What are you able to do in a three-minute TikTok video? It seems that the reply is mainly something: restock a fridge, inform individuals what to learn, remind viewers that retail staff are people, let somebody know their associate is dishonest, and a lot extra. For higher or for worse, that features true crime media.
From creators who do not cite their sources to those that stereotype the victims of crimes, all the way in which to overlooking or trying to erase the realities of police violence, misogyny, racism, and different systemic points, the toxicity alive in true crime media appears relentless. The excellent news is that moral, analytical, and victim-centered true crime TikTokkers exist, and listed below are 10 of the perfect from 2022.
Credit score: Screenshot TikTok/ @TruerCrimePod
Celisia Stanton is the creator of the podcast More true Crime, during which she examines tales of, sure, true crime, with nuance that is regularly omitted from extra salacious protection. On her TikTok, she calls out the white-washed, pro-cop, true-crime media and the way it impacts the way in which we take into consideration high-profile instances, similar to that of Susan Smith. Particularly, Stanton illustrates how the media conveniently edited out that Smith falsely accused a Black man of carjacking her and kidnapping her two youngsters earlier than admitting that she’d truly murdered them herself — a phenomenon that is resulted within the focusing on and deaths of Black males for many years. Additionally, try her sequence on Jonestown, which reveals many particulars you most likely did not know concerning the bloodbath, together with the truth that 70% of the 909 individuals who died have been Black individuals, and largely girls and youngsters.
Meet the true crime podcaster making your responsible pleasure extra moral
Credit score: Screenshot TikTok/ @HeyImAfia
Afia Asamoah “sits in a chair and talks,” and you’ll be glad you visited her nook of TikTok. Come for the “Spark Notes Storytime.” Keep for the beautifully positioned swear phrases, in addition to her musings on polygraph assessments, police errors, and what it takes for regulation enforcement to concentrate to the instances of lacking and murdered individuals of colour, and how a lot true crime an individual can responsibly eat with out glamorizing it.
Credit score: Screenshot TikTok/ @CriminologyAndCoffee
“Netflix makes everybody assume they work for the FBI,” says Rebekah T, creator of Criminology and Espresso and the co-host of the Physician Crime podcast. (To say she’s not improper can be an understatement.) This TikTokker’s focus is the victims, however she’s additionally devoted to dispelling myths about true crime, together with the “zip tie on the door deal with” rumor that was perpetuated by one other TikTok video. There is a wealth of different instructional content material, together with info on unsolved instances and lacking individuals, in addition to some much-needed calling-out of weird true crime phenomena — like individuals conducting seances at crime scenes. (Sure, you might be studying that appropriately.)
Credit score: Screenshot TikTok/ @KaraRobinsonChamberlain
In 2002, 15-year-old Kara Robinson Chamberlain was kidnapped from her finest buddy’s entrance yard in Columbia, South Carolina. She escaped and led police to her captor, who was later revealed to be a serial killer. Now in her mid-thirties, Robinson Chamberlain’s TikTok account is an area for schooling; try her movies on the way to speak to youngsters about sexual abuse, sufferer compensation funds, the therapy of lacking youngsters by regulation enforcement, in addition to psychological well being and help for victims of violent crime. Even should you’re on the fence about these movies during which individuals apply make-up whereas speaking about uncomfortable issues, watch Robinson Chamberlain tells us about her true crime business “icks” whereas making use of basis.
Credit score: Screenshot TikTok/ @SarahTurney
After Alissa Turney disappeared from Phoenix, Arizona, in 2001 on the age of 17, her stepsister Sarah took it upon herself to get some solutions. Sarah did not even hesitate when it seemed like her personal father (and Alissa’s stepfather) Michael was responsible of Alissa’s homicide. (He was indicted for Alissa’s homicide in 2020.) Sarah Turney started her glorious podcast Voices for Justice in 2019, with Alissa’s then-unsolved story on the middle of the primary season. She’s since gone on to cowl different unsolved instances, in addition to advocating on behalf of victims and their households. She additionally occurs to be nice at TikTok. Hers amplifies lacking particular person instances, will get actual about psychological well being, and airs her frustrations concerning the true crime group, together with the exploitation of households by creators… After which there’s her doubtlessly haunted attic.
Untangling true crime: Contained in the ethics of Hollywood’s best responsible pleasure
Credit score: Screenshot TikTok/ @TraumaMommaMoe
In August of 2022, Buzzfeed printed a chunk on TikTok creators whose relations had been murdered and their tales made into TV reveals. A kind of featured within the article was Mariah Day, whose mother, Betsy Faria, was killed by Pam Hupp in 2011. After NBC’s mini-series The Factor about Pam got here out this previous summer season, Day started utilizing TikTok to informally reply to the sequence and its viewers, in addition to to share what it is wish to dwell via such a traumatic loss. Day’s TikTok can also be a spot the place viewers can find out about who Betsy Faria actually was — a feisty, decided woman who continues to make an influence.
Credit score: Screenshot TikTok/ @TheMissPamelaJ
In July 2022, Pamela posted a video on her TikTok asking her followers what they thought of creators benefiting financially from true crime tales. The video went viral, creating a bigger dialog about respect for true crime victims and their households. “This shit is getting ridiculous,” says Pamela, in opposition to a background photograph of a Richard Ramirez keychain. In a video about serial killer merchandise, together with a make-up bag with footage of Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and the like, she calls out individuals who would purchase such issues. Then, she clarifies that true crime exploration ought to be about determining the larger image, and above all, respecting the households of the victims. In her movies, she takes to activity those that romanticize and sexualize serial killers, and ignore the victims and their family members, urging us all to “do higher” and contemplate what’s behind our consumption of true crime.
Credit score: Screenshot TikTok/ @TheFallLinePodcast
If you have not listened to The Fall Line in podcast kind, go and do it. Additionally subscribe to their TikTok, the place you will discover tons of movies about under-covered chilly instances from the Southeastern United States, in addition to interview sneak peeks and the solutions to questions on crime you did not know you had: What qualifies a case as chilly? How do cadaver canine do their jobs? Are people who find themselves wrongfully convicted compensated in any means? On each the podcast and its related TikTok, The Fall Line does what all good true crime media ought to do — it places the highlight on the sufferer and retains it there.
Credit score: Screenshot TikTok/ @DNADoeProject
The DNA Doe Venture is a non-profit group that makes use of genetic family tree (DNA testing and profiling that infers the genetic relationship between individuals) to determine Jane and John Does, i.e. the unidentified stays of people that might have been the victims of crimes or accidents. Some TikToks deal with the totally different Doe instances of their system, whereas others announce when somebody has been recognized, share the tales of their volunteers, and even provide tips about how one can turn into an investigative genetic genealogist your self.
Credit score: Screenshot TikTok/ @MauraMurrayMissing
“Maura Murray Lacking” is the TikTok account of Julie Murray, whose sister, Maura, disappeared in 2004 after her automobile crashed on a highway in New Hampshire. Maura’s case has been the topic of podcasts, documentaries, and wild quantities of hypothesis, but it surely nonetheless stays unsolved. Julie solutions questions on her sister’s case, however her TikTok additionally gives a glimpse into what it is wish to have your beloved vanish and keep vanished. It means residing amidst rumors and victim-blaming, and dealing with being on the middle of probably the most publicized true crime instances in latest historical past.
