Crime & Law Enforcement

A new documentary revisits Genovese's 1964 murder and the 38 bystanders who allegedly did nothing to stop it. Critic John Powers says the film is "a useful moral corrective" to the popular narrative.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Halfway Heaven" by Melanie Thernstrom (Doubleday) about the 1995 murder of a Harvard student by her roommate.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Napoleon of Crime" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Aug. 15) a biography of Adam Worth, the most famous criminal of the Victorian Age by London Times reporter Ben Macintyre.

Television critic David Bianculli reviews "The Neon Empire" a new mini-series on Showtime which stars Martin Landau, Gary Busey, and Ray Sharkey. It follows in the footsteps of NBC's belated "Crime Story."

Book Critic John Leonard reviews Wasted, an investigation of last year's `Preppie Murder' trial in New York City. Robert Chambers, son of a wealthy New York City couple, was charged with the murder of Jennifer Levin, herself the product of wealthy parents and New York's finest private schools. The trial was a headline-grabber for Chambers' controversial defense and for its exposure of the aimless, dissolute lifestyle of the children of the wealthy.