02-05-2025
Should you feel guilty about liking true crime? Karen Read's retrial highlights the ethics of a genre.
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TODAY'S STARTING POINT
True crime, it seems, is everywhere.
Across the US,
Yet evidence suggests that many Americans feel conflicted about true crime. In the YouGov poll, many worried that it trivializes crime for entertainment, glamorizes criminals, and exploits victims. In
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The murder retrial of Karen Read, which has
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Like other viral true crime stories, Read's case has inspired
Guilty as charged
Critics of true crime say it sensationalizes horrific events and commodifies attention to everyone's detriment.
Many true crime projects lack the permission or support of victims' loved ones. A 2022 Netflix scripted series about the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, for example,
True crime also has the potential to sway the criminal justice system and compromise accountability. 'It would be hard to believe that the jurors or the judge aren't influenced in some way by throngs of supporters outside the courthouse,' said Amanda Vicary, a professor at Illinois Wesleyan University who teaches about true crime. Read's first trial ended with a hung jury. For her second, police upped security and a judge expanded the buffer zone for demonstrators.
Then there are the consumers. Mainlining narratives about people getting killed, kidnapped, or hoodwinked can make us paranoid and mistrustful. ' I'm convinced on a daily basis that I'm gonna be killed by a serial killer every time I leave my house,' Vicary said.
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The kinds of stories true crime amplifies can also skew our understanding of the criminal justice system, said Whitney Phillips, who teaches about true crime at the University of Oregon. Many of the genre's viral figures, including Read, are white females, yet
Some obsessives engage in social media pile-ons and conspiratorial thinking, and
Maybe enjoying true crime at all says something vaguely icky about us. The genre sustains because people find entertainment, community, relaxation, and even pleasure in others' misfortunes. 'I don't know what that says about human nature,' Vicary said.
Innocent until proven guilty
The counter-case turns each critique on its head. In the YouGov poll, most Americans said that true crime fosters a better understanding of the criminal justice system, greater vigilance to avoid being victimized oneself, and empathy.
True crime can spotlight potential injustices, including people convicted of crimes they insist they didn't commit. Some narratives, like the first season of
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Done well, true crime can humanize. Vicary and her husband have been watching
Both sides now
The disquieting truth may be that both halves of the debate can coexist. 'You can simultaneously say, 'Yes, I know, I think that this is really, really problematic,'' Phillips, of the University of Oregon, said. 'And also, 'When can I go home to start watching Dateline?''
If you're unsure which impulse to follow, you have time to decide. Testimony in Read's case is set to resume today, and her trial could last for weeks to come.
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