SCIENTISTS REVEAL DARK SIDE OF TRUE CRIME MEDIA

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True crime shows have us hooked. But new research warns they can have a damaging impact on the friends and families of victims.

True crime media have been all the rage in recent years, with streaming services and podcast platforms churning out series after series about infamous serial killers—despite calls that they may be distasteful.

But new research has found that watching the increasingly popular genre can compound the trauma that the friends and families of victims have to work through.

Findings by researchers from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the California State University discovered that the victims' surviving loved ones have to confront an internal debate over whether allowing cameras on the case would keep the victim in the public eye, or make their journey through grief more difficult.

Researchers Kelli Boling and Danielle Slakoff conducted interviews with 20 individuals who they deemed "co-victims"— the friends and family of the victim—who had to watch their loved ones' stories be depicted in a true crime show.

Their findings—published in two studies in the journals Mass Communication and Society and Crime Media Culture—highlighted the main concerns that co-victims had around through the show's production.

These included inaccuracy, sensationalism of the tragedy, a loss of privacy, uncomfortable interactions with true crime consumers and online trolls, and a lack of control in how the stories are edited, resulting in further harm to their mental wellbeing.

Boling and Slakoff's participants relayed that they have to grapple with these difficult feelings while wrestling with whether they should volunteer as interviewees to help keep eyes on the case—or move through the tragedy privately. This is dilemma they reported that they had not expected to handle and were often not told how to act through.

“There’s a horrible intrusiveness that's never going to go away and often, it’s going to be covered for the rest of their lives,” Boling said in a statement.

The Serpent official poster. Credit: BBC / MAMMOTH SCREEN

“On the flip side, being available to media helps them find leads in certain cases, especially in missing person cases. It keeps people talking about the cases and sometimes helps them change the narrative and correct inaccuracies.”

Despite the challenges they face, the co-victims did share some positives to the true crime boom, which included drawing public attention to the case and educating viewers about the criminal justice system.

This was most prevalent in loved ones who were dealing with a missing persons case ora cold case, as they are more dependent on long-term media attention to keep the victim's name out there in the hope for fresh leads.

But to their dismay, Boling found that co-victims often had to deal with trolling from strangers online, as well as harassment from amateur sleuths who had become obsessed with their related case.

“A lot of what we see here sounds like parasocial relationships, but it’s different, because you've got people who want to help solve the case,” Boling said. (A parasocial relationship is a one-sided attachment that audiences can form with public figures.)

These people, Boling continued, “want to do their part, but they don't necessarily see themselves as being friends with the co-victim. What they really want is justice.

"They do feel like they've got some innate ability to solve the case that nobody else has, which isn’t true.”

Boling and Slakoff hope that their study can add more nuance to the debate around true crime media, its popularity and its ethics. They described the current true crime landscape as "largely controlled by algorithms" and warned that many viewers may not be able to discern the depictions that are produced ethically from the sensationalized or exploitative.

“It's not a crack of a difference, it's the Grand Canyon of a difference,” Boling said. “And the average consumer doesn't know that one broadcast, one podcast or one documentary is produced ethically and one isn't.

"You might watch a documentary that’s ethically produced, and then the algorithm suggests one that’s sensationalized or completely inaccurate.”

On a similar note, co-victims felt that all the parties curious to hear their perspective, whether they be professional journalists or true crime enthusiasts, were encroaching on their peace.

“They were very clear that only another co-victim would have the empathy and respect to tell a story that anybody outside that lived experience could not do it justice," Boling said.

The co-victims had reported that they while they do see some benefits to their cases being publicized, they feel that there should be standards—and potentially even regulations in place to keep things ethical and accurate.

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COVER IMAGE CREDIT: BBC / MAMMOTH SCREEN

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