Content warning: This story mentions rape and sexual assault.
True crime entertainment has been popular for decades, starting as early as 1966 with Truman Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood. One recent installment of the true crime genre is Netflix’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Monster became immediately popular, becoming Netflix’s ninth most-watched English language series. The series retells the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer who murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys over the course of 13 years.
The series received mixed reactions. While publications such as Vulture and The Hollywood Reporter gave more favorable reviews, many asked why it was necessary to retell Dahmer’s story, especially considering that Monster is the third take on his story in the past two decades. Others have posted on social media asking the victims to be remembered instead of the serial killer the series focuses on.
Some family members of Dahmer’s victims also spoke out against the series, particularly Rita Isbell, the sister of Errol Lindsey. Isbell gave an emotional victim impact statement at Dahmer’s 1992 sentencing, which the show recreated.
Isbell stated, “I was never contacted about the show. I feel like Netflix should’ve asked if we mind or how we felt about making it. They didn’t ask me anything. They just did it.” She later said that watching the show brought back all the emotions she felt back then.
Her cousin, Eric Perry, wrote a viral tweet stating, “It’s retraumatizing over and over again, and for what? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need?” He added, “Recreating my cousin having an emotional breakdown in court in the face of the man who tortured and murdered her brother is WILD. WIIIIIILD.”
Upon discovering how Isbell and others involved felt about the series, many condemned the show for not contacting the victims about its production and for being exploitative and harmful. However, these exploitative tactics aren’t unique to Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story; these issues are prevalent in almost all true crime content.
Most victims and their families can’t opt out of media coverage, and producers can use their public footage without their consent. Their footage can go viral online and be used for true crime entertainment, which often leads to victims being retraumatized, like in the case of Rita Isbell.
Additionally, some true crime producers neglect ethics for the sake of entertainment. This could be as simple as embellishing details to create a more dramatic story, to something as heinous as withholding suspect confessions and manipulating the timeline of events, such as in the case of HBO’s documentary, The Jinx.
Oftentimes, true crime producers have their own theories about a crime prior to investigation and may subconsciously or consciously manipulate the narrative to prove their theories right. This can lead to them omitting evidence, under-analyzing details, or changing important facts. This can lead viewers to incorrect conclusions about a crime and lead to the spread of misinformation.
These unethical practices may call some true crime entertainment into question, but even the most ethical and accurate true crime sources can have adverse effects. Research has shown that continuously consuming crime news causes people to be more fearful of crime rates. It gives you an inflated sense that serial killers are all around you, despite serial murders accounting for less than one percent of all murders, according to the FBI. This can cause a heightened sense of anxiety and paranoia in true crime viewers.
In a personal interview with a former true crime fan, Marie Bousso stated, “I don’t really know how to explain it, but the feeling I had after watching [true crime] left a pit in my stomach,” and said, “I just felt really uneasy.” She explained that this uneasiness caused her to no longer watch true crime content.
This feeling of uneasiness is common among true crime fans. Many fans report that after a while, watching true crime stops being entertaining and becomes more fear-based instead. Psychologist Chivonna Childs states, “When we start to feel worried and afraid all the time, it takes away the fun of it. It starts to instill anxiety in us instead.”
So, how do we as a society respond? Should all true crime media be banned? Is engaging in this media too unethical and harmful? Perhaps, but is it really possible for us to get rid of true crime?
In another personal interview, a true crime fan, Felipe Pena asked, “If ‘true crime’ as a genre of entertainment is subjectively evil and having an interest in real-life horror is crippling to our mental health, why can’t we ever seem to let go of it?” He then adds, “turn on the news; most of the time, depending on where you live, true crime is happening all the time, and if you think about it, we learn about true crime in schools, especially in history class.”
It’s true that true crime is everywhere, on the news and in history, and we as a society cannot avoid it. The same things said about true crime have also been said about violence on the news and violence in video games. Studies show both forms of media have harmful effects, and yet society cannot give them up. Why is that?
Well, research suggests that society’s interest in violence is because it’s outside the norm and it draws our attention. Hearing true crime stories gives us a jolt of adrenaline, and we become addicted to it. Through hearing about true crime stories, we get to experience all the complex emotions involved while in the comfort of our own homes. We also get to explore the psychology of a murderer and see what drove them to commit such heinous acts.
But that doesn’t change the fact that engaging in true crime entertainment can be harmful. True crime entertainment can cause people to idolize killers, especially when those killers are deemed conventionally attractive.
Ted Bundy, for example, still gets lots of support online and even received fan mail. Similarly, serial killer Richard Ramirez had fans show up to his court trials, showing support despite him being convicted of murders, rapes, and burglaries.
Additionally, having serial killers played by famous and conventionally attractive actors such as Evan Peters, Zac Efron, and Ross Lynch makes them seem like they’re worthy of stardom and praise, thus leading to more romanticization.
Once again, how do we solve this problem? True crime entertainment isn’t going anywhere, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore the problems within the genre.
When asked for solutions in personal communication, Felipe Pena stated, “The conversation shouldn’t be, ‘should we get rid of true crime,’ because it’s rooted in our daily lives” and explains that a better solution would instead be “learning the difference between entertainment and information.”
The only way we can make true crime media better is if producers abandon sensationalism and dramatization and focus on accurate and factual reporting, following the universal standards of ethics in journalism. In response, viewers need to engage in such media with a grain of salt and fact-check everything before accepting it as fact to prevent spreading misinformation.
The issue of true crime isn’t black and white. True crime can be an effective tool to convey information and news as well as entertainment, but changes need to be made to the genre to combat the inherent flaws. Until then, the genre can’t reach its full potential.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit hotline.rainn.org.