The Science of Crime - Mondays at 22.30

With the introduction of forensic science, the battle between the police and the perpetrators of crimes has become ever more tactical. Each side has developed more sophisticated ways of committing, and solving, crimes. Forensics allows police to use a tiny skin sample, a blood splatter, a clothing fibre – all invisible to the naked eye – to identify a culprit. But are these techniques as infallible as they first seem? How can the innocent sometimes be found guilty? How do the criminals sometimes walk away unpunished? From the study of explosives and fire, to dentistry, DNA or blood spatter analysis, the clues left at a crime scene can take many forms and provide the police with the ability to understand the truth of some seemingly unexplainable ‘accidents’. It was the teeth marks on a victim that led to the conviction of infamous American serial killer Ted Bundy, who was responsible for the murder of more than 30 women; and blood spatter analysis helped police discover that in a brutal attack in a Florida furniture store, it was the only surviving victim that was the perpetrator – murdering his family and a shop worker before shooting himself to make it look as though he was also wounded.

Infamous Assassinations - Weekdays at 23.25 and 23.50

From the assassination of John F Kennedy to the gunning down of Mahatma Gandhi, the tragic shooting of John Lennon to the brutal bombing of one of Hitler’s henchmen, this series brings you the stories of these infamous assassinations.

Tony Robinson’s Crime And Punishment - Tuesdays at 22.30

Every aspect of life is governed by the law. It controls where you can walk and where you can’t, when you can drink and how much, how you're expected to behave in public. It tells us who we are and what we value and is so pervasive and powerful that no-one stands above it, not the rich or famous, nor our politicians or country leaders.

In the series Tony Robinson goes on a fascinating and sometimes bizarre journey to discover the origins of our laws, from trials by boiling water, through the decapitation of a king, to the emergence of our modern democracy. It’s a journey that starts two thousand years ago and remains unfinished today. Tony finds out how the Normans created the first surveillance society, how today’s compensation culture was started by the Anglo Saxons and how a man whose body is kept in a London cupboard inspired us to stop stringing people up and start banging them up instead.

Eyewitness - Thursdays at 22:30

This series examines how the police investigate crimes and the techniques they use to find their way through the complex web of memory.

Russian Godfathers - Weekdays from Thursday 5 August at 23.25

This is the inside story of the world’s highest-stakes poker game; the fate of the entire Russian nation hangs in the balance. President Putin and seven of the world’s richest men are locked in a battle to rule Russia. On one side is the President, supported by a population disgusted to learn that seven men effectively own their country. On the other side are the billionaires, deploying all their power and wealth to try to win back control.

With the active connivance of the Russian government, these so-called ‘oligarchs’ ran close to 70% of the entire economy: from oil and gas to rare metals and retail services, textiles and food processing to real estate and the media. Like the robber barons of 19th and early 20th Century America – Carnegie, Rockefeller, Astor – these men rose to power via a mix of bribery, influence-peddling, insider-dealing, intimidation and sheer ruthlessness.

Louis Theroux: A Place for Paedophiles - Friday 6 August at 22.30

Louis gained access to Coalinga Mental Hospital in California, which houses more than 500 of the most disturbed criminals in America, convicted paedophiles. Most have already served lengthy prison sentences, but have been deemed unsafe for release. Instead, they have been sent here for an indefinite time.

Who Is Kurt Wallander? - Wednesday 11 August at 22.30

Presented by best-selling British crime author John Harvey, this film looks at the publishing phenomenon that is Henning Mankell. Following the writer as he divides his time between Sweden and the Mozambique capital of Maputo where he lives with his wife, the film looks at his work and his beliefs. Kurt Wallander is very different to traditional tough guy cops. He responds to danger with stooped shoulders and an overwhelming sense that it’s more than he can handle.

But there is more to Mankell’s work than police procedurals. Mankell explains how he’s been writing to ‘unmask’ society. He uses Wallander to express his views on all the traumatic topics which give rise to the New Right populism: the flow of illegal immigrants, soaring crime and violence, growing unemployment and social insecurity. Mankell sees himself as a man on a crusade to focus on those who remain in shadow, on desperate lost existences, on the long and painful decay of the Swedish cradle to grave welfare-state.

Louis Theroux: Jo’burg Security - Friday 13 August at 22.30

Louis Theroux travels to Johannesburg, where the residents find themselves increasingly besieged by crime. Despairing of the capability of the police and the courts to protect them, many have turned to an industry of private security, offering protection for a price. Are the sometimes brutal methods of these private police really a solution or just another part of the problem?