In the past few decades, true crime has become a media obsession. From podcasts to documentaries, movies and television series, true crime content is ubiquitous, often prioritizing consumers’ entertainment above victims’ well-being.
It is not surprising that audiences turn to stories of real-life crime. They provide a fear factor enhanced by plausibility that regular horror movies cannot replicate and often emit a sense of preparedness through the mere knowledge of these events. As viewers continue to turn to this content, filmmakers continue to provide it, subjecting those who suffered during these crimes to even more pain.
With the prevalence of this exploitation, one survivor has taken preemptive measures to ensure that he does not become a victim of true crime media’s mercenary tactics. Anthony Borges was shot five times during the 2018 Parkland school shooting, making him the most wounded living victim. Earlier this year, Borges and the shooter reached a court settlement that gave Borges the gunman’s name rights. This means Borges must give permission before the shooter’s name can be used in any media production. Borges’ attorney Alex Arreaza explains the reasoning, stating that “Anthony doesn’t want to walk in his house one day and see a Netflix special that [the gunman] was talking about his thoughts on what he did.” This precaution prevents Borges and the other victims of the shooting from a fate that has befallen too many.
The specific mention of Netflix likely stems from the streaming platform’s constant release of true crime stories surrounding the perpetrators of violent crimes. One example is Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, a documentary series about infamous serial killer Ted Bundy that is centered around recordings of his interviews while on death row. This show highlights the pernicious nature of true crime media, exemplifying the exact kind of content Borges wished to avoid because it gives serial murderers the platform to fabricate a false self-image and undermine victims’ suffering. Bundy’s refusal to admit to the murders and rapes he was convicted of and the emphasis on his positive traits in the show, such as his good looks and intelligence, are evidence of this phenomenon. Combined with the little attention paid to any aspect of the victims apart from their victimhood, the show effectively glamourizes a serial killer and rapist while reducing his victims to mere sufferers.
Confessions with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes is not Netflix’s sole offense, with the series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story being the most recently criticized. The Jeffrey Dahmer Story tells the story of cannibalistic serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and received significant attention after families of his victims spoke out about the “retraumatizing” effect of the show and condemned the show’s creator, Ryan Murphy, for profiting off their tragedy. This didn’t stop Murphy from continuing the true crime anthology series with Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which follows the story of the Menendez brothers, who were victims of severe abuse by their parents, whom they are in jail for murdering. Despite a statement from the Menendez family criticizing the show for incorrectly depicting the brothers, Murphy has repeatedly invalidated the painful impact of the show, calling the backlash “faux outrage.”
Of course, although Netflix is the most popular, it is only one of the many streaming platforms capitalizing on tragedy at the expense of victims. Almost all streaming platforms participate in taking people’s trauma and putting it on the screens of millions, opening up the most painful moments of many lives for public discourse, leaving the sufferers with no choice but to relive their trauma and no way to control their own narratives.