Mary Ann Duignan

The Most Dangerous Woman in the World

“Chicago May” was a classic swindler who conned her way around the world in the early twentieth century. She was also a sign of hard times.
A rose, Zéphirine Drouhin, against a black background

What Do Gardens and Murder Have in Common?

Writers have long plotted murder mysteries in gardens of all sorts. What makes these fertile grounds for detective fiction?
An illustration of a hand holding a set of hand cuffs

A True Crime Syllabus

How did we become so obsessed with “true crime”? This multidisciplinary syllabus shows how we view crime as a whole and how those views have changed over time.
Threat of excommunication to thieves of books in the library of the University of Salamanca

Book Thieves Take the Story and Run with It

Book theft: the books may be rare, but the crime is not.
Tom Cruise runs in a scene from the film 'Minority Report', 2002

The History of Precrime

UCLA’s Violence Center was squelched by political revolt, not so much for its ambition to stockpile behavioral data as Americans' fear of psychosurgery.
An illustration of pollen and dust in the atmosphere from Popular Science Monthly, 1883

The Mystery of Crime-Scene Dust

In the late nineteenth century, forensic investigators began using new technologies to study minute details—such as the arrangement and makeup of dust.
The Thames Police

Creating the “Criminal Class”

In the late eighteenth century, Glasgow magistrate Patrick Colquhoun argued that immoral living had created a distinct class of people with weak characters.
The Body Shop and ECPAT campaign at The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand on March 29, 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Creating a Safety Net: CST in International Law

Robust international partnership models that build capacity and trust can help fight child sex tourism and commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Harper's Weekly, October 17, 1874 issue. Illustration by John A. Randolph of the scene of "A Colorado Tragedy."

The Colorado Cannibal

Prospector Alferd Packer, stranded in the San Juan Mountains, was forced to eat his companions to survive the brutal winter conditions. Or was he?

Our Obsession with Art Heists

A deeply ingrained interest in stolen objects and their recovery reflects our collective uncertainty over how we value art.