39 Academic Research: “True Crime: Causing True Harm?”
Kathryn Blossom
Dr. Esther Houghtaling
ENG 1023.51
20 November 2022
True Crime: Causing True Harm?
Imagine you’re sitting at home watching television when you see a cast of A-list celebrities recreating the most traumatic events of your life as entertainment for the masses. What seems to be the makings of a nightmare became a reality for several families after the release of Netflix’s latest hit true crime series: Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. True crime as a genre has been increasing in popularity over the last decade, with Netflix’s Jeffrey Dahmer series one of the latest programs based on real-life crimes recreated for public entertainment. The true crime genre has several possible benefits, but with the recent release of Dahmer, the general public has begun to take notice of the genre’s many faults. In its current form, with those responsible for producing the content prioritizing ratings over human lives, the genre of true crime is doing more harm than good and will continue to do so until something changes.
True crime as a genre is highly exploitative in that it relies on the tragedy of real people in order to continue to create content. It is because of this that those who create the material possess an immense responsibility to respect the emotional weight of the situation they are portraying—a responsibility that is not currently being met. All too often the lives being portrayed in true-crime dramas and documentaries are treated as nothing more than characters in the nation’s next fascination, and real people are being forgotten and dehumanized as a result.
Such was the case with many of the victims and families portrayed in the Jeffrey Dahmer series released on Netflix in September of 2022, specifically Rita Isbell, the sister of Errol Lindsey, one of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims. In an article based on an interview with Isbell, Isbell recalls her experience watching her victim impact statement, originally delivered at Dahmer’s trial in 1992, recreated verbatim in the Netflix series: “I was never contacted about the show. … They didn’t ask me anything. They just did it” (Vlamis). This highlights one of the biggest issues surrounding the production of true-crime media: Those being portrayed have no control over the use of the events of their lives and often aren’t even aware of their use until after the fact.
This amplifies the already exploitative nature of the genre considering that those being portrayed are unaware of the recreation of their stories and are therefore not receiving any benefits for their involvement. Isbell echoes this sentiment in saying that “[She] could even understand it if they gave some of the money to the victims’ children. … If the show benefited them in some way it wouldn’t feel so harsh and careless” (Vlamis). However, some argue that through sharing the stories of the victims and their families, it provides them a sense of closure and satisfac