When the Amber Alert System Fails: An Abduction on Navajo Land Highlight It took the murder of a young Navajo girl to get the tribal police to refine their Amber Alert system. But will these changes work?
How to (Almost) Get Away With Murder Highlight No one twigged that whenever a member of the Harrison family died, it was always just before an important hearing in a bitter child custody battle.
How Baltimore Police Abused Their Power Highlight Baltimore’s Gun Trace Task Force were celebrated for getting firearms off the street, until detectives discovered they were also robbing criminals of guns, drugs and money.
Feature Did Brian Easley Have to Die? Feature A desperate veteran, missing his disability payment, walked into a bank and took several people hostage. This is how he got there.
Elderly Japanese Women Are Turning to Crime to Find Companionship in Prison Highlight For some elderly women in Japan, prison offers companionship and a life free from worry.
Feature The Death Row Book Club Feature When Anthony Ray Hinton was sentenced to death for two murders he didn’t commit, he used his time to create a book club for death row inmates.
What Happened Onboard the ‘Nautilus’? Highlight May Jeong searches for answers after the death of her friend, journalist Kim Wall.
What If Forensic Science Isn’t Really Science? Highlight When bad forensics enter the courtroom, it can become impossible to get rid of them.
Feature A Teen and a Toy Gun Feature This is the story of the last day of 17-year-old Quanice Hayes’s life. It involves a police department that says they have no good way of deciphering between real guns and fake ones, and a family still searching for answers.
You’re On Death Row, You’ve Asked to Die, But the State Won’t Kill You Highlight Despite their hard-stance bluster, death penalty states rarely impose the ultimate sentence, even if you’re the prisoner and you ask them to.
Feature How ‘Cops’ Became the Most Polarizing Reality TV Show in America Feature What one of TV’s longest-running reality shows says about race and our relationship with the police.
Native Americans’ Persecution Continues; Only the Uniforms Have Changed Highlight Between deadly police shootings and a white correctional officer sexually assualting Native American women, the Bad River Band of the Ojibwe nation feels more preyed upon than protected.
Feature The Encyclopedia of the Missing Feature She keeps watch over one of the largest databases of missing persons in the country. For Meaghan Good, the disappeared are still out here, you just have to know where to look.
Feature Every Woman Her Own Bodyguard Feature Before women got the right to vote, they learned jiu-jitsu and boxing to defend themselves on the streets
Homelessness and Colorado’s Public Lands Highlight Illegal encampments on Colorado’s public lands are creating unsafe conditions for locals and damaging the land with trash.
Longreads Best of 2017: Crime Reporting Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in crime reporting.
How Angry Racists Plotted to Kill Somali Refugees in Kansas Highlight A small town welcomed hundreds of Somali refugees. A militia splinter group wanted them dead.
Feature No Más Fantasía Feature What happens when you’re sentenced to life in prison as a teenager, then released 19 years later and sent to a place that’s supposed to feel like home?
Treating Drug Epidemics Requires More Than Changes in Law Highlight How Portugal combats its drug epidemic with decriminalization, social services, and new ways of thinking.
Portland, Oregon, Where the Law Protects Car Thieves Instead of Peoples’ Cars Highlight Thanks to wacky laws, Portland, Oregon has the third highest car theft rate in America.
Greece’s Beleaguered Port City Highlight The violent chipping center of Aspropyrgos, Greece is a microcosm of Europe itself, struggling to benefit from the global economy while protecting its identity.
Feature The Third Life of Richard Miles Feature Richard Miles spent 15 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. The state of Texas compensated Miles for his wrongful conviction, but life after vindication has come with its own set of challenges.
In Service of the Slender Man: When Teen Girls Become Murderous Highlight Alex Mar on how and why teen-girl duos become murderous.
The Big Black Market for Spare Human Body Parts Highlight Beware, should you donate your body to science in the US. Lightly regulated, the industry is ripe for fraudsters trying to make a buck on your personage.
Wherever You Go, There You Are. Charles Manson is There, Too. Highlight Do we carry pieces of our younger selves with us, even as we grow and change?
Is This House Haunted, or Is That Just a Drunk Guy on the Lawn? Highlight The owners of the real-life Amityville Horror house had to have the street address changed to avoid the real terror: tourists.
Bringing Up the Bodies: How NecroSearch Helps Police to Locate the Dead Highlight Why do they volunteer their time in such a grisly enterprise? To bring closure to the families of the dead.
The Wolf In a Puffy Marmot Jacket Highlight Even when his tall tales became erratic, women still didn’t want to believe Jeff Caldwell was ripping them off.
Scientific Conferences Are Filled with Spies Highlight The world’s intelligence agencies send operatives to scientific conferences to collect information and protect themselves.
Feature An Interview with MacArthur ‘Genius’ Jason De León Feature The anthropologist studies the objects left behind by migrants as they cross the border.
