the series goes inside the district attorney's office of san diego county, california, as they prepared and tried cases. it involved going behind the scenes with the prosecutors as they prepared for the trial and provided three-camera coverage of the courtroom. "crime & punishment" has been described as a cross between a drama and a documentary or "docudrama". the series was created and executive produced by wolf, along with academy award-winning documentary filmmaker bill guttentag. david j. kanter is co-creator and executive producer, and follows prosecutors from the san diego county district attorney’s office as they investigate and try cases, while viewers see the drama unfold from real-life victims, prosecutors, family members and defendants. based on reports from real-life cases.