People are, by nature, nosy creatures. We want details: the good, the bad, and the ugly. The media is just as prying, and just as tactical.
For as long as it has been being produced, crime-based content has been a gray topic of controversy in terms of morality. Is it right for producers and creators to profit off of a tragic loss? Is it possible to publicly pick apart a crime while maintaining the victim’s due privacy and respect?
The evolution of true crime has heavily evolved over the decades, rapidly becoming one of the most captivating genres of modern media. From Dateline NBC to documentaries and dramatized films, a vast audience has accumulated.
Among that audience is the argument that media centered around crime is an efficient method to spread awareness and education. While that may be true in some scenarios, there is a larger issue looming over the casual consumption of true crime.
The passive viewing and listening of tales of kidnappings and killings have begun to desensitize its consumers entirely, creating a noticeable division between fiction and reality.
There’s no denying that true crime content rakes in viewers. The combination of suspense, mystery, and intense drama is appealing to almost anybody, bringing an effective method for the audience to tap into the darker side of life, something that people are naturally curious about.
Despite that curiosity, it is still vital to note the psychological impacts that the genre is capable of evoking.
Through repetitive consumption of crime-based content, the issue of desensitization comes into play. The repetitive nature of crime stories where murder, assault, and brutality are depicted over and over create an emotional distancing effect.
As viewers binge on documentaries or listen to hours of podcasts covering all sorts of gruesome cases, the intensity of emotions dwindles, and audiences become overall less responsive.
The thrill of mystery has the potential to overshadow the truth in the minds of viewers, the truth being that the topic of their theories and debate was a real, living person at one point.
The normalization of horrific crimes is especially evident within the social media crime community, in which certain content creators recount cold cases, murders, and assault all while completing everyday tasks such as putting on makeup or styling hair, clearly displaying the seamless integration of crime content into their day-to-day lives.
With the production of tell-all true crime, audiences tend to emphasize the cruel nature of the perpetrator over sympathizing for the victim and their grieving families.
While the lives and crimes of infamous household names such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer have been the subject of dozens of movies and TV shows, the average person probably could not identify a single name of any of their many victims.
Having the desire to rationalize the senseless actions of serial killers and criminals is entirely understandable, but in an effort to educate the world about these individuals, the media has instead developed the bad habit of sensationalizing their crimes with bright lights and big Hollywood names.
A fascination with true crime is not necessarily shameful. We all dabble in it from time to time.
However, moderation is key when it comes to such weighing topics; the untimely demise of another human being should never be categorized as entertainment, and the perpetrators should never be painted as the anti-hero.
It is vital when consuming crime-based content to practice empathy for both the victim and their family, because despite their appearance behind the screen, they are real people, just like you.