Visitors explore the technology and science behind fighting and solving crimes, discover the heroes of law enforcement, and venture into the dark side of the criminal mind at the National Museum of Crime & Punishment. Described by Good Morning America as a "must see for CSI fans," the Washington DC museum includes a crime scene lab and the filming studios for America's Most Wanted with host John Walsh. High-speed police-chase simulators, a simulated FBI shooting range, John Dillinger's car, and hundreds of interactives and artifacts fill the new museum. There is a retail store called "The Cop Shop," and audio tours are available.

Once visitors pass through a medieval dungeon portal complete with authentic torture devices, the history of crime and punishment in America unfolds beginning with colonial times. The cast of disreputable characters includes pirates, Wild West outlaws, gangsters, the Mob, serial killers, and white collar criminals in pursuit of identity theft. An alley crime scene leads straight into a police station where visitors are booked and fingerprinted. The punishment gallery includes celebrity mug shots, a lie detector test, police line-up, notorious prisons and prison art, self-devised tools for escape, and a re-creation of Al Capone's jail cell. Inside the capital punishment room are a guillotine, electric chair, gas chamber, and lethal injection machine.

The crime fighting gallery documents the perseverance of such notables as J. Edgar Hoover and Elliot Ness, and celebrates the courage of all members of law enforcement. The museum explores crime fighting techniques such as bomb squad and night vision technologies, and features famous firearms from throughout history. An entire level of the museum is devoted to the CSI experience, where visitors come across the scene of a violent crime and utilize forensic science techniques to solve the case, with blood analysis, ballistics, and facial reconstruction.