In the world of true crime media, a good rule-of-thumb is that “runners” are rescuers and “joggers” get jabbed or jailed. But how did we become so obsessed with crime that the media now has patterns of language for describing this phenomenon? What about these stories compels us to need books, podcasts, television specials, and now social media campaigns about victims and suspects?

As Dr. Pamela Burger notes, the true crime genre started with the dawn of print media and was as diverse then as it is now. Where sixteenth-century consumers couldn’t access printed materials, they turned to ballads and oral recitations of gruesome tales—even in church. As for modern consumers, Amanda Keeler explains that the availability of podcasts as a new form of true crime consumption has expanded both the quantity of stories available and the styles of account. Do you want to learn more about the victim—the investigation—the trial? There’s a podcast for that. But more importantly, she writes,

many of these podcasts effectively bridge the micro story of individuals with the macro investigations of larger circumstances surrounding criminal cases. The focus on these “small” stories helps to illuminate systemic issues, catapulting the audio-only exploration of an issue from the anonymous and vague notion that crime exists in the world to the personal stories of victims that can help create important connections for the audience.

The articles in this syllabus offer a multidisciplinary approach to true crime. The first section of articles are specific examples of true crime stories that explain the crime within its historical context. The next section focuses on the “sciences” of criminal investigation over time, and how those are used and misused in criminology and popular culture today. Finally, the last section offers articles that explore true crime’s impact on society. How do we view crime as a whole, and how has that changed over time?

Historical Examples of “True Crime”

Burke and Hare…and Knox

Matthew Wills

November 13, 2023

Burke and Hare infamously killed people to meet the demand for bodies in Edinburgh’s anatomy schools in 1828. But who remembers the man for whom they worked?

The Arsenic Cake of Madame Lafarge

Jess Romeo

July 13, 2020

The first trial to use forensic toxicology electrified France in 1840 with the tale of a bad marriage and poisoned innards.

Suicide by Proxy

Katrina Gulliver

March 13, 2023

In early Modern Europe, suicide was a sin to be punished with eternal damnation. Some women found an awful workaround: committing murder.

How Crime Stories Foiled Reform in Victorian Britain

Livia Gershon

October 27, 2021

Harsh punishments were declining in the nineteenth century. Then came sensationalist news coverage of a reputed crime wave.

The Adventurous Life and Mysterious Death of Frank Lenz

Ashawnta Jackson

December 19, 2022

In 1892, the master cyclist set out to tour the world on wheels. A few months later, he disappeared, never to be heard from again. What happened to Frank Lenz?

Money, Murder, and Mrs. Clem

Ashawnta Jackson

April 3, 2023

Nancy Clem was a Gilded Age con artist whose swindles eventually turned deadly. Her crimes would test the era’s assumptions about class, gender, and criminality.

Why We’re So Obsessed With Lizzie Borden’s 40 Whacks

Erin Blakemore

August 4, 2017

Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother were brutally murdered, possibly by Lizzie herself, in August 1892. Why are we still dissecting the crime?

The Infamous Tale of the Murderous Chemistry Professor

Matthew Wills

February 24, 2017

The murder of Dr. George Parkman on the campus of Harvard College was one of the most famous crimes in nineteenth century America.

An Early Wiretapping Case

Christopher Maloney

July 17, 2014

Wiretapping made its debut in front of the Supreme Court in 1928.

History’s Most Notorious True Crime Story

Matthew Wills

August 6, 2018

How New York City's tabloids sensationalized the murder case that inspired the classic film noir Double Indemnity.

When Being an Unemployed Teenager was a Crime

Livia Gershon

August 7, 2023

Seventeenth-century teenagers faced criminalization for refusing to take on jobs as live-in farm workers, but many pursued their interests despite the threat.

Science and Pseudoscience

The Mystery of Crime-Scene Dust

Livia Gershon

June 27, 2023

In the late nineteenth century, forensic investigators began using new technologies to study minute details—such as the arrangement and makeup of dust.

Finding a Murderer in a Victim’s Eye

Allison C. Meier

October 31, 2018

In late nineteenth-century forensics, optography was all the rage. This pseudoscience held that what someone saw just before death would be imprinted on their eye.

The Psychology Behind False Confessions

James MacDonald

April 6, 2018

In criminal interrogation, interrogators often ask questions and interpret the responses in such a way as to confirm guilt.

The Psychology of Copycat Crime

Jeanette Ferrara

May 11, 2016

A recent wave of subway slashings in New York City is an opportunity to examine the criminology and sociology behind copycat crime.

Creating the “Criminal Class”

Livia Gershon

January 2, 2023

In the late eighteenth century, Glasgow magistrate Patrick Colquhoun argued that immoral living had created a distinct class of people with weak characters.

What Skulls Told Us

Akanksha Singh

November 7, 2023

The pseudoscience phrenology swept the popular imagination, and its practitioners made a mint preying on prejudices, gullibility, and misinformation.

True Crime Society

Puritan True Crime

Matthew Wills

September 25, 2018

Cotton Mather and other 17th-century American writers created a genre all their own: Puritan gallows literature, which both terrified and edified.

The Rise and Fall of “True Crime” Radio Dramas

Julia Métraux

August 4, 2022

Depictions of poor, non-white victims and informants led working-class and rural listeners to turn against the genre.

Our Obsession with Art Heists

Ashley Domingo Hendricks

August 19, 2022

A deeply ingrained interest in stolen objects and their recovery reflects our collective uncertainty over how we value art.

Let’s Talk About (Your) Crimes

Livia Gershon

December 10, 2021

Asking yourself about what you've "gotten away with" may change how you think about "criminals."

Crime Waves and Moral Panics

Morgan Godvin

March 2, 2022

From train robberies to organized retail theft to murder, are we really gripped by a crime wave?

Court Trials: The Plot Drives the “Story”

Julia Métraux

February 20, 2022

Trials create narratives that are "plot-driven." When judges attempt to see them as "character-driven," real people can be denied justice.

Ending the Myths about Domestic Homicide

Hope Reese

September 1, 2021

There has been a spike in domestic violence amid the COVID-19 crisis, according to a recent report from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Mass Murderers Don’t Have a Race When They’re White

Matthew Wills

October 21, 2015

Why the race of perpetrators in mass shootings is only a factor when the shooters are not white.

“Victim Culture” and Victim Blaming

Livia Gershon

September 28, 2015

The critique of contemporary "victim culture" has parallels to the critique of "victim feminism" of the 1990s.

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