Negatives of True Crime Media: True crime TV shows and movies glorify some of the worlds worst killers

When “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” — a show about the life of serial killer Jeffery Dahmer — came out last September, I was hooked. I binged all 10 episodes in two days.

But looking back, no matter how great the protagonist’s acting was, I’m not proud of myself for watching a show glorifying the life of a murderer with 16 innocent victims.

Shows and movies about serial killers are giving criminals a horrifying amount of publicity. For example there are trends all over social media calling Dahmer “attractive,” sympathizing with him and people dismissing his acts with excuses about his poor relationship with his father.I can’t imagine losing someone I loved to a murderer and then seeing trends justifying it online.

After finishing “Dahmer,” I saw a social media post that came out saying the families of the victims did not give permission for the show and didn’t receive any of the profit. I did a little more research on how the families of the victims were affected and it got me thinking — what if your child was brutally murdered and the man who murdered them has a show made about him making millions of dollars?

The families of the victims who spoke out about the show expressed that they couldn’t believe that the producers of the show could use their names and have someone portray their deceased loved ones on a screen without permission.

Glorifying serial killers has  become normalized since true crime shows and movies have become more popular. Even serial killers Ted Bundy and Richard Ramirez have teen fans calling them good-looking.

Some may argue that these shows are educational. But there’s no need for people to be educated on the gruesome details about how someone killed each of their victims — potentially inspiring future violence. There’s nothing educational about how the killer got away with killing for so long. The only thing that people need to be educated on regarding serial killers is how to keep safe, how to identify that type of behavior to stay safe, or how to get yourself out of an unsafe situation. 

At lunch about a month ago, I overheard a student say, “If I’m not famous before I’m 40, I’m going to become a serial killer so I can have a show made about me.” Now I realize whoever said this was most likely joking, but it got me thinking again — Do people actually think like this? Could this be an actual motive for people? This made me even more disturbed by the casual attitude about felons.

Let’s stop watching, joking and supporting the media normalizing high crimes.