The Attractiveness of True Crime Media and Its Effects
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Authors
Natalie Harning
Issue Date
2026
Type
Language
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Abstract
The 2017 murder case of two teenage girls, Abigail Williams and Liberty German, in the small Indiana town of Delphi was a complicated case that was greatly affected by media. There were positives to the public’s interest in the case, like community encouragement and empathy for the family. However, there were also many negative effects associated with the case’s publicity, as investigators, and eventually prosecutors in the Richard Allen’s trial for the girls’ murders, were drawn away from their work to deal with over-involved civilians.
This research led to questions about how community involvement could be both a positive negative factor in investigations, and, further, into how media involvement, especially true crime media, can be harmful to investigations and individuals. With research, the causes of true crime media interest and its potential implications are expected to be revealed. With this, the proposed research question is: why does true crime media have such a large consumer base and, if there are indeed harmful impacts of true crime media, what can be done to negate these impacts?