The Truth About True Crime

For our first blog post back in over a year, let’s start off with a bang.

True Crime as a genre of entertainment has always been prominent, but perhaps never more so than in recent years. From as far back as America’s Most Wanted to the menagerie of themed podcasts and YouTube videos, true crime content is never hard to find. With the popularity, however, comes a moral debate.

Is consuming true crime content ethical? Is it respectful? How do the victims and their families feel about this phenomenon?

I’d love to give you a black or white answer to those questions, but, like most things, the truth is more nuanced than a simple yes or no. Some victims and their families want their stories spread as far and wide as possible, some want to be left alone, and some are undecided. Some killers love that their crimes are being turned into entertainment, so sharing their stories becomes a pro vs con of giving a criminal the attention they want and bringing light on a victim so that the same thing doesn’t happen to anyone else. Since this topic is near and dear to my heart, I’m going to do my best to give a broad, unbiased overview of the main talking points surrounding true crime content. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter too.

Firstly, what exactly is true crime?

It might seem straightforward enough, but for the sake of this think piece, I want to establish come clear boundaries. When I say ‘True Crime,’ I’m talking about factual, documentary/docu-series style coverage of actual events presented by both professional broadcast networks and amateur entertainers. I am NOT talking about niche areas like paranormal investigations, works of fiction based on true events, or dramatizations.

With that foundation established, let’s get into it.

To best encompass the full scope of this topic, I want to divide the discussion into two sections: in the first, we’ll talk about True Crime content creators and in the second, we’ll talk about True Crime content fans. Both have points of contention and responsibilities when engaging with true crime content, but those roles serve very different purposes.

Content creators are those creative people out there who host, edit, write, produce, etc., true crime shows/episodes. With the increased accessibility of affordable equipment, official sources of information, and public platforms to promote content, just about anyone can start making true crime content if they’re interested. While this is generally a good thing- a thriving market promotes competition, which, in turn, promotes better quality content- it comes with its prominent downsides. I would argue that true crime content creators fall into one of three categories: the enthusiast, the bandwagoner, and the uninformed.

The enthusiast is the quintessential true crime creator. They are passionate about true crime coverage, and they are generally aware of the moral pitfalls associated with the genre. The true crime enthusiast produces their content with the sole intention of being informative, perhaps even falling into a sub-genre of true crime with a specific goal. For example, there are several creators out there dedicated to covering unsolved cases with the goal of bringing unknown perpetrators to justice. A good traditional media example of this is the recently revived TV series, Unsolved Mysteries. (You could certainly argue that ANY mainstream media creator automatically falls under the bandwagoner category, but let’s ignore that for just a second).

The bandwagoner is interested in one thing and one thing only: popularity. Whether it’s for income or fame, these creators get into true crime content because it’s well-loved. The market is saturated with people trying their hand at content creation and, while most of them will fizzle out quietly, the bandwagon creators are hoping to be one of the few that break out of the crowd and turn their venture into a proper career. This category typically suffers more heavily from the moral issues that litter true crime coverage.

The uninformed is a trickier category. Most of the time, these creators are also enthusiasts, they’re just missing key context that makes them prone to common insensitivities and mistakes. The uninformed creator is either open to learning, in which case they graduate to an enthusiast, or they’re stubborn and defensive, which will either lead to their content creation career dying a premature death (ironic) or they become a bandwagoner. Either way, this is usually a temporary category.

All three classifications have an obligation to their audience. True crime, by nature, is a non-fiction genre. That means that audiences will consume true crime content with the reasonable expectation that the information they’re receiving is accurate to the best of the creator’s knowledge. The presentation of said knowledge is subject to change, but the core of the details remain the same: fact. You garner a sense of automatic trust when you cover events that really happened, and it’s important for creators to respect that trust. It’s when creators fail to recognize the power and obligation they carry that things start to go wrong.

One of the biggest criticisms of true crime entertainment is tied into the very work ‘entertainment.’ There is a strong argument to be made that real crime = real victims, and their suffering should not be delivered on a silver platter in a more palatable format for your viewing/listening pleasure. This problem, in my experience, is more closely associated with the uninformed creators. For them, the excitement of content creation and the oversaturation/desensitization of the topic has made them forget that there are actual people on the other end of these stories, many of whom are still alive and well, and could easily come across their coverage. That tends to be a problem with the internet as a whole; when you do everything from behind a screen, it’s easy to forget that there’s a person on the other side. Forgetting that true crime stories affect real people, real communities, is the first misstep in true crime content creation and leads to the creators treating these horrific events like cheap entertainment. It’s a problem, and one that every true crime creator should be aware of.

Another issue for true crime content creators comes from the impact of their coverage. This is more relevant to creators that focus on contemporary crimes. The court of public opinion is strong, persuasive, and lethal. If a creator is covering ongoing investigations, they need to understand that, whether they mean to or not, they are going to affect their audiences’ opinions on the case. What this creates is an environment where biases have more power than the facts, and that’s dangerous. How many innocent people have ended up in jail due to perceived guilt alone? Too many, and with the widespread availability of information related to true crime cases, it’s all too easy to form your own opinion. True crime creators are not only forming their own opinions, but broadcasting them to the public. There should be an inherent responsibility to be as neutral and fair as possible. Unfortunately, oftentimes this is not the case.

Now that we have a loose working knowledge of the main issues with true crime content creation, let’s talk a little bit about the fans. To better discuss the issues here, I like to categorize true crime fans by their motivations (much like actual criminals):

“I watch true crime because I want to know how to protect myself.” This group is mainly composed of women/female-presenting people. They’re practical. They understand that the world is not a safe space for them. They know that people like them have been hurt or killed for simply existing, and they want to avail of every resource they can to ensure their own safety. These fans are largely unproblematic.

“I watch true crime because it’s interested. I want to know how their minds work.” This group can overlap with armchair psychology. These are fans that want to know the why of it all- why do people kill? Steal? Injure? What happened in their lives that made them this way? Can it be prevented? Are there warning signs to look out for? Again, these fans are largely unproblematic. They’re interested in the topic because, well, they’re interested. It’s a hobby, more or less. This is the category I fall under.

“I watch true crime because it’s entertaining.” Now we’re getting into the problem children of the group. If you’ve ever said/thought some variation of the phrase I would totally let Ted Bundy strangle me. That man is HOT, then I’m talking to you. Come to the front, sit down, and put on the tall pointy hat. Don’t worry about what it says, just put it on. You need to reevaluate some things, and I’m here to hold your hand while you do it. This category of true crime fans is a result of the desensitization and oversaturation of true crime media. These are the fans that have completely forgotten or never realized in the first place that they’re consuming content about real people. To them, it’s all entertainment. It’s all fun. It doesn’t affect them directly, so why should they care about some random victim halfway around the world? This callous attitude enables the bandwagon creators to do what they do best: make entertaining content at the expense of the victims and their families. These are the fans that purchase ‘merchandise,’ that have ‘favourite murderers’ and crushes on the perpetrators. To be clear, none of this is okay*

*For the sake of transparency, I’ve definitely claimed a ‘favourite’ case/killer. I try not to use this verbiage anymore, but when I say that, I’m referring to a case that I find interesting for one reason or another. Whether it’s because it’s unsolved, or there’s an aspect that doesn’t make sense, or there’s just something different about it that makes me want to learn more. It’s not the same as saying I have a favourite movie, hence why I’m trying to change my own word choice.

With all of that being said, I ask the question: is it possible to consume true crime content ethically? Personally, I believe the answer is yes, it just requires a bit of work.

If you’re a true crime fan, you have a responsibility to vet the content you’re consuming. If you watch true crime vlogs on YouTube, how does the host/creator talk about the crimes? Are they joking, smiling, laughing, making fun? Are they teasing the audience or each other, if there’s more than one? Are they presenting the facts as impartially as possible? What about their ads and sponsors? Are they highlighting any charities/funds/organizations that support crime victims? If the victims are still alive, did they contact them for permission to cover their story? What about their audience? Do they have a cutesy ‘name’ for themselves? Are the sources made readily available for you to fact check on your own? All of these questions are important to ask whenever you find a new creator that you’re interested in. Ultimately, you are the only one able to determine what you’re comfortable consuming, but going through the above list is a good starting point.

And what about true crime content creators? Is it possible to produce true crime content ethically? Here I would also say the answer is yes.

Suppressing the spread of information is dangerously close to authoritarian behavior. I don’t think, by any stretch of the imagination, that true crime coverage should be discontinued. There is immense value to be found in consuming this content responsibly. Like some fans, you can learn to protect yourself. You can learn how the human mind works. You can even learn how to better support your community. All of these are very good things and, without true crime content creators, we lose access to most of them. Creators have a part to play, they just need to take it seriously. Do your research. Contact support groups. Find out how you can be a better advocate. Put in the work. Most importantly, never lose sight of the power you have as a creator. How you present the information WILL affect how your audience reacts to it, and it’s vital that you use that power responsibly.

As with anything in this world, self-reflection will get you far. Ask yourself the hard questions and don’t shy away if you don’t have the answer immediately. I’m not saying you need to abandon something you love, something that brings you a sense of fulfilment, or interest. Just be mindful.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, Netflix just dropped a new docuseries about the JonBenet Ramsey case.