By Nemiah Gerald, ’23
(An excerpt of this essay was published in the May 2023 issue of Dragon Tales.)
There are ten different media portrayals of Jefferey Dahmer readily available for the public, detailing his gruesome murders, giving insight into his life, and much more. We must ask ourselves, why are there so many different renditions of his heinous acts? Is it purely to spread awareness of the dangers of serial killers, or is there another incentive at hand? Could watching the violent crimes of others possibly be entertaining? At what point does it get past the informational standpoint and more into the entertainment field? We are indoctrinated into a society that thrives off of violence regularly. From school shootings to bombings to murders, we have normalized violence in our community to such a great extent that it does not even affect us how it should. Our country does not respond with reasonable promptness to the severity of our situation. What does not help is the constant romanticization of true crime within society. Many people may react differently to these shows, movies, and documentaries, advertised for educational and preventive purposes but ultimately they are for entertainment and shock value. The media’s constant availability of this material and the portrayal of these real criminals in society as just “characters” contributes significantly to the harmful effects of true crime media on teenagers and young adults. This begs the question: how can true crime in the media cause people to romanticize and normalize violence? The more exposure we get to violent media, the more we will be desensitized to the point of no return and could be encouraged to commit more acts of violence.
The true crime genre has increased recently, becoming the most prominent documentary subgenre. The major hubs of media, Tiktok, Netflix, Twitter, etc., thrive off the constant and mass intake of their product. As a particular interest becomes more prominent, there is more output of said interest; though we may not see how, as citizens, we contribute to the rise in true crime propaganda, we play a big part. With the high demand for more documentaries, there leaves room for error when creating such media; this can include “[exploiting or diminishing] victims, survivors, and their family members—the people most affected by these horrendous events” (Sayles 2021). According to Sayles, it is not the presence of true crime in the media but the approach to which it is brought to the public that can present a danger. It is easy to popularize and normalize anything within a society where becoming “trendy” is a click away, especially among adolescents and young adults who are easily influenced by what they see online. If the output of true crime television is not regulated, it can lead to detrimental effects on the developing minds of adolescents; according to studies, “the rational part of a teens brain is not fully developed and will not be until the age of 25 or so” (Health Encyclopedia 2023). Suppose we are exposed to media that essentially praises the actions of heinous murderers, and there is no sense of remorse or empathy in the production. In that case, it can desensitize the young undeveloped brain, making us think such occurrences are normal. As we are constantly exposed to more violent media, we can detach ourselves from the real issues not being addressed in the dramatization of true crime history.
True crime documentaries often appear harmless, entertaining, and immersive for the consumer. In most cases, it prompts viewers to demonize criminals and their crimes. Most regular true crime watchers would never think to act out the crimes of murderers or revere them in their mass homicidal glory, but what happens with the few that do? With the platform we give to murderers, whether news coverage or movies and series, comes the inevitable fanbases of these criminals. You may think, “Who would want to be a fan of a criminal?” however, many people out there develop an eerie admiration for these people. In recent years there have been many new releases of true crime propaganda, and with the latest releases come more viewers, for example with “Netflix’s new release, ‘Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,’ about the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer who murdered 17 teenage boys in the 1990s, has brought the issue of romanticizing serial killers further into the light by bringing forth an entirely new fanbase for Dahmer” (Allani 2022). Some viewers completely ignore the horrors of the crimes portrayed in these films and criticize the lack of gore because it is not as disturbing as they had hoped. They not only water down the severity of the crimes committed by these people, but they also essentially dehumanize the deaths of the victims and retraumatize the families. These families must relive the deaths of their loved ones through TV series and movies, advertised as entertainment,—- and to add insult to injury, they must hear about how viewers wish the deaths of their family members, real people who had real lives before their whole existence could be summed up to being victims, could have been more gruesome. Fans go as far as creating merchandise for these criminals, such as coloring books, figurines, and “a TikTok recently went
viral where the creator, @kirsten.soap, wore earrings with Dahmer’s face on them” (Allani 2022). The crimes of serial killers are increasingly commercialized, minimizing the actual crimes that
these people committed. This commercialization begins with televising these killers and giving them unnecessary platforms as if they are celebrities. When we see stars like Zac Efron, who played Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, we begin to sympathize with them. They are shown in such a light manner the public sees them as attractive and funny, and it is almost like we cannot begin to imagine that someone so outwardly personable could commit such heinous acts.
Viewers of true crime media are often not as disgusted and shocked as they should be when watching because they can never imagine themselves in such a position to be a victim. They especially cannot imagine that seemingly “normal” people could hide such dark secrets, and people do not want to think that way. No one wants to believe that their next-door neighbor could brutalize them in such a manner that is shown in documentaries, so in a way, separating themselves from the reality of depictions of serial killers like Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile and Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story could be considered a method to cope and dissociate from the harsh truth. However, we still must consider that these killings happen to real people, and though most of us should be thankful to say we do not have to deal with a trauma like that, we must be mindful of how we react to the media. The response to the Dahmer series was a shocking wakeup call to the extent to which the desensitization has gone; “reactions from people on social media and speaking on podcasts, mostly straight white women, claimed that the show was not violent enough and they had no problem watching the graphic murders. They had no stake in the murders because it was not happening to people like them”(Murno 2022). It is human to trivialize and diminish instances that do not involve us directly, in the cases of most serial killers who are commercialized by documentaries, TV shows and movies, a common factor are the people they target. Whether it be children, people of color, the LGBT community, or women, it is almost always true that killers go for the vulnerable and minorities. Shows like Dahmer are so widespread in the media that people can watch them repeatedly in different depictions, still not feeling the horror in the substance because it is happening to a different demographic. Specifically, Dahmer targeted young black gay boys, and in general, “people are constantly watching the horrors that Black people face completely unphased because it is not happening to them, so they are not getting retraumatized by it the way that Black people are” (Murno 2022). The show’s viewers cannot see how this affects the community as a whole because Dahmer was so calculated in his targets; these are the things that are not brought to our attention in these shows. We cannot see how detrimental these people are to minority communities because these mass murderers are so often associated with entertainment that it causes desensitization to the brutality inflicted on these victims. We often shrug off the wide array of true crime in the media, not seeing how it harms our minds because it caters to our need to analyze and “fix people.”
True crime is educational! Or so we are made to believe. The people behind the media that gets produced benefit so incredibly from the mass intake of true crime media they will say and do anything to push their twisted agendas. They will embellish tv to feed into the demands of entertainment, putting the harmful effects on the back burner for the sake of a check. Producers put this media out with no regard to families, victims, and survivors, and the output of this material is justified by “saying that it (1) raises awareness and (2) allows us to understand the
mind of a killer” (Murno 2022). One could argue that there is no need for the “average American” to understand the mind of a killer unless, of course, your profession calls for it. This is why we have psychologists and detectives. It is not the job of an average citizen to analyze
why the mind does what it does. And one could hardly call it education when the viewers are only learning of the victims in relation to their murderers; this, however, is how the media is overwhelmed with so much content. The ethical standpoint is nonexistent, “producers often sideline ethics to sensationalize the coverage of heinous crimes. To captivate viewers, the true crime genre sacrifices reality for dramatic flourishes” (Chestnut 2018). The heinous acts committed by murderers are exploited time and time again for the public eye. Though, as watchers, our viewings have some to do with what is put into the media, most blame is placed on those who continue to recklessly produce true crime media, knowing the implications and dangers.
That is not to say all true crime media needs to be barred from ever airing on screens; however, there needs to be an effective regulation; the more we are exposed to true crime media that neglects to touch on the real issues instead of focusing on the dramatization and romanticization aspect of media the more harmful it will become. It is detrimental to families because “victims and their families have no real way to opt out of media coverage, as public footage can be used without their consent” (Chestnut 2018). And it harms the public because we begin associating ruthlessness with entertainment. Without considering those affected by the crimes inflicted on them, we can watch crimes be dissected brutally for the sake of “good” murder media.
“We subconsciously put [criminals] on a pedestal and immortalize [them] as they had hoped for when they committed these acts against these innocent victims. … We are too quickly able to look at these documentaries as something so far removed from our personal lives that we neglect to see how much it affects all parties involved.”
Nemiah Gerald, ’23
“I love true crime.” What does it mean to love true crime if the true crime itself is detrimental to all parties involved? We constantly hear people saying that phrase, myself included, and we think nothing of it. There is no harm in liking a TV genre; however, when the genre is as detrimental to the public as the true crime genre, we must begin to look at it in a different light. We as a society see true crime as entertainment; we cannot separate the acts of horror imposed by criminals from other characters on TV. This is partly because of the mass production and lack of regulation of multiple movies and series on some of the same and different criminals. We subconsciously put them on a pedestal and immortalize criminals as they had hoped for when they committed these acts against these innocent victims. Viewers of true crime are genuinely desensitized to acts committed by criminals because it is readily available at their fingertips whenever they feel like it; we are too quickly able to look at these documentaries as something so far removed from our personal lives that we neglect to see how much it affects all parties involved. American society needs to hold ourselves and producers accountable for the part we all have to play in the romanticization and normalization of true crime in day-to-day life and begin to remedy our ignorance, starting with the acknowledgment that there is an issue that needs to be resolved.
Works Cited
Allani, Maitri. “Romanticizing Serial Killers Harms the Victims.” Portola Pilot, portolapilot.com/romanticizing-serial-killers-harms-the-victims/#:~:text=They%20romanticize%20and%20idolize%20these,than%20idolize%20the%20serial%20killers.
Murno, Elizabeth. “The Glorification of Serial Killers – the Wellesley News.” The Wellesley News, 24 Oct. 2022, thewellesleynews.com/2022/10/23/the-glorification-of-serial-killers.
Sayles, Justin. “We’re Watching More True Crime Than Ever. Is That a Problem?” The Ringer, 9 July 2021, www.theringer.com/tv/2021/7/9/22567381/true-crime-documentaries-boom-bubble-netflix-hbo.
The Learning Network. “Is True Crime as Entertainment Morally Defensible?” The New York Times, 1 June 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/learning/is-true-crime-as-entertainment-morally-defensible.html.
Understanding the Teen Brain – Health Encyclopedia – University of Rochester Medical Center. www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=1&ContentID=3051.