The Philosophy of Crime

By James Renner

What's The Philosophy of Crime about?

Are killers born or are they made? Does everyone have the capacity to commit murder? Why is true crime so popular today? The Philosophy of Crime tackles the biggest questions about unsolved mysteries by looking to classical philosophy for answers. Hosted by award-winning journalist, James Renner, author of True Crime Addict. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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506: The Most Difficult Cas...

05.25.2022

The most difficult case to bring to trial is a no-body homicide, which is why it so rarely happens. We dive deep into the history of such cases and the very nature of doubt. Covered topics: Alissa Turney, Michael Turney, ...

The Philosophy of Crime episodes:

05.25.2022 506: The Most Difficult Case - No Body Homicides The most difficult case to bring to trial is a no-body homicide, which is why it so rarely happens. We dive deep into the history of such cases and the very nature of doubt. Covered topics: Alissa Turney, Michael Turney, ...
05.18.2022 505: Help, I Still Don't Understand Money Laundering! What is money laundering? And why does the government look the other way? Covered topics: Money laundering; Al Capone; Ozark; Paul Manafort; Hedonism; Marquis de Sade; Sadism Further reading: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/502449/myth-how-al-capone-gave-us-term-money-laundering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone#Tax_evasion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_laundering https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/27/paul-manafort-was-stupid-or-unlucky-most-money-launderers-get-away-with-it-217090/ https://theintercept.com/2017/10/30/paul-manafort-money-laundering-scheme-was-identified-months-ago/ https://www.artandobject.com/news/how-money-laundering-works-art-world https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/money-finance/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Sade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonism See ...
05.11.2022 504: School Shooters and Toxic Masculinity What is the connection between school shootings in the United States and toxic masculinity? Is there a way to end school shootings? Covered Topics: School shootings; Toxic masculinity, Sandy Hook, Adam Lanza, Douglas Kellner, Seung-Hui Cho Further Reading: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/marriage-equals/202008/masculinity-is-there-really-crisis https://www.fastcompany.com/90696368/i-guess-we-have-to-talk-about-the-masculinity-crisis-in-america-again ...
05.04.2022 503: The Alford Plea – Pleading Guilty When You’re Innocent The Alford Plea provides a way for a defended to plead guilty while maintaining their innocence. Should this be allowed in criminal court? Where did it come from? Who benefits? Covered Topics: The West Memphis 3, Henry Alford, Act Utilitarianism, ...
04.27.2022 502: Does Reward Money Ever Help Solve Cold Cases? Does reward money help solve cold cases? When did we start offering money for tips? Is there a better way? Cover topics: Whitey Bulger, F.B.I. Top Ten, Little Crow, Action Theory, Donald Davidson, Maura Murray Further Reading: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2047126/Anna-Bjornsdottir--2m-Whitey-Bulger-FBI-tipster-Miss-Iceland.html https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-highest-reward-ever-paid-to-a-person-by-the-United-States-government-for-a-wanted-criminal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitey_Bulger#Capture ...
04.20.2022 501: How Can Lawyers Defend Guilty People? How can lawyers defend guilty people? Is it ethical to help someone stay out of jail if you know they're guilty? Covered Topics: Susan Smith, Judy Clarke, Trial by Ordeal, Juan Catalan, J. L. Mackie, Moral Nihilism, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, Further ...
10.11.2021 New Podcast Announcement! I'm starting a brand new, weekly podcast this Friday, called True Crime This Week, with James Renner. Please subscribe, today! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/philosophyofcrime/support
09.14.2021 Bonus: Little Liars Everywhere - Four murders, two false confessions, one meddling cop. This is a special, bonus episode of The Philosophy of Crime. It's a piece of long-form journalism I wrote about a man named Donny Soke, who I met while researching the unsolved murder of Lisa Pruett. Donny is serving a ...
06.08.2021 406: Killer Art, Or How to Love Thriller While Still Hating Michael Jackson What happens to the art when an artist becomes a criminal? Can we still enjoy a good song written by a maniac? Or does that make us enablers? Covered Topics: Michael Jackson, John Landis, Thriller, David Foster Wallace, Roland Barthes, ...
06.01.2021 405: Renner's 2nd Law of True Crime Dynamics For every tragedy, there exists an equal an opposite moment of grace. What is going on here? And what does it say about humanity? Covered Topics: Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Ronan Farrow, Karma, Ka Like a Wheel, Amber Hagerman, Rae-Leigh ...
05.25.2021 404: Should We Defund the Police? What do we mean when we say we want to defund the police? Also, who came up with the idea of police originally, and how are they supposed to act? Covered topics: George Floyd, Derek Chauvin, Robert Peel, Peelian Principles, ...
05.18.2021 403: Tried As an Adult, Still a Kid The United States is one of only a few countries that has executed children in modern times. In some states, teens are still regularly tried as adults for serious crimes. But should we actually be raising the age of culpability? ...
05.11.2021 402: What Are Grand Juries and Why Do They Need To Go? It's 2021 and we still have secret courts in the United States. What are Grand Juries anyway? How do they work? What are they for? And why are they the worst? Covered Topics: Breonna Taylor, Grand Juries, Sol Wachtler, Karl ...
05.04.2021 401: Do Serial Killers Ever Really Have Mulitple Personalities? We see it in thrillers like SPLIT, but does it ever happen in real life? Are there people in this world with multiple personalities? And if so, what does it take to fracture a mind? Covered Topics: Dissociative Identity Disorder, ...
04.30.2020 306: What Really Happened at Kent State? 50 years ago this week, 4 students were killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State. But nobody can agree on who fired first. And the only man who knows the truth is a car salesmen who lives on a mountain. ...
04.29.2020 305: How to Interview a Victim After They’re Dead When I was a reporter, I got the chance to talk to a man after he died. If you're close enough to someone, perhaps you're carrying a little piece of them inside you. Jump in and let's get weird. Covered ...
04.23.2020 304: Is Reasonable Doubt Reasonable? What is reasonable doubt? Can it be defined? Who does it really help? Covered topics: Caylee Anthony, Reasonable Doubt, Standard of Proof, William Blackstone, Victor V. Nebraska, Rene Descartes, Cartesian Doubt Further Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvIdgW74LCk https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crime-anthony-reaction/anthony-verdict-a-victory-for-reasonable-doubt-experts-say-idUSTRE7646U820110705 http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2011/07/nancy_grace_explains_what_the.html https://abcnews.go.com/US/casey_anthony_trial/casey-anthony-juror-jury-sick-stomach-guilty-verdict/story?id=14005609 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD3rqRwPPck https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/supreme-court-nonunanimous-juries-oral-argument.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/15/magazine/split-jurors.html ...
04.22.2020 303: Is It Still Possible to Disappear Without A Trace And Start A New Life? Not all those who wander are lost. Most of us fantasize about started a new life somewhere. Few of us succeed. Covered Topics: Maura Murray, John List, Patrick McDermott, John J. Nazarian, Evan Ratliff, Alan Watts, Ken Lay, Plato, David ...
04.16.2020 302: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Or Is It? Learn about the "Mean World Syndrome" and how the world is actually safer than you think. Topics: Mean World Syndrome, George Gerbner, Logical Fallacies, Aristotle, Serial Killer's Apprentice Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gerbner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-0E4qHqZ5o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/the-rise-of-mean-world-syndrome-in-social-media/article21481089/ https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/oscars-la-la-land-moonlight-arab-muslim-actor-audition-terrorist-i-am-done-a7595261.html https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/gun_bullets_knives_pulled_from.html https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/05/the-man-who-counts-the-killings/376850/ https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/obituaries/george-gerbner-86-researcher-who-studied-violence-on-tv-is-dead.html https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-citys-murder-rate-hit-new-low-in-2018-11546559793 ...
04.15.2020 301: Why Do Some Crimes Have a Statute of Limitations? When a crime is committed, a clock begins to tick. If you're not charged before time runs out, you can never be prosecuted. But why? Topics Covered: Ted Conrad, Demosthenes, Statute of Limitations, Phormion, Bill Cosby, Andrea Constand, John Demjanjuk, ...
04.15.2019 206: The Ethics of Familial DNA The world has changed. A new tool has been created to solve the coldest cases. And if we're not careful, it'll be taken away from us in a heartbeat. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
04.15.2019 205: Psychics and Crime On the record, police rarely admit to using psychics to solve crimes. But a surprising number of detectives often consult with soothsayers to discover new leads. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
04.15.2019 204: Why Do We Still Have the Death Penalty? In the United States, we still execute prisoners for a variety of crimes. We are one of the last civilized societies to do so. Why is capital punishment so popular, here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
04.15.2019 203: Does Psychological Profiling Really Work? FBI profilers are the mystical heroes of law enforcement, with the ability to look at a crime and imagine the suspect. But is it science or just wishful thinking? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
04.15.2019 202: How Do Psychopaths Convince Others to Kill? Charles Manson never killed anybody. He tricked his friends into doing it for him. But how? And could any one of us be tricked into doing evil deeds? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
04.15.2019 201: Are Lie Detectors Reliable? We've all heard the saying, "Lie detectors can't be used in a court of law." But is that really true? And can a machine ever really know the mind of a man? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
05.01.2018 106: Effect & Cause We want so desperately to go back in time and stop a crime from happening. But we can't change the past. Or can we? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
05.01.2018 105: Does Everyone Have the Capacity to Kill? You're not a murderer, right? You wouldn't even hurt a fly, would you? Don't be so sure. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
05.01.2018 104: How Should the Media Cover Crime? A brief history of crime reporting and how we screwed it up in America. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
05.01.2018 103: What is Occam's Razor? One of the most important tools to detectives is a heuristic known as Occam's Razor. But you must wield it carefully or you end up hurting the wrong people. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
05.01.2018 102: Are Killers Born Bad or Are They Made That Way? Nature or nurture? What makes a man evil? Is it genetics or is it their environment? And is there even such a thing as free will? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
04.26.2018 101: Why Is True Crime So Popular? Where does our fascination with true crime come from? When did this obsession begin? Renner traces it all back to the "true crime singularity." See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.