Since the rise of true crime shows, there have been concerns that they could be exploitative of the victims of the tragedies that they explored.
It is a debate that is still ongoing among true crime fans as they argue the ethical and moral implications of the countless shows that are being produced or it is still a valuable piece of informative entertainment.
Let's examine the long-standing debate below.
Are True Crime Shows Exploitative of Victims?
Survivors and family members of the victims who were subjects of the true crime documentaries have expressed their concern about how they are being exploitative.
Writer and activist Annie Nichol, whose sister was a victim of a murder, wrote in an op-ed that the exploitation of the victims in true crime shows "often carries a steep cost for their families as their tragedies are commodified and their privacy repeatedly violated for mass consumption."
While you can argue that the genre still honors the victims, it is still difficult for the survivors who have "personal pain of [the] appropriation" and "how coverage of these high-profile cases can contribute to broader injustices."
She also pointed out that the family members of Jeffrey Dahmer's victims expressed distress over the series' depiction as they saw it as "profiting from their pain" and "retraumatizing" those who lived through the horrors of the situation.
In the end, Nichol concluded that "when you truly listen to survivors, your heart rate should never be speeding up; it should be slowing down" and "this is how new dimensions of justice and healing become imaginable."
The Value of True Crime Shows
An argument can also be made about the value of true crime shows as entertainment and shedding light on the cases that they covered.
The Real Lolita author Sarah Weinman argued in her op-ed that true crime shows can "make a small contribution to making the world a more just, more empathetic place."
However, she also acknowledged the exploitative nature of the genre and noted that "reading, watching, and writing about murder can be the perfect metaphor for late-stage capitalism."
When the stories are bad, "victims’ stories become easily upstaged commodities, and empathy is shunted aside by a palpable relief that we are alive another day when others are not."
Either way, "there might be no way to consume and create true crime in a purely ethical fashion."
Weinman concluded that the best way to tell true crime stories is "when we center the lives of the victims and their families rather than obsessing over the quirks of killers and accept the costs of being more sensitive to victims’ pain than we are thrilled by murderers’ transgressions."
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