The ‘true crime’ obsession- in need of a new lens?

Hopton-Jones, Danielle and Harrison, D. (2025) The ‘true crime’ obsession- in need of a new lens? In: Dismantling Structures Conference, 7 May 2025, University of Worcester. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Increasingly, ‘true crime’ has been an area of interest for many. Those producing information on crime include professionals in criminology, law, and forensic psychology, alongside amateur content creators. Members of the public consume both professionally and non-professionally produced content, primarily accessible online or via podcasts or streaming services.
There are multiple negative effects of the explosion of true crime content, including positive portrayals of perpetrators online, whose ‘fans’ are often girls and young women whose views of healthy relationships can be negatively warped, and who may be desensitised to the reality of serious crime by viewing it as entertainment, ignoring its real and devastating effects. Further, those who are exposed to content glorifying perpetrators and crime itself can be encouraged to participate in violent crime. These issues will be illuminated by case studies of recent criminal activity which has attracted significant media attention.
This paper will also consider the different forms of true crime media, including the proliferation of unreliable ‘journalism’. The paper will focus on both the online sphere and that of more mainstream media such as Netflix and its documentaries, some of which present falsehoods as facts, and how this contributes to a warped lens through which serious crime is viewed, including its presentation by the institutional press, and the difficulties for police in conducting investigations.
The paper concludes by offering an assessment of some possible methods of tackling the associated harms, including the role of legislation and regulation of content, education for young people to enable them critique both content itself and the possible negative effects of true crime, and a shift in culture away from true crime as entertainment.

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