It also perpetuates this false idea that murder is isolated, and not a byproduct of systematic issues such as white supremacy and racism (which is evident when you see that the victims of murder are, overwhelmingly, black men. And that as op mentioned above, indigenous women have the highest rates among women of missing person cases and being murdered, at 10x higher than average).
It grossly misrepresents murder as an “outlier” and not a societal issue that bares discussing, who it’s victims are, who’s most at risk, who it’s perpetuaters are, the reasons behind it and offers false solutions. To do that, it scapegoats other marginalized communities to further enforce the idea that it’s seperate, isolated, that it isn’t something “normal people” do and isn’t due to the preexisting systems of oppression — instead, murderers are pathologized as “narcissists” “psychopaths” “sociopaths”, they’re “delusional”, they’re “manic”, they’re not normal, they’re not human, they’re less than human. Now, if only we could spot these people and isolate them, incarcerate them, earlier… that would prevent murder.
It’s eugenics 101. It supports the prison industrial complex with psychiatry as its prop. It trains you to view criminals as inhuman and therefore underserving of humane treatment, it tells you that stripping people’s autonomy is okay as a “preventive” measure. For those kinds of people, for “narcissists” and “sociopaths” and… you don’t necessarily have to be either.
Did you know that black boys are overwhelmingly misdiagnosed with ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) due racial stereotyping? That this is an actual issue in psychiatry?
Malicious misdiagnosis is also a thing, when you give someone, or a whole institution, the power to strip someone of their autonomy with the right diagnosis, that system will be abused. How many people have been diagnosed with ASPD (antisocial personality disorder) while undergoing trial, and how many times has that played into judicial bias against these highly stigmatized disorders and been used as justification to lengthen a prison sentence? How many times has that happened to people of marginalized backgrounds to give them sentences disproportionate to their crimes? I’ll let you sit with that for a bit.
There’s a long, historical link, between the criminal justice system, white supremacy, and the psychiatric system — and it is oh-so-wonderfully shown to us in True Crime. In the biases that True Crime promotes.
The demonization and abuse of Personality Disorders (particularly Cluster B personality disorders), Psychotic Disorders and Dissociative Disorders as well as the demonization of their symptoms and related psychiatric terminology (“manic”, “delusional”) is absolutely peak ableism and eugenics, but it is also an ableist system that allows for abuse and misuse of authority in ways that make other marginalized communities more vulnerable and at higher risk for incarceration. It is frequently abused towards that purpose.
This is a big part of what makes our systems of oppression, our struggles, and our liberation so tied together.
It is also a big part of the propaganda true crime spreads.
You can be a true crime fan and go, “I’m not racist!” but a lot of the time your murder victims are overwhelmingly marginalized poc, and the misrepresentation of murder is a racial issue. The copganda in true crime is a racial issue. And often times your “sociopathic criminal” is also a Black man, who’s had a thoroughly demonized mental illness weaponized against him.
Alright, you’re not racist, you’re aware of copganda, but are you cognizant of the more insidious dehumanizing ableism that has deep roots in, and is often one of the most enjoyable aspects of, true crime? Or have you completely missed it? And are you aware of how this ableism, and the current psychiatric system as a whole, is weaponized against racial minorities and used to further support the current prison industrial complex?
The misrepresentation of murder is a racial issue.