High Crime was a large financial success at the time of its release and helped popularize the Italian cop thriller genre.

Belli then goes to Cafiero, an old-fashioned gangster who claims to have transformed into a peaceful gardener, to question about the bombing and it turns out that there is a new player in town.

Belli's boss, Commissioner Aldo Scavino, has put together a dossier on the city's mafia connections, but thinks that there is not enough hard evidence to take down all the gangsters from top to down.

[2] Italian film historian Roberto Curti has stated that despite Castellari's recollections, he felt the story outline was more derived from William Friedkin's The French Connection with its similarity to its opening scenes and Fernando Rey's presence as an elderly crime boss.

[2] High Crime was filmed at Incir De Paolis in Rome and on location in Genoa, Ligurian coast, Marseille.

"[4] The review critiqued the dubbing, and that its formulaic character scarcely redeemed by high-minded nods at social comment (militant workers, corrupt capitalists), the film fails even to vindicate an early promise of more homely pleasures: "You cops ... you're always full of jokes".