{"id":184337,"date":"2026-03-09T16:27:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T16:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/184337\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T16:27:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T16:27:40","slug":"usfsp-looks-past-the-caution-tape-the-crows-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/184337\/","title":{"rendered":"USFSP looks past the caution tape \u2013 The Crow’s Nest"},"content":{"rendered":"

True crime has a tendency to paint cases as black and white and homogenize them. In reality there is a lot of gray area and cases have their own unique features and causes.<\/p>\n

Photo by Mahika Kukday | The Crow\u2019s Nest<\/p>\n

By Zariya Bankston and Julia Birdsall<\/p>\n

When literacy rates began to grow in 16th century England, one of the rising genres among new readers was vulgar and bloody: True crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to JSTOR Daily \u201cHundreds of crime pamphlets \u2014 short, unbound books of roughly six to 24 pages, usually detailing horrific murders \u2014 circulated during this era.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since then, true crime has continued to circulate globally through various forms of media. Most recently, true crime documentaries, podcasts, Tik Tok videos and YouTube commentaries have dominated the internet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hit Netflix shows such as \u201cDahmer\u201d and \u201cMonsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,\u201d have accumulated millions of viewers, the majority being from the true crime community \u2014 a group of people who share a fascination and interest for the genre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are different reasons why people turn to it,\u201d Dawn Cecil, a criminology professor at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, told The Crow\u2019s Nest. \u201cA lot of people will say, \u2018Well, I want to know why people commit crime.\u2019 Other people want to know, \u2018Well, how do I protect myself?\u2019 Because those messages are kind of in there. Some people just like dark stories and fear for entertainment.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A senior who chose to remain anonymous told The Crow\u2019s Nest that he watches true crime videos on YouTube while he completes tasks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He falls into the first category of true crime watcher that Cecil outlines \u2014 he wants to understand why people commit crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s human nature to be fascinated with\u2026why certain things happen,\u201d he said. \u201cTrying to understand why things happen can lead us to a better understanding of how we can recognize these patterns\u2026 and recognize those red flags in our communities [and] other people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0However, many people have begun to question the morality of true crime and the people who consume it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sophomore political science major Morgan Heimkreiter liked true crime media when she was younger but eventually decided to stop interacting with it because she disliked the way most content portrayed victims of crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a very disgusting thing to be using somebody else\u2019s trauma and family,\u201d she said. \u201cMost of the time, victims\u2026 or their families are not being reached out to for these things and they don\u2019t even provide resources at the end of these videos.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

USF St. Petersburg criminology professor Cary Hopkins-Hall also finds the portrayal of victims to be problematic in true crime media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of potential for harm there. If it\u2019s not done correctly, if it\u2019s not done with a lot of integrity and care,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some media has the effect of turning crime into fiction and victims into fictional characters in people\u2019s minds, Cecil felt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heimkreiter agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBy characterizing them, they don\u2019t get the whole justice, and they\u2019re seen as a different person than they actually were,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

True crime media that is fictionalized can also distort people\u2019s perception of which crimes they are more likely to be susceptible to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you fictionalize [crime], you might be telling people kind of the wrong story,\u201d Hopkins-Hall said. \u201cYou know [people are] going to be expecting, like, \u2018Oh, I got to be careful around the stranger rather than my uncle\u2019s friend that I know kind of now.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, there are some true crime creators that work with victims and help others seek justice, Cecil, Hopkins-Hall and Heimkreiter noticed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a podcast I like called \u2018Crime Weekly\u2019\u2026 when they sell merch, that money goes toward things like doing DNA testing in unsolved cases that have been floundering for a while,\u201d Hopkins-Hall said. \u201cSo, there are people out there, I think, that are really doing [true crime media] for the right reason and really having an impact.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

True crime media has also helped to spread awareness about crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been some\u2026 really important stories that have been told,\u201d Cecil said. \u201cThey\u2019ve raised awareness or they\u2019ve actually changed the outcome of a case.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cecil cited the case of Curtis Flowers, who was convicted six times for a quadruple murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The investigative journalists who created the true crime podcast \u201cIn the Dark\u201d looked into Flowers\u2019 case and found that the prosecution lawyer was striking people of color from the jury so that Flowers, a Black man, would have a higher chance of being convicted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of \u201cIn the Dark\u2019s\u201d work, Flowers\u2019 case was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, true crime media has hindered investigations more often than it has helped.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Especially when crime cases are publicized on the internet, wrongful online prosecution of strangers can occur.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a chance you might help,\u201d Cecil said. \u201cWhen we look at Gabby Petito, there was one little bit that helped, but we look at the Idaho Four, nothing [helped] and it was just such a mess.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the case of the Idaho Four<\/a>, the speculative but detailed nature of true crime media left people online with the presumed ability to play jury and judge, causing detrimental effects on the people close to the victims, as well as the case itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Victims were being accused of committing the crime, further traumatizing them and casting their stories into doubt, as well as leading the police astray from the true culprit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we\u2019ve seen that people have been wrongly convicted and things like that maybe we should be a little more cautious,\u201d Hopkins-Hall said. \u201cBecause, you know, we could be [demonizing] someone and they might not even actually be guilty.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The true crime genre also plays a part in the mischaracterization of people with mental illnesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If someone\u2019s perception of mental illness was created only through watching true crime,\u00a0it can perpetuate negative stereotypes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The anonymous senior and Hopkins-Hall both felt that people sometimes demonize those with mental health issues because of negative stereotypes spread by true crime media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe equate mental health and dangerousness, which isn\u2019t necessarily true,\u201d Hopkins-Hall said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those topics where you have a lot of people talking about it who aren\u2019t trained, aren\u2019t experts and can make generalizations that are not good for anyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

True crime also has a clear gender and racial bias.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe over-represent and then misrepresent women as victims and as offenders \u2014 that\u2019s really white women that we do that with,\u201d Cecil said. \u201cSo, when we see women of color from other marginalized communities, we don\u2019t see them as often in true crime. So, we don\u2019t get to hear their stories.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cecil mentioned \u201cmissing white women syndrome.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Missing white women syndrome describes the high levels of attention that white women \u2014 typically those that are upper-middle class, young and attractive \u2014 receive from the police, media and the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Contrarily victims who are women of color receive a disproportionate amount of attention.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue crime tries to respond to that, like, \u2018Oh, look, we know we\u2019re ignoring missing and murdered Indigenous women or missing and murdered Black women\u2026we\u2019re gonna fix that and we\u2019re gonna give you a special about it,\u2019\u201d Cecil told The Crow\u2019s Nest. \u201cBut it usually is short-lived\u2026it doesn\u2019t really do anything to counteract the stereotypes that are there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hopkins-Hall also mentioned the lack of representation for women of color in true crime media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times you see, \u2018This white woman disappeared,\u2019\u201d Hopkins-Hall said. \u201cBut then there\u2019s so many Black women who are missing right now that no one is looking for besides their families. So, I think that\u2019s one big issue is, who are these stories representing?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cecil spoke at a Rockhurst University panel in Fall 2025, where she discussed the ethics of true crime media and she encouraged people to think about how they can responsibly<\/a> consume and create true crime content.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

True crime creators have a responsibility to tell the stories of victims, perpetrators and cases with as much accuracy and empathy as possible, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With social media true crime\u2019s rising popularity, anyone can share their opinion on real-life cases.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

With old murder cases still gaining attention and tragedies continuing to happen, the true crime genre is here to stay.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the aftermath of who this genre may affect lies in the hands of the people who consume it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important that people watch it with sort of sensitivity, but then also with respect to the fact that these are real people and real experiences that people go through,\u201d the anonymous senior said. \u201cPeople forget about that all the time, but that\u2019s always a lens that I stick to, to make sure that I\u2019m not so desensitized by what I am watching.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t Post Views: 55 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>
Written by: Zariya Bankston<\/a> on March 9, 2026.
Last revised by: Julia Ferrara<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"True crime has a tendency to paint cases as black and white and homogenize them. In reality there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-184337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}