Before diving into specific criminal cases, host Melissa Deadrich sets the stage by turning the lens on the true crime genre itself β examining why we're so drawn to these stories, how media framing shapes what we believe, and what biases we bring to every case we consume.
In this episode:
- Why true crime has become a cultural phenomenon β not just something we watch, but something we actively participate in
- The psychological roots of our fascination: threat detection, morbid curiosity, and the need for closure
- How the victim-villain-motive-resolution template can oversimplify real cases
- Who gets attention in true crime β and who gets left out
- How media framing shapes public belief before we even realize it
- A breakdown of key cognitive biases at play: confirmation bias, availability bias, attribution error, and hindsight bias
- Why these patterns matter beyond entertainment β and why Melissa created this show
Timestamps
- 0:00 β Introduction: What shapes the story of a criminal case?
- 0:20 β Welcome to Episode 1 / What this show is about
- 0:43 β True crime is part of the culture β and we're not just watching anymore
- 1:04 β What the genre can do at its best (Serial, Making a Murderer)
- 1:55 β Why the genre can also oversimplify
- 2:25 β The central question: Why are we drawn to true crime?
- 3:09 β Being drawn to true crime doesn't mean something's wrong with us
- 3:08 β The psychological draw: threat detection and brain wiring
- 3:31 β Morbid curiosity β and why it's not automatically unhealthy
- 4:22 β Uncertainty and the need for answers
- 5:07 β The moral dimension: right, wrong, empathy, and justice
- 5:59 β How media framing tells us how to understand what happened
- 6:26 β Obvious vs. subtle framing β and how it shapes interpretation
- 7:13 β The "perfect victim" problem and who true crime typically focuses on
- 8:20 β How offenders get labeled β and what those labels leave out
- 9:30 β Motive in true crime β the layers that don't make it into the story
- 10:08 β Resolution β and why justice is rarely that clean
- 10:39 β Bias and media framing working together
- 10:41 β Confirmation bias in true crime
- 11:32 β Availability bias β and the serial killer distortion
- 12:07 β Attribution error: "Only a monster could do that"
- 13:16 β Hindsight bias β and how it fuels victim blaming
- 14:12 β Why all of this matters beyond entertainment
- 15:05 β How true crime shapes beliefs about the justice system
- 15:25 β The genre's blind spots and real-world consequences
- 16:24 β What this show is here to do
- 17:12 β Closing: Crime stories are about more than what happened
- 18:26 β Follow the show + what's coming in Episode 2
Sources
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βMissing White Woman Syndromeβ in Top True Crime Podcasts. Race and Justice.
β’ Boling, K. S., & Slakoff, D. C. (2025). βWhat an invasion, an immense invasionβ: Examining the adverse effects of
true crime media on co-victims. Crime, Media, Culture.
β’ Scrivner, C. (2021). The Psychology of Morbid Curiosity: Development and Initial Validation of the Morbid
Curiosity Scale. Personality and Individual Differences.
β’ Sommers, Z. (2016). Missing White Woman Syndrome: An Empirical Analysis of Race and Gender Disparities in
Online News Coverage of Missing Persons. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 106(2), 275β314.
β’ Vicary, A. M., & Fraley, R. C. (2010). Captured by True Crime: Why Are Women Drawn to Tales of Rape, Murder,
and Serial Killers? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(1), 81β86.
β’ FBI National Crime Information Center (NCIC). 2024 Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics.
β’ FBI Uniform Crime Reporting / CJIS. 2024 Homicide Clearance Statistics.
β’ CDC MMWR (2024). Intimate Partner Homicide Among Women β United States, 2018β2021.
β’ U.S. Department of Justice. Tribal Justice and Safety: Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Data and
Research.
β’ Pew Research Center (2023). Who listens to true crime podcasts in the U.S.?
β’ YouGov (2022, 2024). True Crime: How does the genre affect Americans?
β’ Edison Research / audiochuck. True Crime Consumer Report.
β’ Council on Criminal Justice (2025). When Crime Statistics Diverge.
β’ Murder Accountability Project (2025). National homicide clearance trend data.
β’ Black and Missing Foundation. Missing Persons Statistics 2023.