Bad People is back! Criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw makes a return to the series with a new co-host: journalist Amber Haque.

Listen every Thursday.

It’s the Bad People finale. In this last ever episode, Julia and Sofie dig into the ethics of the media covering criminal cases.

After a press “campaign of vilification”, all charges against Christopher Jefferies were dismissed. The tabloids had incorrectly painted him as Joanna Yeates’ killer. Mr Jefferies took the newspapers responsible to court - and won. He then gave evidence during the Leveson Inquiry, the UK’s landmark investigation into wrongdoing and alleged corruption within the media.

In this episode of Bad People, criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw and comedian Sofie Hagen discuss why many of us think the media is biased against our own views because of “the hostile media effect”. They talk about the Leveson inquiry and what makes media coverage of crimes bad -- or good.

At the end, they summarise what they learned from working on Bad People for the past three and a half years.

CREDITS

Presenters: Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen

#BadPeople_BBC

In December 2010, the UK media became fixated with the disappearance of 25 year-old Joanna Yeates. When her body was discovered, many tabloid newspapers felt certain they knew the identity of her murderer. Christopher Jefferies had been Joanna’s landlord and was considered by some to be “strange”. The claims against Christopher were unfounded. Being hounded by the press left lasting reputational and psychological scars.

In this episode of Bad People, Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen ask: is it possible to have a fair trial when the tabloids have decided you are guilty? They explore research on prejudicial pre-trial publicity as well as “media shock” effects after police issue warnings about a killer on the loose.

CREDITS

Presenters: Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen

Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins

#BadPeople_BBC

Daniella Isaacs, the creator of the new BBC Sounds audio drama, People Who Knew Me, joins Dr Julia Shaw in a conversation about faking one’s own death and using the terrorist attacks in America on September 11th 2001 to do so.

We ask, who fakes their own death and why? And how easy is it to pull it off?

Warning: This episode contains references to the 9/11 attacks and also suicide and drowning.

CREDITS

Presenter: Dr Julia Shaw

Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins

#BadPeople_BBC

Convicted child sex offender Mark Sutherland has arranged to meet a 13 year-old boy at a bus station, but when he arrives a team of adult “paedophile hunters” greet him with a video camera.

In this episode of Bad People, hosts Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen explore vigilante justice. What right, if any, do these “hunters” have to track down sex offenders? When text messaging, do people have a right to privacy? And do sex offender registries make us safer or just more scared?

CREDITS

Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins

#BadPeople_BBC

In 2010 Pramila Krishnan, a journalist for the Deccan Chronicle, filed a story about a little-known practice called Thalaikoothal. The story was huge in India and lead to the filming of the 2020 Tamil-language film Baaram, which translates as The Burden.

In this episode of Bad People, Sofie Hagen and Dr Julia Shaw discuss senicide, the killing of older adults. At what point is someone “old” and how does frailty fit into it? At what age, if any, should we want to die? And how prevalent is elder abuse?

The audio in this episode is from the film Baaram, directed by Priya Krishnaswamy, a Reckless Roses production. Some audio is also from Satyameva Jayate, produced by Aamir Khan Productions.

CREDITS

Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins

#BadPeople_BBC

It’s 2001 and 14-year-old Anthony Haynes has died. He was one of some 50 kids who participated in a military-style, wilderness programme that was supposed to give troubled teens a new start.

Hailed at the time as a local legend among parents struggling with their children, Anthony’s mother had enrolled him after a spell of behavioural problems. Yet, the wilderness therapy Anthony experienced consisted of drill instructions and desert isolation- the sort of ‘tough love’ rife within America’s Troubled Teen Industry.

Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen discuss the original ideas behind wilderness therapy, the experiences of survivors such as Paris Hilton, and the efficacy of the programmes of this unregulated industry. And, what are alternative interventions for reducing adolescent delinquency?

CREDITS

Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins

#BadPeople_BBC

The Central Park Five confess on video to police and appear on every front page in America. But why did they confess if it’s not true?

In this second episode of this two parter, Bad People hosts Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen explore how the police interview children. Should they be treated the same as adults? Or is there a better way to extract their testimony?

CREDITS

Presenters: Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen

#BadPeople_BBC

It’s 9pm in New York City. More than thirty young men have gathered on the corner of 110th Street and 5th Avenue. They are attacking innocent people in Central Park. What they don’t know is that a woman will also be sexually assaulted, and that five of their friends will be convicted for a brutal crime they didn’t commit. The Central Park Five falsely confess on video to police.

CREDITS

Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins

#BadPeople_BBC

In 2015 a woman in Saskatoon was strangled by a belt. Did her friend do it?

She has been strangled by a belt that lies next to her body - the same belt her best friend was wearing in a photograph of the two of them that was posted on Facebook earlier that evening. What can really be learned by what we choose to post online? And what might cause a friendship to take a violent turn?

On this episode of Bad People, Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen explore the psychology of “breaking up” with friends, the role of social media for teens’ mental health, and why people so rarely murder their friends.

CREDITS

Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins

#BadPeople_BBC

Clip: The He Lab “About Lulu and Nana: Twin Girls Born Healthy After Gene Surgery As Single-Cell Embryos”