case studies

Surveys the histories of six countries that have survived social and political upheavals and discusses how and why they survived where other countries have not--from Japan and the forced opening of its borders by U.S. Commodore Perry's Fleet to the ways Australia and Germany transformed after World War II. Forecasts the futures of nations in current crises and remarks on the signs of whether or not they are going to learn lessons from the past and survive.

To their family, neighbors, and online friends, Louise and David Turpin presented a picture of domestic bliss: dressing their thirteen children in matching outfits and buying them expensive gifts. But what police discovered when they entered the Turpin family home would eclipse the most shocking child abuse cases in history. For years, David and Louise had kept their children in increasing isolation, trapping them in a sinister world of torture, fear, and near starvation. In the first major account of the case, investigative journalist John Glatt delves into the disturbing details and recounts the bravery of the thirteen siblings in the face of unimaginable horror.

"On October 1, 1993, a 12-year-old girl was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom in Petaluma, California, during a sleepover with two friends, while her mother slept soundly in the room next door. This rarest of all kidnappings--a stranger abduction from the home--triggered one of the largest manhunts in FBI history. Riddled with red herrings, grave mistakes, dead ends, and false leads, from fake ransom calls to junior high pranks to dramatic SWAT raids, the 65-day search for 'America's Child' became every FBI agent's--and every parent's--worst nightmare"--Provided by publisher.

An agent in the world-renowned FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit who consulted on more than 850 homicide cases, crossing paths with some of the world's most infamous serial killers, and the real-life model for The Silence of the Lambs's Clarice Starling, shares her incredible story for the first time.

"Years before the name Alex Murdaugh was splashed across every major media outlet in America, local South Carolina journalist Mandy Matney had an instinct that something wasn't right in the Lowcountry. The powerful Murdaugh dynasty had dominated rural South Carolina for generations. No one dared to cross them. When Mandy and her reporting partner Liz Farrell looked closer at a fatal boat crash involving the storied family's teenage son, Paul, they began to uncover a web of mysteries surrounding the deaths of the Murdaughs' longtime housekeeper and a young man found slain years earlier on a backcountry road. Just as their investigations were unfolding, the brutal double murder of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh rocketed Alex Murdaugh onto the international stage . . . [This book] is a propulsive true-crime saga, an empathetic work of investigative journalism, and an excoriation of the 'good old boy' systems that enabled a network of criminals"--Provided by publisher.

"Recounts the case histories of patients lost in the . . . apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. Tells the stories of individuals afflicted with . . . perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents"--OCLC.

Alphabetically arranged entries examine more than three hundred of the most notorious criminals and murderers in United States history and explore how their stories have been glorified by the media.

Describes how Russ Faria was wrongfully prosecuted and convicted for his wifes 2011 murder, despite having an alibi supported by surveillance video, receipts, and friends testimony and that her friend, Pamela Hupp, had recently replaced him as her insurance beneficiary.

"In the late hours of July 22, 1991, Detective Patrick "Pat" Kennedy of the Milwaukee Police Department was asked to respond to a possible homicide. Little did he know that he would soon be delving into the dark mind of one of America's most notorious serial killers, the "Milwaukee Cannibal" Jeffrey Dahmer. As the media clamored for details, Kennedy spent the next six weeks, sixteen hours a day, locked in an interrogation room with Dahmer. There the thirty-one-year-old killer described in lurid detail how he lured several young men to his apartment where he strangled, sexually assaulted, dismembered, and in some cases, cannibalized his victims. In Grilling Dahmer, Kennedy takes readers inside the mind of evil as he patiently, meticulously, listens to unspeakable horrors."--Google Books.

Laura Schroff reflects on how she formed a friendship with an eleven-year-old, New York homeless boy named Maurice and how it changed both of their lives.