Social Issues

Thought-provoking reporting and documentaries on the forces shaping society and culture, from technology, health care and sexual harassment to gun laws, human trafficking and more.

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Accident or Homicide? Medical Rulings in Arrest-Related Deaths Can Dictate What Happens to Police
Police in the United States rarely face criminal charges when civilians die after the use of force such as physical blows, restraints or Tasers.
December 18, 2024
There Were Warnings. Why Wasn’t the Shooter in Lewiston, Maine Stopped?
Less than four months before an Army reservist would carry out the deadliest shooting in Maine's history, he was hospitalized for psychosis and clinicians learned he had a "hit list." It was one in a series of warnings laid out in ‘Breakdown in Maine,’ a new documentary from FRONTLINE, Maine Public and the Portland Press Herald.
December 10, 2024
54m
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Breakdown in Maine
FRONTLINE, the Portland Press Herald and Maine Public investigate the deadliest mass shooting in Maine history and the missed opportunities to prevent it.
December 10, 2024
How Maine’s Novel ‘Yellow Flag’ Law Endured After the Lewiston Mass Shooting
Maine’s law is a compromise rooted in a tradition of gun rights that crosses the political aisle.
Portland Press Herald & Maine Public
October 30, 2024
1h 24m
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American Voices
FRONTLINE follows the changing views and experiences of Americans from the 2020 election season to today.
October 29, 2024
Thousands of Children Adopted by Americans Are Without Citizenship. Congress Is Unwilling To Act
The U.S. celebrated saving foreign orphans. But thousands were left without citizenship, at risk of deportation, because of loopholes in American law.
October 25, 2024
A Year After the Lewiston Mass Shooting, Six Portraits of Grief
Eighteen people were killed, 13 were shot and survived, and many others witnessed the deadliest attack in Maine’s history. A year later, a look at how some have navigated the aftermath.
Portland Press Herald & Maine Public
October 24, 2024
A Maine Law Could Have Forced the Lewiston Mass Shooter Into Mental Health Treatment. Why Wasn’t It Used?
Like nearly every other state, Maine can compel those with serious mental illnesses to comply with outpatient treatment. But the law is rarely used. Some fear it threatens to return America to a dark era of institutionalization.
Portland Press Herald & Maine Public
October 18, 2024
Who Am I? A South Korean Adoptee Finds Answers About the Past — Just Not the Ones She Wants
Thousands of South Korean adoptees are looking to satisfy a raw, compelling urge that much of the world takes for granted: the search for identity. Rebecca Kimmel, one of them, has stumbled into a web of switched photos, made-up stories and false documents that erase the very identity she desperately wants to find.
October 14, 2024
Uvalde City Officials Release Dozens of Missing Videos From Officers Responding to Robb Elementary Massacre
The new material largely affirms prior reporting by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and FRONTLINE detailing law enforcement’s failures to engage the teen shooter who killed 19 children and two teachers in 2022.
October 9, 2024
How Tucson Police Handled a Death Like George Floyd’s When Leaders Thought It Would Never Happen
Like many American cities, in June 2020 Tucson was struggling with the murder of George Floyd. What protesters didn’t know was that their city had two undisclosed deaths of Latino men who — like Floyd — said they could not breathe after officers pinned them face down.
October 8, 2024
A Series of Deaths and the ‘Big Fight’: Uncovering Police Force in One Midwestern City
Police leaders called the training “routine” when one recruit died and another was badly injured at their academy.
October 8, 2024