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Many of the crimes committed by teenagers in the United Kingdom are captured in self-shot footage from bystanders, victims, and often the offenders themselves, whilst others are caught on the four million CCTV cameras nationwide. ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Three is to explore the human stories behind these shocking real-life scenes of violence, theft and mayhem in a new four-part series.

As we are going about our daily lives, many of us are caught hundreds of times on camera – whether appearing unwittingly in someone else's self-shot video or captured on CCTV. While most of us are simply going about our daily business without incident, for some this surveillance preserves moments that change a life forever. Whether it is the last glimpse of a loved one before an attack or the damning evidence that convicts a person to a long spell in jail, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Three will explore the complex motives, twists of fate and consequences revealed by these snapshots.

Charlotte Moore, Commissioning Editor, Documentaries, says: "The explosion in the number of filming devices over the past decade means that more and more people are now recording their lives on film. This creates a hugely exciting opportunity for documentary filmmakers, who can now tell stories from a different perspective, getting closer to the graphic reality than ever before. ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Three viewers will get to see at first hand the effects that criminal behaviour has on people's lives."

In a bold stock-take of the criminal behaviour of Generation Y, this innovative new series will utilise the self-shot footage of perpetrators and bystanders alongside exclusive CCTV surveillance footage to piece together how the featured crimes took place.

The series will also draw on frank interviews with those captured on film to uncover what was really going on in these scenes of violence. It will explore the wider questions of why young people are driven to commit criminal acts, what the lines are between rowdy teen behaviour and criminality, and just what the long-term effects of crime are – on the victim, their loved ones and the perpetrators.

Simon Ford, Executive Producer at Minnow Films, says: "We often see the mobile phone image or the moment surveillance cameras have captured a crime. We know these moments can quickly become iconic, as they shock, entertain or simply just help reveal the bare facts of a crime to us, but we want to take them and go beyond the image, to unpick the human stories that lie behind the crime."

User Generated Crime (working title) was commissioned by Zai Bennett, Controller, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Three and Charlotte Moore, Commissioning Editor, Documentaries. Samantha Anstiss is Commissioning Executive at the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳. Executive Producers at Minnow Films are Simon Ford and Morgan Matthews.

The series will be broadcast next year on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Three.

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