Is the True Crime Community Disrespectful?

Lots of people nowadays have a growing obsession with true crime. There’s a true crime community online now that has content in the form of podcasts, TV shows, YouTube videos, and more. Listening to stories of tragic events is something that has always piqued human interest. That’s essentially what the news does, right? However, people are starting to debate how respectful the growing true crime community is. Some people have taken their obsession to an extreme and idealize serial killers, which is very disrespectful to their victims and the victim's families. 

The Victims

Lots of true crime content doesn’t do much to show respect for the victims. For the 30th anniversary of Ted Bundy’s death, Netflix released a movie about him titled Extremely Wicked: Shockingly Evil and Vile. Fans of true crime were excited to get a film about one of the most notorious serial killers, and others were excited to watch a movie that starred Zac Efron. While most didn’t think that deeply about the film’s motives, others were disappointed in the lack of respect it had for Bundy’s victims.

The movie focused more on Bundy’s personal life and how he was shown in the media than the actual killing of his victims. It showed how people in the courtrooms swooned over him, and everyone thought he was far too good to do the crimes that he was being accused of. This is accurate to what happened in real life, but the movie definitely could’ve done more to honor Bundy's victims. In fact, all it really does is list their names at the very end of the film. Sure, it accurately showed how groups of people thought that he was innocent because he was attractive and smart, but there’s more to his story than just how he went so long without being convicted. His case shows how people idealized serial killers decades ago, and they’re still doing the same thing today with no regard for their victims. While trying to portray Ted Bundy, Netflix essentially did the same thing that media outlets were doing when he was first on trial.

Here are the known victims of Ted Bundy: Karen Sparks, Lynda Ann Healey, Donna Gail Manson, Susan Elaine Rancourt, Roberta Kathleen Parks, Brenda Carol Ball, Georgann Hawkins, Janice Ann Ott, Denise Marie Naslund, Nancy Wilkox, Melissa Ann Smith, Laura Ann Aime, Carol DaRonch, Debi Kent, Caryn Eileen Campbell, Julie Cunningham, Lynette Culver, Susan Curtis, Margaret Elizabeth Bowman, Lisa Levy, Karen Chandler, Kathy Kleiner, Cheryl Thomas, and Kimberly Leach. While he confessed to murdering 30 women, he potentially murdered more than he never confessed to. Many of these girls were teenagers, and one was as young as 12. Why is a man who did such terrible things being idolized? Ted Bundy is far from the only serial killer who’s being idolized and having his victims disrespected, too. 

Romanticizing Serial Killers

Fangirls make edits of serial killers like Ted Bundy and Richard Ramirez on apps like TikTok, calling them hot and making jokes about how they would love to be attacked by them. People sell merchandise romanticizing serial killers on sites like Etsy, profiting off of a culture that disrespects victims. We know that people thought Ted Bundy was being falsely accused way back during his first trial, but why was this the case, and why are people still fangirling over him the way that people did decades ago?

It’s clear that the main reason why these serial killers have people defending them is because of the fact that they’re conventionally attractive. When Cameron Herrin killed a mother and child while street racing and was sentenced to 24 years in prison, fans were saying that he was “too cute to go to prison”. More than 20,000 people went as far as to sign a petition to lower his sentence. Murderers get romanticized because of their attractiveness. Families of the people that were killed have to sit back and watch others say that their killer is innocent because of how they look, or even worse, that the killer for sure did those crimes, but it doesn’t matter because of how they look. This culture of romanticizing serial killers is disrespectful to victims and their families who have to deal with the loss forever. 

Imagine if your close family member or best friend was murdered by a man who many think is attractive. You’re mourning their loss, and you see people making edits about how cute their killer is on social media. These people say that their killer was “too cute” to be convicted, and they write captions saying that they’d love to be his next victim. This is what the families of the women killed by Ted Bundy and many others have to deal with. 

How to Fix it

In order to change this culture, there needs to be a reconstruction of how we report on serial killers. Many people believe that the best thing to do is to give them much less direct media coverage. Lots of murderers kill for fame, and that’s exactly what famous serial killers have gotten. Instead of focusing on Ted Bundy’s personal life, coverage should focus on the tragedy that happened to his victims, and how we can respect their memory. 

One of the big ways to respect victims is to stop talking about their killers in the ways that are currently happening. Edits of murderers need to stop, and captions talking about how cute they are need to stop also. If you think that a murderer is cute, keep it to yourself. Nobody needs to read about how you want to be their next victim because of how hot they are. The true-crime community releasing videos of the tragedies that happened doesn’t necessarily need to stop, but they should be done in a way that makes sure to highlight who the victims were (if families are okay with it) and doesn’t just skip over what happened. In fact, if you’re going to make a video about a lesser-known case, reach out to the families for their permission, and ask them how they would like you to approach the subject. This ensures that you won’t upset them with how you address the topic. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying true crime, but the current culture of romanticizing it needs to end.