Chapter 1 Introduction. Sarah Moore and Maria Mellins
Popular Culture ‘Trials’
Chapter 2 The deceased-accused and the victim as a commodity: Jimmy Savile as a case study to examine the role of real-crime documentary in reproducing violence as entertainment. Susanna Menis
Chapter 3 ‘Don’t let Netflix tell you what to think!’: debates on getting to know the accused/convicted in Making a Murderer and other injustice narratives. George S. Larke-Walsh
Chapter 4 From ‘forensic narratives’ to ‘narratives of forensics’: telling stories about the murder of Gay Gibson. Alexa Neale
Chapter 5 In consideration of serial violence: the perils of repetition and routine in ‘true crime’ documentaries. Sarah Moore
Representations of Victims – Survivors
Chapter 6 ‘Stay sexy and don’t get murdered’: depictions of female victimhood in post-Me Too true crime. Megan Hoffman and Simon Hobbs
Chapter 7 Stalking, the media and raising public awareness. Maria Mellins
Chapter 8 Human trafficking and coercive control: representations in media and challenges in legislation. Carole Murphy
Consuming Homicide Narratives
Chapter 9 ‘That photograph’ – serial killer as modern celebrity. Ian Cummins, Marian Foley and Martin King
Chapter 10 Real-life criminals and crime fictions: adapting the serial killer as gothic monster in TV drama. Brigid Cherry
Chapter 11 Gender, true crime and the violent subject. Louise Wattis
True Crime Spaces
Chapter 12 Feeding the fascination: crime-related tourism and the True Crime Museum. Hannah Thurston
Chapter 13 Exploring the presence of the digital detective within the true-crime genre and its online spaces. Farhana Irshad
Chapter 14 Live streaming of murder: regulatory responses and challenges. Gregor Urbas
Index
Maria Mellins is an Associate Professor in Criminology, Sociology and Screen Media at St Mary’s University. She is also an Independent Stalking Advocacy Caseworker (ISAC).
Sarah Moore is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bath, UK.
This book explores the recent surge in true crime by critically exploring how murder and violence are represented in documentaries, films, podcasts, museums, novels and in the press, and the effects. From a range of contributors, it touches on a wide variety of topics overall and illustrates how examining true crime across the changing popular media landscape can contribute to important debates in contemporary culture and society. It encourages a critical eye towards understanding the harmful stereotypes, myths and misinformation that popular media can bring.
Arranged around four sections, including: true crime trials, representations of victims, the consumption of serial killer narratives, and true crime spaces, each chapter explores different themes and topics across traditional and newer media. These topics include: emotion and appeals for justice in Making a Murderer, #MeToo and misogyny in crime narratives, true crime journalism being exploitative, the ethics of consuming dark tourism and the appetite for true crime, live streamed murder, and the ways in which true murder accounts might lend insight into other types of crime such as domestic violence and stalking. This book stimulates discussion on courses in crime, media and culture as well as in film and media studies, and it also speaks to those with a general interest in true crime.