The “true-crime boom” of the mid- to late 2010s is a strange pop-culture phenomenon, given that it is not so much a new type of programming as an acknowledgement of a centuries-long obsession: People love true stories about murder and other brands of brutality and grift, and they have gorged on them particularly since the beginning of modern journalism.

A man with personal experience in the criminal justice system explains why trying to eradicate violence with violence is foolish, destructive, and a fundamentally broken idea.

What to do if you're robbed.