Opinion: True crime is exploitative

Izaan Masud

When Ryan Murphy attempted to contact the families of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims, he got no responses.

The families wanted to leave the tragedies that befell their loved ones in the past.

Despite the lack of responses, Murphy decided to continue production on his show “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” which went on to become one of Netflix’s most successful shows ever. Murphy and Netflix were able to capture the zeitgeist with their show, but some speculate they did it by exploiting the trauma that real families went through.

Our fascination with serial killers is not new. Serial killers have been around in America since H.H. Holmes in 1861.

According to investigative historian Peter Vronsky, the peak of serial killer activity happened between 1970 and 1999, with killers such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer capturing the morbid fascination of the American public.

Our curiosity surrounding true crime may seem in poor taste but is ultimately natural. In the words of the true-crime YouTuber Wendigoon, “It’s interesting to poke your head into the rabbit hole and see how awful it gets.”

This interest was so powerful that it drove “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” to become the third Netflix series with 1 billion viewing hours according to a report from Collider and has caused the emergence of almost 200 different true crime podcasts according to the University of South Carolina.

A survey from Morning Delight found that 62% of Americans enjoyed movies and shows about serial killers. However, this curiosity becomes harmful when it begins to glorify the killer and hurt the victims of the families.

Podcasts like “My Favorite Murder” desensitize audiences toward real violence, adding a comedic tone to tragedies. There is no punchline that can cover the pain of victims, and the use of real deaths as a form of entertainment is morally questionable at best and disgusting at worst. The in-depth descriptions of some murders can also be disturbing.

One of the most famous true crime stories is that of Junko Furuta, who was a Japanese teenager when she was assaulted and killed by four teenage boys. True crime creators often go into great detail when describing the suffering of Furuta, highlighting every gruesome aspect of her captivity. Even if one may have an interest in true crime, using Furuta’s story in order to gain fame is exploitation.

This is to say that fixating on the victims is the wrong way to cover serial killers. When creating true crime media, the focus should be placed on the depravity of the killer themself rather than the pain the innocent victims were put through.

Despite that, true crime media can still be exploitative without graphic depictions of the crime. “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” often shows restraint in its depiction of violence. None of Dahmer’s murders are shown on screen and are at most only implied through sound design. While there is gore, it is often subtly infused into the story. In fact, the only murder shown on screen is Jeffrey Dahmer’s own death, a scene of cathartic retribution where the audience can revel in the death of the show’s real monster.

This goes to show how the series is still exploitative, as the creators of the show ignored the criticism they faced from the real families of Dahmer’s victims when making the show. Some victims’ family members were even portrayed in the show, with Rita Isabell specifically having her traumatic outburst recreated in the show.

Even if Ryan Murphy wanted to be tasteful when making the show, causing the families of the victims to relive their trauma should have been reason enough not to make the show.

While there are issues with the genre currently, the solution is not to eradicate true crime media entirely. Doing so would be in vain because, as previously seen, our interest in how depraved humans can be will never go away. True crime can exist and should disturb its audience.

In addition, true crime media should place more emphasis on the depravity of the killers themselves, and less on the gory details of their crimes. More importantly, true crime shows and movies should not be made without the express consent of the victims’ families.

We have seen enough media coverage of horrible men like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy and it is time we let the victims finally rest.