Book Recommendations: True Crime

Two victims of an infamous Cleveland kidnapper share the story of their abductions, their decade in captivity and their dramatic escape&site=100

Looks at horse trainer Gail Ruffu and her decision to take a racehorse from the hands of a group of abusive co-owners and the legal battles that followed.

Nearly one in five girls ages fourteen to seventeen have been the victim of a sexual assault or attempted sexual assault. This is the true story of one of those girls. It also takes a magnifying glass to the institutions that turn a blind eye to such behavior and a society that blames victims rather than perpetrators

This thrilling panorama of real-life events investigates a secret world run by a surprising criminal: a charismatic middle-aged grandmother, who from a tiny noodle shop in New York's Chinatown managed a mulitmillion-dollar business smuggling people.

Tells the true story of an agender teen who was set on fire by another teen while riding a bus in Oakland, a crime that focuses on the concepts of race, class, gender, crime, and punishment.

Derf describes his classmate Jeffrey Dahmer's teenage years as a lonely oddball. Dahmer would go on to become one of the United States' most notorious serial killers.

Discusses the trial of Lizzie Borden and the murders of her parents.

During his twenty-five year career with the Investigative Support Unit, Special Agent John Douglas became a legendary figure in law enforcement, pursuing some of the most notorious and sadistic serial killers of our time, including Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and Ed Gein, who dressed himself in his victims' peeled skin. Using his uncanny ability to become both predator and prey, Douglas examines each crime scene, reliving both the killer's and the victim's actions in his mind, creating their profiles, describing their habits, and predicting their next moves

Prosecuting Attorney in the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Here is the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime.

Presents Capote's masterful account of the senseless 1959 murders of four members of a farm family in Holcomb, Kansas, and the search for the killers, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith.

Taking readers back to 1924, this shocking true crime story follows two eighteen-year-old college students who kidnapped and murdered a child they both knew, their trial, and how a renowned defense attorney enabled them to avoid the death penalty.

A murder in a small Long Island town reveals the dark secrets lurking behind the seemingly peaceful façade in this latest installment of the Simon True series. On June 19, 1984, seventeen-year-old Ricky Kasso murdered Gary Lauwers in what local police and the international press dubbed a "Satanic Sacrifice."

Provides an account of the shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, focusing on the teenage killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, drawing from interviews, police files, psychological studies, and writings and tapes by the boys to look at the signs they left that disaster was looming.

Presents a true account of the early twentieth-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history. Also available in a young adult version.

A collection of photographs of young people in juvenile detention, accompanied by the life stories that those in custody shared with the photographer.

A collection of essays in which inmates at American prisons who were sentenced to death while still in their teens share their thoughts and feelings about how they ended up in prison and how they feel about capital punishment.

Argues that mass incarceration of African- and Latino Americans in the United States is a form of social control, and contends the civil rights community needs to become more active in protecting the rights of criminals.

The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice.

A graphic novel adaptation of Marc Mauer's study of criminal justice policy in the U.S. that discusses the explosion in prison populations in recent years, and considers the reasons why the national approach to solving crime has been to rely on the prison at the expense of other more effective and humane responses.