Justice

An area that’s captured the public imagination from tv shows like Mindhunter and Criminal Minds is criminal profiling. But what’s the reality behind the hype? What is criminal profiling? What do profilers do? Does profiling work? In this film we address these questions through contemporary UK profilers and psychologists, look at some famous case studies and examine different approaches to criminal offender profiling.

How can a policeman know if a suspect is lying or not? What makes a good interrogation? In America, an estimated 25% of confessions are thought to be false. Pressure, relentless questioning, fatigue, delirium; all can play a significant part in an interrogation and suspects have been known to admit to crimes which they have been proven innocent of years later while in jail. We examine some of these cases and see how bad and overpowering questioning methods can actually suppress the truth rather than reveal it.

The new FRONTLINE documentary, Policing the Police, is a provocative journey inside one police force that's been ordered to reform by the Department of Justice: the Newark Police Department in New Jersey. Take a nuanced glimpse into how topics in the national discussion about race and policing are playing out every day on the streets of Newark, in community members' homes, and in the city's police precincts.

This four-part series tells the story of a small group of incarcerated men and women struggling to earn college degrees and turn their lives around in one of the most rigorous and effective prison education programs in the United States - the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI). Shot over four years in maximum and medium security prisons in New York State, the programs take viewers on a stark and intimate journey into one of the most pressing issues of our time - our failure to provide meaningful rehabilitation for the over two million Americans living behind bars.

FRONTLINE investigates the impact of mass incarceration in America.

Returning Citizens focuses on a group of individuals released from prison who are looking for a second chance. From freshly returning individuals struggling to rebuild their lives, to community leaders working to end the ongoing cycle of crime and violence, the stories unveiled in Returning Citizens offer proof that change is possible when the right opportunities are presented.