Images of crime and justice: Murder and the “true crime” genre

Abstract

Crime has long been an important topic in the media. Researchers examining the relationship between beliefs about crime and exposure to the media have found evidence suggesting that such beliefs are influenced by both the form and content of media coverage of crime. Moreover, other research has discovered that the media often presents a seriously distorted picture of criminal activity. The study described in this article examines the question of whether a newly important form of crime coverage, the “true crime” genre, provides a distorted portrayal of homicide. True crime books are accounts of actual homicide cases which are presented in a style which often resembles fiction. A content analysis of true crime cases is compared with official data on murder, and the results indicate that, in accord with research on other media forms, the portrayal of homicide in the true crime realm is extremely narrow, and significantly differs from the full range of cases which typify murder in America.