National Museum of Crime and Punishment: A History of Right and Wrong, Legally

America’s Most Wanted comes in a museum form, and the TV show’s set is actually located within the National Museum of Crime & Punishment. It’s not a museum for the faint of heart, but even those who might shut their eyes at the grotesqueness of the subject can’t help peek through their fingers in wonderment. Here, the National Museum of Crime & Punishment walks visitors through the history of crime, and punishment, and features some of history’s most prominent criminals.

The museum contains more than 700 artifacts and reproduction documenting crime and punishment of crime starting in medieval period and pirating days. America’s history of crime begins during colonial times, the Wild West, mob crime through modern day white-collar crime. The museum uses re-created sets and mannequins to transport visitors to the “scene of the crime," if you will.

Several galleries include reproductions of a police station, a pretend crime-scene, and Al Capone’s jail cell re-created from the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. Other galleries are dedicated to different periods, including the Wild West, pirates, medieval crime, serial killers, mass murderers and the media.

There’s a display of celebrity mug shots such as that of Bonnie and Clyde, police line-up, prisoners’ art, devices for injury and escape, and even a capital punishment room displaying a fake guillotine and gas chamber, and a real lethal injection machine and electric chair once used for 125 executions. Less gory are the daily tools and weapons used in every day crime fighting, including guns, night vision equipment, uniforms, types of restraints and other items. There is also a section dedicated to the history of the FBI and notable figures including J. Edgar Hoover, founding director of the FBI and Eliot Ness, the famous law enforcement official.

There’s a real learning aspect to the museum, which offers various crime-solving programs for kids and adults. Through the museum you’ll learn about forensic science, including fingerprinting, ballistics, blood analysis, footprints, dental and facial reconstruction. You can participate in a simulated high-speed police car chase and a Firearms Training Simulator, similar to that used by the FBI. For $5 you can participate in a workshop focusing on forensics, blood and DNA, and impressions. Here you’ll learn state-of-the-art techniques to match criminals to the crime committed. You’ll learn to collect, examine and analyze the evidence using investigator tools. 

Also part of the museum is the Center for Missing and Exploited children, McGruff the Crime Dog and Cross Match Technologies for children fingerprinting. Entrance to the museum is $17.95 for adults and $14.95 for children.

National Museum of Crime and Punishment museum Washington DC