16 Memorable Crime Stories We Published This Year

Inside the turmoil at Marlborough, one of Los Angeles' most exclusive high schools. The teacher left Polytechnic School only after inquiries from a BuzzFeed reporter, and the headmaster also later resigned.

When police raided a suburban Georgia home, looking for drugs and weapons, a stun grenade would leave a 19-month-old fighting for his life and his family facing more than $1 million in medical debt.

Prosecutors say Officer Daniel Holtzclaw made a mistake after a series of sexual assaults on black women in Oklahoma City — he profiled the wrong woman. His family says he's a victim of "solicited testimony" from women who have "personal motives" to lie.

No matter what decision the grand jury makes, the residents of Michael Brown's apartment complex have made up their minds — they want out.

Chris Epps wanted to reform Mississippi's harsh, decrepit prison system. Now he's facing three centuries in the slammer.

A restaurant company allegedly owned by the Chinese government was ordered to pay its workers millions in back wages. Then it completely disappeared.

"How does somebody go into a Walmart and not come out alive?"

Zahara Green's recent lawsuit against prison officials may reveal how the state is failing to protect transgender people — or even recognize them.

Dismissed as "agitators" and "fools," Ferguson's young protesters are actually ordinary young black men — and some women — who are leaderless but united by anger. And some don't think the old civil rights guard achieved much: "I feel in my heart they failed us."

When Michael Dunn was on trial for killing a 17-year-old in Jacksonville, most didn't know much more about the victim other than that he was shot over a dispute over "loud music." But before Jordan Davis became another symbol of Florida's deeply divisive "stand your ground" policy, he was just a kid.

West Virginia has a juvenile incarceration problem that's costing one of the poorest states in the country millions of dollars. Families say it's because judges are too quick to take their kids away.

Katie Rapp, a soldier who reported sexual harassment while she was deployed in Afghanistan in 2011-2012, recorded her four-hour interview with a sexual assault investigator and provided it exclusively to BuzzFeed News.

The story of violent black protest in the U.S. is an old one — it's self-destructive but it sometimes gets results.

This year's celebrity nude photo hack may be the most high-profile example of "revenge porn" — humiliating women by spreading private photos. A dedicated group of activists, led by the mother of a victim, has been pushing for more aggressive laws, but can this really be stopped?

Kamaal Bennett built a social platform for incarcerated gang leaders. It's already changing how they see themselves, and the outside world.