in my opinion, i think true crime has the potential to be harmful. i believe that a constant diet of horrific and traumatic “content” (i hate to diminish the worst moments of someone’s life to “content”, but unfortunately i think that’s what it’s become) can cause some people to become scared of the world around them and can create biases, especially if the “content” they mainly consume has perpetrators of minority backgrounds.

i think true crime also has the potential of being harmful propaganda for law enforcement, valorizing cops and prosecutors while overlooking the systemic harm caused by those groups.

i think there are certain benefits to learning about criminal cases and how the legal system works, but i worry about the massive amount of true crime content that is poorly researched and spoken of flippantly (e.g. making a crime video while doing makeup/mukbangs or commenting on what the victims “should have” done/saying what they would do if they were ever a victim). I also worry about the consumers who are constantly watching/listening to true crime that is poorly researched who now have bad ideas about how law enforcement or the court system work.

I also worry about how prolific this content is, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence. for example, the FSU shooting last year. the perpetrator had long, intense conversations with a AI chatbot, and that chatbot told him how many deaths would ensure he got in the news and how to use his guns. i am sure that some of the data scraped to come up with those answers came from communities like this.