Whodunnit? Was it the jealous mistress, fed up with false promises and a broken heart – or was it Mrs Peacock in the dining room with the candlestick? Crime has long been a popular genre of entertainment, it’s not a fluke that games like Cluedo and shows like Criminal minds have become so well liked. We’re human. We love to speculate and ask questions, especially when it comes to crime. How can a person go missing and never be found? How can a case remain unsolved? Let’s be honest, we’ve all had a go at playing armchair detective with our friends and family, maybe even online.
You wouldn’t be the only one though, the commercialisation of true crime and the development of a so-called ‘true crime community’ lends its creation to the success of YouTubers and Podcasters, with their sponsored makeup tutorials or mukbang’s. ‘Crime Junkie’ has been listed as being the most listened to, shared and followed podcast in 2022 on Apple Podcasts. The increased accessibility of real crime to the general public (as opposed to fictional crime), treads a fine line between being dangerous or helpful. And I would go as far as saying that, on most occasions, it is both harmful and disrespectful to the victims of such cases and their close ones. Not only this but it has led to the commodification of crime – true crime fans have forgotten that missing persons are real people, with real lives and real families, who have to deal with the loss of their loved ones every single day.
That is not to say that armchair detectives can be helpful and spread awareness about lesser-known cases. No one can deny this. Take the example of Adnan Syed, who’s murder conviction was overturned after spending 23 years in jail for the murder of his ex-girlfriend’s murder during high school. There is a chance that this would not have happened had the ‘Serial’ podcast not featured the case in one of their episodes.
Nonetheless such examples are few and far between, what we are seeing happen more commonly is the false accusation of people involved in crimes that are still being investigated. Conspiracy theories run rampant on platforms such as Twitter and Tiktok and can seriously hinder the success of detectives in conducting their investigations, as well as the process of prosecuting murderers and kidnappers. Moreover, those who are falsely accused by the public have to live with the damage it does to their reputation, as well as the loss of the individual – especially if it was a close friend or family member.
Whilst the public feels that they can’t always trust the police force to carry out an impartial investigation (case in point: bias runs deep in the force, as seen in the ‘racism, misogyny and homophobia’ piece by Public Policy Exchange, which have prevented them from catching serial killers like Dennis Nilsen earlier), they are no more qualified to play pretend at being an investigator. Because when they do, real people get hurt.