True crime is a booming genre that focuses on the gory non-fiction details of real criminal cases all around the world. It involves revealing every possible circumstance of horrific crimes such as rape, murder, kidnappings, and everything else in between. These stories are typically told through articles, podcasts, and documentaries, with a new wave hitting more modern social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube.
In my opinion, this genre is incredibly immoral and destructive to the lives it affects. While the world should remain aware of the nature of these wrongdoings, it is a business built on the suffering of victims, with each article fishing out more and more violent and disgusting details to appease their audiences. The more tears cried, the more money made. The more blood spilt, the more viewers tune in. Writers and readers alike care very little for the feelings of the victims themselves, who might feel invaded and dissected by such media, but they don’t care. For the victims that want to move on and forget their traumatic experiences, having to see their story plastered on every social media platform makes that nearly impossible. Not to mention that coworkers and friends are likely to find out all the intimate details due to the sheer popularity of every new shocking story.
It is hard enough to find your way through a traumatic experience, but it is made all the more difficult when everyone around you knows exactly what happened. In defence of their lack of sympathy, they say it is for the greater good that people hear the victim’s story, but what about the family and those involved? The creators who go on TikTok and record makeup tutorials while spewing the story of a rape victim don’t care about how the public will dissect the crime; they only care about how many people will watch it.This lack of anonymity enables the court of public opinion to trail everyone involved, whether they deserve it or not, resulting in more harm than good in the fallout. People online form opinions, propagate hate, and this translates into a general judgment around both victims and their families, who are constantly grilled for more details. Imagine being the family of a murder victim who sees their face and story broadcast on news outlets with comments giving their hollow opinions on the crime. How would you feel? To have their life reduced to the violent end, for everyone to see? Imagine being the family of the perpetrator, forced to relive the shame of their mistakes even though you yourself are innocent. True crime is a dirty and immoral business, with the reporters being akin to vultures, who come to pick at the rotting corpses barely cold.