The film is a contemporary fable loosely based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1866 novel Crime and Punishment, and focuses on a high school student who plots to murder her stepfather after he brutally rapes her.

After Maggie begins an affair with local bartender Chris, she moves out of the family's suburban home, leaving Roseanne to temporarily live with Fred.

One night, Jimmy gets drunk in a local bar, and is observed by Chris, who offers to give him a ride home.

[2] "The main character kills a terrible person, conceals the crime, is consumed by it, suffers secretly, confesses and in a spiritual way is reborn.

Larry Gross had first written the script in the early 1990s, but it languished on a shelf until a run of high school films became popular in the last half of the decade.

[7] Crime and Punishment in Suburbia was selected to compete for the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival,[9] where it had its world premiere on January 24, 2000.

[11] Crime and Punishment in Suburbia was released by MGM Home Entertainment on DVD in January 2001,[12] and on Blu-ray on August 29, 2023.

"[14] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

[15] Roger Ebert awarded the film three stars and wrote, "Crime and Punishment in Suburbia is no doubt 'flawed'–that favorite moviecrit word–and it suffers from being released a year after the similar 'American Beauty,' even though it was made earlier.

"[16] Time Out said director Rob Schmidt draws out "assured performances from Keena's good-girl-gone-bad and Kartheiser's black-clad loner", but concluded the film is a "rare disappointment from maverick indie producer Christine Vachon" and "this story of festering psychosis beneath the placid surface of everyday US suburbia looks familiar.