essay on crime stories

How To Describe A Crime Scene In A Story (100+ Examples)

Many of the best stories include a crime scene — but how do you write them?

Here is how to describe a crime scene in a story:

Describe a crime scene in a story by focusing on key elements like physical layout, visible evidence, atmospheric conditions, signs of struggle, the victim’s condition, witnesses, investigator’s approach, forensic evidence, time of day, surrounding area, and emotional tone.

This guide offers insights on different types of crime scenes and details 10 key elements to describe, each with examples, to bring your narrative to life.

Types of Crime Scenes

Table of Contents

Crime scenes in stories can vary widely, reflecting the nature of the crime and setting.

Common types include:

• Residential Scenes: Homes or apartments where a crime like burglary or homicide has occurred.
• Commercial Scenes: Business-related locations, including offices, shops, or warehouses.
• Outdoor Scenes: Open spaces like parks, streets, or rural areas.
• Vehicle Scenes: Crimes occurring in or involving vehicles.
• Virtual Scenes: Cybercrimes or crimes involving digital spaces.

Each type offers unique opportunities for storytelling and description.

Physical Layout

The physical layout of a crime scene is fundamental in setting the stage for your story.

Describing the arrangement of rooms, the spacing between objects, and the overall size and shape of the scene can deeply immerse readers in the environment.

It’s important to consider how the layout affects the crime itself, the investigation, and the movement of characters within the space.

• “The cramped apartment made the aftermath of the struggle even more chaotic.”
• “A lone chair lay overturned in the center of the spacious hall.”
• “Narrow alleyways twisted like a labyrinth around the crime scene.”
• “The open-plan office allowed a clear view of the disturbing scene.”
• “A small, cluttered workshop, tools scattered as if in a hurry.”
• “The luxurious mansion’s many rooms hid secrets in every corner.”
• “A solitary streetlight cast eerie shadows over the deserted road.”
• “The tiny cabin’s single room felt even smaller with the evidence of violence.”
• “The car’s interior was a confined stage for the crime.”
• “The expansive rooftop offered an unobstructed view of the chaos below.”

Visible Evidence

Visible evidence at a crime scene is key to building suspense and intrigue.

Describe the type and placement of evidence like bloodstains, bullet casings, or disturbed items.

This not only helps in visualizing the scene but also hints at the nature of the crime and the possible sequence of events.

• “Blood spatters painted a grim picture on the white walls.”
• “Scattered papers around the room hinted at a frantic search.”
• “Bullet casings littered the floor, each telling its own story.”
• “A shattered vase lay in pieces, a silent witness to the struggle.”
• “Footprints in the dust led to a locked door.”
• “A torn photograph clutched in the victim’s hand raised more questions.”
• “The knife lay discarded, its blade stained with betrayal.”
• “Broken glass sparkled under the streetlights, a remnant of the night’s terror.”
• “The computer screen still displayed the last message received.”
• “A trail of muddy footprints vanished into the night.”

Atmospheric Conditions

Atmospheric conditions can greatly influence the mood of a crime scene.

Describing the weather, lighting, and even smells can add a layer of realism and affect how characters interact with the scene.

Whether it’s a stormy night, a stifling hot day, or a cold, foggy morning, these details can heighten the sense of suspense and urgency.

• “Rain washed over the scene, blurring the lines between evidence and nature.”
• “The stifling heat of the room made every breath heavy with tension.”
• “Fog cloaked the area, shrouding the gruesome scene in mystery.”
• “The dim light of dawn cast long shadows across the crime scene.”
• “A sharp, metallic smell hung in the air, mingling with the scent of rain.”
• “The crackle of thunder echoed the chaos left behind.”
• “Streetlights flickered, casting an eerie glow over the abandoned car.”
• “The chill of the room seemed to seep into the bones.”
• “Sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating the dust and the stillness.”
• “A gust of wind carried whispers of the crime through the alley.”

Signs of Struggle

Describing signs of struggle at a crime scene can add a dynamic element to the narrative.

It allows readers to infer the intensity and nature of the confrontation.

Disarranged furniture, marks on the floor or walls, and the position of the victim can all contribute to a vivid portrayal of the events leading to the crime.

• “Furniture lay upturned, silent markers of a desperate fight.”
• “Scratches on the hardwood floor told a tale of resistance.”
• “The room was in disarray, as if a storm had passed through.”
• “Marks on the walls suggested a violent scuffle.”
• “The body lay at an odd angle, limbs splayed unnaturally.”
• “A broken lamp lay beside the victim, evidence of a last stand.”
• “The door hung off its hinges, testament to a forceful entry.”
• “Scuff marks near the window hinted at a hasty escape.”
• “The disheveled bed spoke of a struggle that knew no boundaries.”
• “A trail of belongings led from the door to the body, a path of panic.”

Victim’s Condition

The condition of the victim at a crime scene is a crucial element in storytelling.

Describing their position, injuries, and expressions can evoke empathy and curiosity. This description can also offer clues about the nature of the crime and the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator.

• “The victim lay still, eyes wide open in silent accusation.”
• “Bruises marred the skin, hinting at a brutal confrontation.”
• “A peaceful expression belied the violence of the death.”
• “Blood pooled around the body, a stark contrast to the pale skin.”
• “The victim’s clenched fist held a lock of hair, a clue perhaps.”
• “Burn marks told a story of unspeakable pain.”
• “The body was curled up, as if in protection against the final blow.”
• “A single gunshot wound was the deadly punctuation to the struggle.”
• “Scratch marks on the arms spoke of a desperate defense.”
• “The victim’s clothes were torn, but the dignity remained intact.”

Witnesses and Bystanders

Witnesses and bystanders add depth to a crime scene, providing perspectives and reactions that enrich the narrative.

Describing their emotions, behaviors, and interactions with the scene or investigators can create a more complex and engaging story.

These characters can offer vital clues, red herrings, or deepen the mystery.

• “A crowd gathered, eyes wide with shock and curiosity.”
• “A lone witness stood trembling, her account faltering with fear.”
• “Curious onlookers whispered theories, each more elaborate than the last.”
• “A child’s innocent eyes watched from a distance, unknowing yet understanding.”
• “Bystanders offered hushed condolences, their faces etched with concern.”
• “An old man recounted the event, his voice quivering with emotion.”
• “A neighbor peeked through curtains, her curiosity tinged with fear.”
• “Passersby paused, their morbid fascination evident.”
• “Witnesses clustered together, seeking comfort in shared disbelief.”
• “A jogger stopped, her morning routine shattered by the grim scene.”

Investigator’s Approach

The way an investigator approaches a crime scene can set the tone for the investigation.

Describing their initial observations, methods of examination, and interaction with the team provides insight into their character and the investigative process.

It can also foreshadow the challenges they might face in solving the crime.

• “The detective paused at the threshold, taking in every detail.”
• “Methodically, she began to piece together the silent story.”
• “His keen eyes scoured the scene, missing nothing.”
• “With a gloved hand, the investigator pointed out a barely visible clue.”
• “He walked through the scene, deep in thought, piecing together the puzzle.”
• “The lead detective knelt beside the victim, her expression somber.”
• “They worked in silence, respecting the gravity of the scene.”
• “Each team member had a role, a dance of investigation unfolding.”
• “The investigator’s notebook was filled with rapid, meticulous notes.”
• “He paused to photograph a seemingly insignificant detail.”

Forensic Evidence

Forensic evidence is crucial in crime scene descriptions, as it adds a layer of scientific intrigue and realism.

Detailing how evidence is collected and analyzed can captivate readers and lend credibility to the story.

This includes fingerprints, DNA samples, digital footprints, and other technical details.

• “Forensic experts dusted for fingerprints, a silent ballet of precision.”
• “DNA samples were carefully collected, each a potential key to the mystery.”
• “Technicians photographed the scene, preserving every detail.”
• “A fiber found on the victim promised secrets yet to be revealed.”
• “Blood samples were taken, the hope of DNA analysis looming.”
• “The computer’s hard drive held the potential to unlock the case.”
• “Ballistics experts examined the bullet, a silent witness to the crime.”
• “The pattern of blood spatter was meticulously analyzed.”
• “Footprints were cast, each a clue set in stone.”
• “The team scoured for trace evidence, invisible to the untrained eye.”

Time of Day and Lighting

The time of day and lighting at a crime scene significantly affect its atmosphere and the investigation.

Describing whether a crime occurred under the cover of night, in the harsh light of day, or during the eerie twilight hours can set a distinct mood.

Lighting can also impact how evidence is perceived and discovered.

• “Under the harsh noon sun, the stark reality of the crime was undeniable.”
• “The crime scene, bathed in the soft glow of dusk, held a deceptive calm.”
• “Moonlight cast long, ominous shadows across the abandoned warehouse.”
• “The flickering streetlamp created a dance of light and dark around the scene.”
• “As dawn broke, the first rays of light revealed the tragedy.”
• “In the dim light of early morning, details of the crime emerged slowly.”
• “The setting sun cast a bloody hue over the scene.”
• “Artificial lights buzzed overhead, giving the room a clinical coldness.”
• “The darkness of the alley hid the crime from casual view.”
• “The stark fluorescence of the office lights laid everything bare.”

State of the Surrounding Area

The state of the surrounding area provides context to the crime scene and can hint at the lifestyle or activities of the victim or perpetrator.

Describing the condition of nearby buildings, streets, or natural elements can offer clues and set the tone for the scene, whether it’s chaotic, neglected, pristine, or ordinary.

• “The rundown buildings nearby spoke of a forgotten part of town.”
• “Pristine streets contrasted sharply with the violence of the crime.”
• “Graffiti-covered walls provided a backdrop of silent rebellion.”
• “The manicured park grounds seemed an unlikely stage for such a crime.”
• “Nearby, the normalcy of bustling city life continued, oblivious.”
• “The neglected garden hinted at the victim’s recent troubles.”
• “A once grand, now dilapidated mansion loomed over the scene.”
• “The quiet suburban street had been shattered by the night’s events.”
• “The surrounding forest offered a secluded cover for the crime.”
• “Amidst the industrial area, the crime scene was just another unnoticed event.”

Emotional Tone and Atmosphere

The emotional tone and atmosphere of a crime scene can influence the reader’s emotional response.

Describing the palpable tension, fear, grief, or shock experienced by characters or conveyed through the setting can deepen the impact of the scene.

This element is vital in creating an immersive and emotionally resonant narrative.

• “A heavy silence hung over the scene, thick with unspoken sorrow.”
• “An undercurrent of fear was palpable among the onlookers.”
• “The atmosphere was charged with the urgency of the investigation.”
• “Grief permeated the air, as tangible as the morning mist.”
• “A sense of injustice fueled the team’s determination.”
• “Shock was etched on every face, a shared experience of horror.”
• “The solemn mood was only broken by the occasional crackle of the police radio.”
• “Anger simmered below the surface, a response to the senseless violence.”
• “Despair seemed to seep from the walls, enveloping the scene.”
• “The tension was like a tightrope, each step fraught with emotional peril.”

Here is a video that will help you learn how to describe a crime scene in a story:

Examples of How to Describe a Crime Scene in Different Genres

How to describe a crime scene in one genre is not the same way you describe it in another.

Check out these examples.

In a mystery novel, the crime scene is often laden with subtle clues and red herrings, set against a backdrop of everyday normalcy that’s been shattered by the crime.

Picture a quaint English village where a beloved community member has been found dead in their well-kept garden.

The description focuses on the stark contrast between the peaceful setting and the violent act.

The vibrant flower beds, usually a source of pride for the village, were now marred by the outline of a body. Detective Smith noted the disarray of the garden tools, an unusual sight for the meticulous victim. The gentle hum of bees and the distant chatter of neighbors formed a dissonant soundtrack to the grim tableau.

As Smith knelt to examine a peculiar set of footprints leading away from the scene, he couldn’t help but feel the killer was hiding in plain sight, masked by the village’s deceptive tranquility.

In horror stories, the crime scene description often amplifies the elements of fear and shock.

Imagine a decrepit asylum where unspeakable acts have occurred.

The hallway was dimly lit, the flickering lights casting long, twisted shadows that seemed to writhe along the walls. The air was thick with the stench of decay. As the investigator moved forward, her flashlight beam fell upon a grotesque scene – remnants of what appeared to be a ritualistic killing.

Symbols drawn in blood adorned the walls, and in the center lay the victim, their expression frozen in a silent scream. The sense of an unseen presence was overwhelming, as if the walls themselves were watching, reliving the horror over and over.

In a sci-fi setting, crime scenes can incorporate futuristic technology and alien elements.

Envision a space station orbiting a distant planet, where a crew member has been mysteriously killed.

The body floated in the zero-gravity chamber, a serene yet eerie sight. Commander Zhao maneuvered through the weightlessness, her eyes taking in the high-tech surroundings – the advanced medical equipment now recording the absence of life, the holographic displays flickering with data.

She noticed a strange, crystalline substance near the victim’s wound, something not of their world. As she collected samples, the reality set in – they were not alone in this vast expanse of space, and whatever had committed this act was beyond their understanding of life and death.

Final Thoughts: How to Describe a Crime Scene in a Story

Mastering crime scene descriptions can elevate your storytelling to new heights of intrigue and suspense.

For more insights and writing tips, explore other articles on our website.

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Mystery Stories

How it works

The definition of detective fiction is a “subgenre of crime, mystery, and investigation, often murder.” Crime stories describe any type of crime with a plot twist. Mystery stories make you think about what’s going to happen next and try to solve the mystery on your own. Detective fiction is not fast-paced because it takes time to understand the situation and gather evidence. Most detective stories include many different forms, such as critics, psychology, and how the author represents certain things.

Throughout generations, detective movies and novels gained popularity because they grab our attention, and force us to solve a problem, leading to enjoyment.

The reading “suggests that the crime genre appeals to the intellect.” Indeed, this explanation is one of the most frequently mentioned for its popularity. Nuanced versions of this explanation include the fact that the genre plays to our impulse to use our brains to figure things out — a kind of “game-playing.” Mystery stories usually use psychology to appeal to the reader. When we watch TV crime, drama, or mystery movies, we build up suspense, leading us to watch episode after episode. The mystery story makes the viewer pay attention to complicated things, such as putting two things together to solve the riddle.

In the book Six Great Sherlock Holmes Stories, the final problem is a great example of good detective fiction because it grabbed the audience’s attention, creating excitement to see the next event play out. In the book The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the author made it difficult to solve the mystery by the sheer amount of characters thrown into the story. Attempting to write a mystery story essay on the book would prove to be a very difficult task.

The reading says, “Others suggest that the crime genre is popular because it is a kind of moral fiction, one that addresses social themes and issues that are often unaddressed by contemporary politics.” I agree with this quote because certain books connect to the real world. In Sherlock Holmes, the show was basically set in a real-world environment. Detective stories have a strong focus on showing situations that occur in the real world.

Detective stories come in many different storms, but they do not require us to spend an entire day analyzing the story. No matter how many times you watch detective movies, they all are different. The great part about detective stories and shows is that you can put yourself in the position of solving the mystery.

A short story in the mystery genre is characterized by its thrilling and enigmatic plot. Its aim is to captivate the reader’s attention and arouse their curiosity as they attempt to decipher the unfolding events and anticipate the next twist.

A mystery short story can be initiated in various ways. For instance, the setting could be mysterious and ominous, such as a gloomy and stormy night. The characters might feel a sense of unease or apprehension as if something sinister is waiting to be uncovered. The characters may be oblivious to the danger that surrounds them, or they could be in denial. The plot might commence with an unexpected event or could unfold gradually, step by step.

A mystery tale is characterized by five crucial components: suspense, complexity, narrative structure, enigma, and conclusion.

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How to Write Crime Stories

Last Updated: January 29, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by David A. Payne, JD . David A. Payne is the President and Executive Producer of RainStream Media, a media company who focuses on telling true crime stories with underlying themes of social justice. He has extensive experience in media and entertainment, having served as both General Counsel and a C-level executive for comapnies such as Turner Broadcasting, CNN, and USA Today. He is also a lawyer - he received his JD from the Duke University School of Law and is licensed to practice law in California. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 240,847 times.

Like many authors, crime writers sometimes get an itch to break the conventions of the genre and create something unique. This is a fine impulse to listen to, but not one you want to take too far. Weigh the advice you hear against your own opinion, and find a path forward that includes everything you love about the mystery genre, garnishing the story with your own style.

Outlining the Plot

• What could have led to this crime scene?
• What motivation would cause someone to commit the crime, or to frame someone else?
• What kind of person would follow through on that motivation?
• Use Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? questions to get you started: Who committed the crime and who did they do it to? What was the crime? When did it happen (morning, evening, afternoon, dead of night)? Where did it happen? Why did they do it? How did they do it?

• Recognize that the size of the place will influence the development of your story. For example, in a large city or busy public place, you will have lots of opportunities to introduce witnesses. However, in a “locked-room mystery” (one where all the characters seem to be present in the same room throughout the occurrence of the crime), you will likely have no external witnesses, but may be able to draw upon your characters opinions and biases of each other.
• Focus on the elements of your setting that are essential to the story. For example, is weather essential? If it is, write about it in great detail. If it is not, only mention it briefly or leave it out altogether. A dark, gritty setting adds atmosphere and works well with stories centered on organized crime. Setting a crime in an idyllic, ordinary town adds its own kind of chill.

• Some characters should be potential suspects for having committed the crime (and at least one should actually be guilty of the crime), some should be supporting characters that serve to make the storyline interesting (a love interest or meddling mother-in-law, perhaps), and one (or more) should be focused on solving the mystery.
• Well-written characters will have motives for acting in ways that further the plot.Okay, the gritty noir detective or genius investigator is an option, but come up with alternatives or twists.
• Make the crime matter personally to the protagonist, to raise the emotional stakes. This could be related to the protagonist's mysterious past, a close friend or family member in danger, or the fate of the town, country, or world. [1] X Research source

• Describe your villain well, but not too well. You don’t want your reader to guess right from the beginning of the story who is the culprit. Your reader may become suspicious if you spend a disproportionate amount of time describing one character.
• You may want to make your villain someone that has been slightly suspicious all along. On the other hand, you may want to make the revelation of the culprit or criminal a complete shock. “Framing” someone throughout the story is a surefire way to keep your readers hooked to your mystery short stories.
• Instead of a villain, consider including a sidekick. Maybe your sleuth has a friend or partner that will help her sort the clues and point out things that she misses. [3] X Research source No one says the sleuth has to do it all alone! What if the sidekick and villain end up being one in the same?
• Think of the basics. Male or female? What is the detective's name? How old are they? What do they look like (hair color, eye color, and skin tone)? Where are they from? Where are they living when your story starts? How did they become part of the story? Are they victims? Are they the cause of the problems in your story?

• Present an opportunity for mystery. Create a situation in which a crime can reasonably occur and one that you will be able to reasonably recreate yourself. Did all the power go out in the city due to a thunderstorm? Was a door or a safe accidentally left unlocked? Paint a vivid picture of the situation surrounding the occurrence of the crime that will be the focus of your mystery.
• Don’t underestimate the power of the “backdrop” for the crime. [4] X Research source An intricate understanding of the setting in which the crime takes place is an important tool that will help when it comes to developing your narrative.
• Here are some suggestions for crimes: Something has been stolen from the classroom, Something is missing from your bookbag, Something strange is found on the baseball field, Someone has stolen the class pet, Someone is sending you strange notes, Someone has broken into the Science materials closet, someone has written on the bathroom wall, someone has tracked red mud into the building.

• You should include evidence processing skills such as fingerprinting, toxicology, handwriting analysis, blood spatter patterns, etc.
• The detective work must be good. Develop how your detective or protagonist ultimately solves the case, keeping their personality and qualities in mind. Make sure it isn't cheesy or too obvious.

Writing the Story

• If you want to write about what happens before the crime, you can go back in time for the second chapter, adding a subheading such as "one week earlier."

• This is especially important for the biggest reveal — whodunnit? — and the wrong choice can ruin a novel for a lot of readers. The villain should either be a suspect or demonstrate enough suspicious behavior that a clever reader can guess the identity.

Community Q&A

• Give yourself time. You can plan everything in advance, or you can write rapidly and edit later. Both approaches require a great deal of time, and a willingness to make major changes. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 1
• Enlist people to edit your story and give feedback. After some polishing, steel yourself and show the work to strangers. Their advice will be harsher but more honest than your friends'. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 1

• Crime fiction is a genre filled with cliché. There's a fine line between paying tribute to your favorite stories and style and straightforward copying. Thanks Helpful 13 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://armchairinterviews.com/pages/crime-fiction-tips-and-pet-peeves
• ↑ https://writerunboxed.com/2022/05/03/hiding-your-villain-in-plain-sight/
• ↑ https://screencraft.org/blog/writing-a-likeable-sidekick-7-archetypes-you-can-choose-from/
• ↑ https://jerichowriters.com/how-to-write-an-immersive-setting/
• ↑ https://www.novlr.org/the-reading-room/the-art-of-the-plot-twist-how-to-keep-your-audience-guessing

About This Article

If you want to write a crime story, start by choosing a crime, then work backward, describing what led to the crime. Think about what kind of person might commit a crime like this, and what might motivate them to do so. For instance, if you’re describing a bank heist, your criminals might be a gang of petty thieves looking for a big score, or it could be parents of a sick child who need money for treatment. Give the reader clues, but throw in some misleading details as well so the audience won’t guess what’s going on too early in the story! Read on to learn tips on describing your crime scene! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Our Long-standing Obsession with True Crime

Until quite recently, when someone who actually knew what he or she was talking about took the trouble to correct it, the Wikipedia entry for “True Crime” claimed that the genre originated in 1966 with the publication of Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood.” This all-too-common misconception gets the starting date wrong by roughly 400 years.

No sooner had Gutenberg invented movable type than enterprising printers began churning out graphically violent murder ballads. Whenever a particularly ghastly killing occurred, it was promptly cast in doggerel, printed on a large sheet of paper known as a “broadside,” and peddled to the hard-working masses eager to brighten their dreary days with a little vicarious sadism. Throat-slittings, stranglings, bludgeonings and axe-murders were among the many grisly subjects of these crudely written verses, though few atrocities could match the morbid titillation of a really gruesome child-killing, as in the case of the British “monster mom” Emma Pitt:

                   This Emma Pitt was a schoolmistress,

                      Her child she killed we see,

                   Oh mothers, did you ever hear

                      Of such barbarity?

                   With a large flint stone she beat its head,

                      When such cruelty she’d done,

                   From the tender roof of the infant’s mouth

                      She cut away its tongue.

Murder ballads weren’t the only kind of crime literature available in the old days. In England, true crime books can be traced as far back as John Reynolds’ “The Triumphs of God’s Revenge Against the Crying and Execrable Sin of Murther,” an Elizabethan anthology that dished up juicy real-life stories of homicidal violence under the moralistic pretext of demonstrating that Crime Does Not Pay. Even more popular was “The Newgate Calendar: Or, Malefactors’ Bloody Register,” a constantly updated compendium of sordid true crime accounts, which, after the Bible and Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” was the most widely read book in Britain for more than a century.

Here in America, the public’s appetite for lurid entertainment was fed by volumes like the “The Record of Crimes in the United States” (a particular favorite of self-confessed true crime junkie, Nathaniel Hawthorne). Throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th, similar compilations were churned out on a regular basis. Perhaps the best known was the 1910 “Celebrated Criminal Cases of America,” by former San Francisco police captain Thomas S. Duke, a collection of criminal case histories covering a wide range of reprobates, from infamous outlaws like Jesse James and the Daltons to Victorian serial killers like Theodore Durrant (aka “The Demon of the Belfry”) and the Chicago “multi-murderer” Dr. H.H. Holmes. Dashiell Hammett was so addicted to Duke’s book that he kept a copy of it on his night table for bedtime reading (as does his surrogate, Sam Spade, in “The Maltese Falcon”).

Though first-rate pieces of American true crime writing appeared throughout the mid-20th century, by such writers as Damon Runyon, Herbert Asbury, Jim Thompson, Dorothy Kilgallen and especially Edmund Pearson (revered by aficionados as the dean of American true crime), a distinct air of disreputability still clung to the genre. Then came “In Cold Blood,” which elevated the book-length true crime narrative to the rarefied heights of serious literature. Unfortunately, its author also set an unfortunate precedent by indulging in the kind of novelistic embellishment (not to say rank fabrication) that has become endemic to the form. People who write true crime, of course, aren’t the only authors of creative nonfiction who have been known to improve on the truth. Given the promise of absolute veracity that is embedded in the very name of the true crime genre, however, I believe such writers have a particular obligation to stick to the facts.

Not that I’ve always done so myself. Early in my writing career, I occasionally allowed myself a bit of what I referred to as “extrapolation” (less euphemistically known as “making stuff up”). My unacknowledged credo (cribbed from the first chapter of Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”) was “It’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.” In my defense, I restricted my fabrications to fairly minor atmospheric details. For example, in my book “Deranged: The Shocking True Story of America’s Most Fiendish Killer,” there’s a scene in which the main character—the wizened cannibal-pedophile Albert Fish (using his pseudonym, Frank Howard)—dines with the family of his future child-victim, Grace Budd. Here’s how I describe the meal:

The men retired to the kitchen, a clean but dingy-looking room illuminated by a single bare bulb that tinged the whitewashed walls a sickly yellow. The long wooden table, covered with a plaid oilcloth, held a big cast-iron pot full of ham hocks and sauerkraut—the leftover remains of the previous night’s dinner. The sharp, briny odor of the cabbage filled the room. Arranged around the pot were platters of pickled beets and boiled carrots, a basket of hard rolls and two ceramic bowls into which Mrs. Budd had transferred Frank Howard’s pot cheese and strawberries.

This lunch really happened, but I took the artistic liberty of inventing the menu. I hasten to say I did some research into the kind of food a working-class family like the Budds might have served a guest for lunch in the late 1920s. Still, I didn’t actually know what they ate; I just wanted to make the moment seem real for the reader.

I no longer permit myself even such minor bits of imaginative re-creation. My field is historic true crime—I’ve written about cases from the Civil War era to the 1950s—and I’ve come to see the genre as a legitimate branch of American historical study. After all, the Leopold and Loeb case tells us as much about the Jazz Age as Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight does, just as the Manson murders shed as much light on the culture of late-1960s America as Woodstock does. To be taken as seriously as history, however, a true crime book must adhere strictly to documented fact. There’s no reason why a book-length narrative about a 19th-century serial murderer shouldn’t be held to the same rigorous standards as, for instance, a biography of Teddy Roosevelt.

My task as a writer, as I see it, is to produce a serious work of historical scholarship (my last few books have included copious endnotes) that stays true to the sensationalistic roots of the genre by providing “murder fanciers” (as Edmund Pearson called true crime lovers) with the primal pleasures they crave. In looking for a suitable subject, I try to find cases that possess some larger social or cultural significance. Shocking murders happen all the time, of course, but few of them have the ingredients to make much of an impression on the public beyond momentary shock. In the early 1920s, for example, a former showgirl named Clara Phillips—“The Tiger Woman,” the tabloids dubbed her—took a claw hammer to the skull of her husband’s mistress and bludgeoned her to death. Her crime provided the public with some fleeting titillation but quickly vanished into permanent obscurity. By contrast, the 1927 “Double Indemnity Murder” perpetrated by Queens housewife Ruth Snyder and her milquetoast lover, Judd Gray, became one of the signature crimes of the Jazz Age. What made it so riveting wasn’t the homicide per se (the victim, Ruth’s husband, Albert, suffered a death no more or less gruesome than the one inflicted on Mr. Phillip’s mistress) but the colorful cast of characters, the deliciously tawdry storyline and—most important of all—the way the crime seemed to crystalize the cultural anxieties of the day: the breakdown of traditional morality, the threatening freedoms embodied by the “New Woman” and so forth.

Of course, there will always be highbrows who cast a contemptuous eye at the true crime genre. In an essay on “In Cold Blood,” Renata Adler deplores both the original book and the 1968 movie for playing to the bloodlust of the audience by using “every technique of cheap fiction” to intensify the emotional impact of the killings. This criticism, however, seems deeply wrongheaded since, on some fundamental level, one purpose of true crime writing is precisely to provide decent law-abiding citizens with primal, sadistic thrills—to satisfy what William James called our “aboriginal capacity for murderous excitement.” The worst specimens of the genre may not rise above the quasi-pornographic level, but the best—like those exquisitely ornamented war clubs, broadswords and flintlocks displayed in museums—are a testimony to something worth celebrating: the human ability to take something rooted in our intrinsically bloodthirsty nature and turn it into craft of a very high order, sometimes even art.

How to Write Great True Crime

Hint: Branch out from serial killers coming through the window.

True crime is one of the most popular forms of entertainment. The genre grips audiences across mediums, in films and television, and—perhaps in its original form—literature.

Despite an arguably elevated cultural position, literary works can be as formulaic and mass-produced as anything onscreen. In the world of crime writing, that’s often the case. With demand high, creators can churn out whodunnits as fast as consumers can devour them.

Writing in  World Literature Today , mystery novelist J. Madison Davis tackles the subject of what separates the wheat from the chaff in the craft of crime writing. It’s far more than a grisly backstory, he explains; the market is flooded with blood-soaked paperbacks.  “ Judging the Edgar Allan Poe award for ‘best fact crime’ in 1992 was an incredibly depressing experience,” he writes. “Serial killers were popular as subjects, and their stories were monotonously consistent.”

In fact, Davis read so many books that used a similar structure that he produced a basic format in full (to the bemusement of anyone who has ever picked up a discounted crime novel).

The book opens with Joe Sicko sharpening his axe or climbing into the window of the victim’s house. About the time he reaches the top of the stairs, the author ends the chapter (often glorified by the title “Prologue”), suspending the gore and jumping all the way back to when Joe…began his life as a child. He doesn’t stand a chance, given his dysfunctional home. The book then follows the long progress of Joe to become the monster at the top of the stairs. If Joe’s unhappy development becomes too boring, the book may be interrupted with interludes portraying the indomitable avenger who will bring Joe down. After arriving back at the top of the stairs (so to speak), the book then fulfills its promise of carnage and unwinds with the detective work that brings Joe down.

So much for what makes a crime book formulaic. The more pertinent topic Davis discusses is what elevates a work into “the level of lasting literature.” While acknowledging that art is an intensely personal (and therefore subjective) experience, he also highlights that, in judging among hundreds of books submitted for an award annually, “writers of widely divergent backgrounds and locations create…similar lists of finalists,” suggesting a common understanding of what makes great crime writing.

“Writers know good writing, just as musicians know good music, and the elements of this seemingly intangible quality are much more specific than most people think,” Davis explains.

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In Davis’s view, a common misstep is thinking that true crime writing has to be equivalent to journalism: clinging closely to facts and dismissing artistry and interpretation, as though there is a sharp line between “nonfiction” and “fiction.” He points out two examples that reject this notion, to great success: Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood , arguably the germinal work of true crime and simultaneously recognized as a great work of literature, and Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song , which won the Pulitzer Prize.

“In the end,” Davis explains, “it isn’t the oddity or excesses of the crime that allow true-crime books to earn the designation of literary excellence. That only comes from the writing.”

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The Psychology of Reading and Writing Crime Fiction

What makes crime stories so therapeutic writer and family counselor lynne reeves has some theories..

It was getting dark when I left the Boston hospital after working the day shift. My sister was coming to town to see my new apartment, and I still had to hang the last pair of curtains. If I hurried, I could get to the Mission Hill hardware store to buy the rods and brackets I needed before it closed.

I felt my bag being yanked from my shoulder before I saw that the person attacking me from behind was practically a child. As soon as I realized what was happening—that I was being robbed—I let go of my purse. The kid, who couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen, and looked as scared as I felt, had full possession of my bag when he kicked me squarely in the knee. Perhaps it was the pain sending electrical shock waves through my body, or maybe it was my incredulity that he’d successfully stolen my wallet and keys and still felt the need to hurt me, but I kicked him back. Hard. Where it counts, as they say.

Doubled-over, he dropped my bag. I grabbed it and ran as fast as a person with a knee injury can, back to the hospital.

The second time someone edged up behind me with sinister motives was two years later. Again, it was a fall afternoon when it gets dark early in New England. I was on a side street just outside Copley Square, deemed a safer part of the city in which to walk alone when I felt something sharp between my shoulder blades. I’ll never forget his hot whisper in my ear. “I have a knife. Let go of your bag.”

I never saw the perpetrator’s face. I didn’t fight back. In fact I barely moved even after I was certain I was alone on the sidewalk. Finally, booking it toward Boylston Street, I hailed a cab. I didn’t tell the driver I had no way to pay for the ride home until he pulled up in front of my apartment. His lack of compassion is a story for another day.

These two muggings remain with me decades later, not because they are the scariest experiences I’ve ever had, or even considered heinous by any measure. But because my automatic brain refuses to let them go.

Unexpected events or surprising encounters have the power to ignite the stress response, also known as the fight-flight-freeze mechanism. To this day, if anyone approaches me from behind or enters a room too quietly startling me, I can be flooded with emotion, overwhelming my sense of safety. Even when I’m not truly in danger.

So why would someone like me want to write about trauma? Why would anyone read it?

That’s a bit like asking a therapist why people should talk about difficult life experiences. (Full disclosure: In addition to being a fiction writer, I’m also a family counselor.)

In both cases, it’s because the stories we tell and the ones we read help us process conflicting emotions and contend with complex relationships. Numerous studies confirm what every fiction writer knows—that story is an incomparable vehicle for the exploration of human social and emotional life. Literary critics and philosophers have long advanced the notion that one of fiction’s main jobs is to raise consciousness.

Jonathan Gottschall wrote in his book, The Storytelling Animal that, “Human minds yield helplessly to the suction of story. No matter how hard we concentrate, no matter how deep we dig in our heels we can’t resist the gravity of alternate worlds.”

The act of reading fully engages the brain impacting memory, learning, and problem-solving. Steven Pinker author of How the Mind Works suggests, “that stories equip us with a mental file of dilemmas we might one day face, along with workable solutions.”

I gravitate toward crime fiction and domestic suspense novels because they’re embedded with instructions on how to navigate a life. I write about grief and trauma to gain insight into the psychology of people faced with what I fear most. Perhaps also in hopes I can learn how to protect my family and myself.

Of all of my novels, my latest, The Dangers of an Ordinary Night offers the greatest opportunity to engage readers in conversations about the experience of hyper-vigilance women experience in the aftermath of trauma. What happens when trust in our most precious relationships is lost? How, in an instant, can our lives change in unrecognizable ways all because of the actions of others? And why do feelings of guilt and regret impact our lives long after we’ve experienced traumatic events?

Worked into the story both implicitly and explicitly are the lessons my characters learn about loving again after being deceived. And learning to trust despite the desire to be protective emotionally.

It’s my hope that this story about the ripple effects of addiction on partners and children will create opportunities for thoughtful conversations around mental health issues that are often difficult to talk about.

Perhaps, like me, you’ve endured experiences that cast a long shadow. If so, I hope you’ll find my novel transformative, as a means to revisit themes in a positive, therapeutic way, in an effort to keep learning from them.

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How to Write a Crime Short Story: 10 Top Tips

By Georgina Roy

Crime fiction, regardless of the format – whether a short story, a novella, or a novel, comes in two forms: the protagonist will either solve a crime, or commit one.

In the first type, i.e. solving a crime, we follow the protagonist as they use their brain and their skills to figure out who did the crime or what happened. In the second type of crime stories, we follow the protagonist as they commit the crime, and this type can have two subtypes: the crime happens in the beginning (i.e. first part or act), and the second part focuses on the fallout, or, the protagonist decides to do the crime in the first part, and either goes through with it or not in the second part.

Considering that today we are focusing solely on crime short stories, rather than fiction, the tips below on how to write a crime short story will all be related to writing shorter pieces of work, and they might not work for longer pieces like novellas or novels.

1. Keep your audience in mind

Considering the two types of crime fiction we’ve highlighted above, it is worth noting that while there are omnivorous crime readers, i.e. those who enjoy reading about the solving of a crime just as much as they would enjoy reading about the protagonist committing a crime; quite often, the audience for one type is not the audience for the other one.

The readers who prefer to read solving a crime might not enjoy reading about committing one. So before you embark on the wonderful journey of writing a short story, think carefully about which audience you wish to target and attract.

2. Have a clear theme and idea

Often, short stories do not have the time to elaborate on all the nuances of a certain theme or idea. Practically speaking, a short story does not allow you to dwell longer in the life of the protagonist. Regardless of what type of story you are writing (committing a crime vs. solving a crime), due to the nature of those two events, you would not be writing a short story that spans over several years.

The longer a crime goes unsolved, the more difficult it would be to solve it. This type of urgency is what drives crime novels, let alone short stories. So, the clearer your theme and original idea, the better – for it would allow you to distill it to its essence and present it, in as short manner as possible, in your story.

3.  Keep it short

We’re not talking here about trying to say as much as possible in as few words as possible. When it comes to writing crime short stories, you do not need to dwell on the protagonist’s backstory. If he is an experienced detective, there is no need for the reader to know all the details about all of his previous cases to convince them that this detective knows what he is doing – show that in the procedures and the actions he takes to solve the crime, but also in how he reacts to seeing this particular crime.

If your protagonist is somebody who is willing to commit a crime, try to convey their motivations as shortly as possible. The readers do not need to know all the details that led or will lead them to commit the crime, just enough to sympathize with them or, alternatively, find the protagonist compelling enough to follow them to the end.

4. Create a believable crime

In longer works like novellas and novels, you need to create such a crime that will take someone a whole novel to solve. In short stories, specifically short stories that are focused on solving a crime, the crime needs to be out of the ordinary, but the protagonist should still be able to solve it in an “a-ha” moment, that would both make sense to the reader in retrospect, and also surprise them at the same time. If your story is about committing a crime, the crime itself needs to be relatively easy for the protagonist to commit. The planning has already been done and it’s all about the execution and the consequences.

In the second type of crime stories, where the protagonist decides to commit the crime and we follow them as they either go through with it or not, the crime itself needs have a certain psychological effect on the protagonist. Additionally, it should be more difficult to commit and pose a certain danger to them as well.

5. Create a compelling protagonist

The protagonist who solves the crime needs to have the tools and experience to do so. You make that protagonist compelling by how they react to the crime that has been committed, and then what steps they take to solve the crime, as well as what motivates them to solve the crime so quickly.

The protagonist who commits the crime, on the other hand, will be more difficult to create in a compelling manner. This type of protagonist either has to be easy to both sympathize and empathize with, like for example, a person who has been hurt in some way looking for revenge, or, they would be a kind of person who most people would find abhorring, and, they would follow that person just to see whether they get what is coming to them or not (the ending, of course, depends on the message you’re trying to send, stemming from your original idea and theme).

6. Determine the timeline of the crime

Short stories do not have the time to focus on cold cases that have not seen progress in years unless there is new evidence that would help the detective solve a cold case quickly. As such, the crime should be recent enough that there is fresh evidence for the protagonist to work with.

When it comes to the second type, committing a crime, the protagonist needs to be at the right moment to commit the crime. For example, let’s say that a woman is trying to kidnap her own child, who is currently in the custody of the ex-husband who abused her for years. Fearing for the safety of the baby, we do not need to see her stalking her ex-husband and her child for weeks on end; we need to tune in right at the moment when the woman is watching her ex-husband’s new girlfriend take the child to the park, who leaves the kid on the swings and steps aside to take a phone call, and the woman grabs her child and leaves.

7. Different types of subgenres in solving a crime

The first type of crime stories, where the protagonist is solving a crime, are divided into several subgenres (or subcategories):

• Whodunit : this is the most famous type, where the protagonist needs to solve the problem of who committed the crime (theft, murder, etc.,) from a certain list of suspects. The protagonist is usually a detective or a private investigator. A specialized subset of whodunit is locked room – where the crime has been committed in a locked room with no way in or out, so the suspects have all been present at the murder/crime scene.
• Cozy mystery : similar to whodunit, with the sole difference that the protagonist is most often a woman with no experience in solving crime, and the setting is a small, cozy town rather than a big city.
• American noir/hardboiled crime fiction: where the protagonist, in the course of solving the crime, runs into personal danger. Darker themes like abuse, sex, and violence are at the forefront of these stories.
• Police procedural and forensic crime: the protagonists are members of the police or a forensic team, like pathologists, and either use standard police procedures to solve the crime, or forensic tools, respectively.

8. Subgenres based on committing a crime

When it comes to committing a crime, while there are two basic subtypes of stories, there are two main subgenres:

• Caper stories: opposite of whodunit and procedural stories, the protagonists are criminals who are trying to evade capture of legal authorities – after they had committed the crime, or they commit the crime in the first part of the story.
• Heist stories: they always revolve around theft, often grand theft in museums or casinos, and the protagonists are trying to commit the crime by the end of the story.

9. Connect the theme and the subgenre

The theme, or, the point you want your reader to take in while reading the story, needs to directly dictate the type of subgenre you are going to use, and so will the nature of your protagonist. A mother trying to get revenge for the death of her child will most probably not be trying to rob a bank or a casino. A con man looking for his big score (moneywise), who is trying to keep himself out of prison, will not be so willing to murder the guards of the Hope Diamond.

10. Use a certain balance of humor

Short stories, by nature, need to have a certain sense of lightness that would make it easy for the reader to lose themselves in the story. Even stories that deal with darker themes like violence and abuse need to have the narrative deliver the same lightness that makes it easy for the readers to absorb what is happening. Humor is one of the best tools to use in the narrative to make the story lighter for the reader to take in.

However, some themes are more serious, and using excessive humor, for example, in a short story of a mother trying to get revenge and kill the murderer of her dead child, humor would not be welcome. Humor helps to make stories “read” or “feel” softer, but it would also take the reader away from such a dramatic and traumatic story. The only possible type of humor acceptable in such a story might be sarcasm or irony, but even that should be used sparingly and only if sarcasm is a strong element of the protagonist’s personality.

On the other hand, heist stories, whodunit stories, and cozy mysteries would highly benefit from the use of humor. Humor can make any story better, as long as it is used in a manner appropriate for the theme and the point that you are trying to make with it.

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The array of written assignments you might receive while studying Crime Stories is stunning. If some are too difficult, an expertly crafted sample Crime Stories piece on a related subject might lead you out of a deadlock. This is when you will definitely praise WowEssays.com ever-widening directory of Crime Stories essay samples meant to spark your writing enthusiasm.

Our directory of free college paper samples showcases the most vivid instances of excellent writing on Crime Stories and related topics. Not only can they help you come up with an interesting and fresh topic, but also display the effective use of the best Crime Stories writing practices and content organization techniques. Also, keep in mind that you can use them as a trove of reliable sources and factual or statistical data processed by real masters of their craft with solid academic experience in the Crime Stories field.

Alternatively, you can take advantage of practical write my essay assistance, when our authors provide a unique example essay on Crime Stories tailored to your personal instructions!

Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime Book Analysis Essay (Critical Writing)

The book Born a Crime by the famous comedian and political commentator Trevor Noah recollects his life experiences and struggles. The main plot of this book is Noah’s autobiography combined with his thoughts on his life. Noah writes about his upbringing during the Apartheid in South Africa, being a mixed-race child. At that time, his existence was considered a ‘crime’ during these years of extreme racial segregation. By reflecting on these experiences, Noah also questions the moral foundations of the concepts of politics, crime, and law. However, he does not only provide a description of his struggles but teaches the audience a lesson in success and resilience. Despite these unfavorable circumstances, he managed to become a successful entertainer known around the globe. Therefore, this story of Noah becomes the tale of resilience and self-preservation in the face of competing demands and adverse factors.

Every story of resilience and success starts with a struggle. In the case of Noah, his major challenge was his own existence during the Apartheid. Noah (2016) writes, “Because a mixed person embodies that rebuke to the logic of the system, race mixing becomes a crime worse than treason” (p. 21). Thus, he explains how his perception of crime and law has been different since his early childhood. It is often assumed that morality is connected to the basics of law. However, in the life of Noah, he realizes that people can make laws that are immoral at their core, as no moral law can outlaw the existence of an innocent child. Therefore, the crime and punishment become morally unjust but, at the same time, lawfully permissible, making it a definition of competing demand. This conflict makes self-preservation a core necessity in Noah’s life. In some way, the realization of the immorality of the segregation law becomes part of his self-preservation strategy. Noah does not label himself a criminal and surrender to the racist regime but strives to survive or, in other words, self-preserve.

Moreover, self-preservation is also reflected in different aspects of Noah’s life. The realization of the immorality of segregation does not hinder Noah but drives his free-thinking, which leads to the development of his career as a comedian. It allows him to know how to express people’s discontent with the current politics and the overall state of the world. Noah (2016) writes, “I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done in life, any choice that I’ve made. But I’m consumed with regret for the things I didn’t do, the choices I didn’t make, the things I didn’t say” (p. 143). It would be easy for Noah to submit to the fears, considering his traumatic childhood experiences. However, he chooses the risk of failure to be part of his life instead of inactivity. It shows his levels of resilience, and, in a way, it is a part of his self-preservation strategy. In a world full of competing demands, like in the case of segregation, Noah chooses self-preservation by taking the risk of speaking up. He realizes that being outspoken is crucial to change the world so that his existence will not ever again become a ‘crime’.

Overall, Noah’s book Born a Crime provides a valuable resource for not only studying the perspective of a survivor of the Apartheid but also tells the story of resilience and self-preservation. His unique journey starts with the dilemma of conflicting demands between his own existence and segregation law. Noah chooses self-preservation, which leads him not to surrender to fear but to develop necessary critical thinking skills and outspokenness. In a way, his life mission and career have roots in self-preservation to convince the world to eliminate competing demands that stem from the immorality of racism.

Noah, T. (2016). Born a crime: Stories from a South African childhood . Doubleday Canada.

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IvyPanda. (2024, January 15). Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Book Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/trevor-noahs-born-a-crime-book-analysis/

"Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Book Analysis." IvyPanda , 15 Jan. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/trevor-noahs-born-a-crime-book-analysis/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Book Analysis'. 15 January.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Book Analysis." January 15, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/trevor-noahs-born-a-crime-book-analysis/.

1. IvyPanda . "Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Book Analysis." January 15, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/trevor-noahs-born-a-crime-book-analysis/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Book Analysis." January 15, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/trevor-noahs-born-a-crime-book-analysis/.

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Essay on Crime

Students are often asked to write an essay on Crime in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Crime

Understanding crime.

Crime refers to acts that violate the law. They are considered harmful and punishable by a governing authority. Crimes can range from theft to murder.

Types of Crimes

There are various types of crimes. Violent crimes include actions like assault, while theft falls under property crimes. White-collar crimes involve fraud or embezzlement.

Consequences of Crime

Crimes have severe consequences. They can lead to imprisonment, fines, or even death penalties. Moreover, they harm communities and individuals, causing fear and damage.

Preventing Crime

Preventing crime involves law enforcement, education, and community programs. Everyone can contribute to a safer society by obeying laws and reporting suspicious activities.

Also check:

• Paragraph on Crime
• Speech on Crime

250 Words Essay on Crime

Introduction.

Crime, a pervasive aspect of society, is an act that violates a law and is punishable by the state. It disruptively breaches societal norms, creating a sense of insecurity and fear. This essay delves into the nature of crime, its causes, and the role of law enforcement.

The Nature of Crime

Crime is a complex phenomenon, varying across cultures and societies. It ranges from minor offences like theft to severe ones like homicide. The nature of crime reflects societal values, as what is considered criminal is determined by the prevailing legal and moral code.

Causes of Crime

The causes of crime are multifaceted, involving biological, psychological, and sociological factors. Biological theories suggest genetic predispositions towards criminal behaviour. Psychological theories focus on the individual’s mental processes and their interaction with the environment. Sociological theories, on the other hand, emphasize societal structures and inequalities as major crime contributors.

Law Enforcement and Crime

Law enforcement agencies play a crucial role in maintaining order, preventing crime, and ensuring justice. They function as a deterrent, keeping potential criminals in check. However, their effectiveness is contingent upon their ability to adapt to evolving criminal tactics.

In conclusion, crime is a societal issue with deep roots in individual and social structures. Understanding its nature and causes is key to formulating effective strategies for prevention and control. As society evolves, so too must our approach to understanding and combating crime.

500 Words Essay on Crime

Crime, a social and legal concept, has been a part of human society since its inception. It refers to the actions that violate the norms and laws of a society, leading to harm or potential harm to individuals or the community. The study of crime, its causes, effects, and prevention, is a crucial aspect of sociology, psychology, and criminology.

Crime is a complex phenomenon, varying across societies and times. It is not static but evolves with societal norms and legal frameworks. What may be considered a crime in one society may not be in another, and similarly, what was a crime in the past might not be so today. For instance, homosexuality was once criminalized in many societies, but it is now widely accepted and decriminalized.

Types of Crime

Crimes are generally categorized into personal crimes, property crimes, inchoate crimes, statutory crimes, and financial crimes. Personal crimes involve direct harm or threat to an individual, such as assault or robbery. Property crimes involve interfering with another person’s property, like burglary or theft. Inchoate crimes are those that were started but not completed, while statutory crimes are violations of specific statutes. Financial crimes, such as fraud or embezzlement, involve the illegal conversion of property ownership.

The causes of crime are multifaceted, often interwoven with societal, psychological, and economic factors. Poverty, lack of education, substance abuse, and family violence are some common societal factors leading to crime. Psychological factors include personality disorders, low self-control, and aggression. Economic factors, such as unemployment or income inequality, also contribute significantly to crime rates.

Effects of Crime

Crime affects society in numerous ways, from creating fear and insecurity to damaging social cohesion. It impacts the economy by diverting resources towards law enforcement and away from other sectors. On an individual level, crime can lead to physical harm, psychological trauma, and financial loss.

Crime prevention strategies are as diverse as the causes of crime. They include social strategies, such as improving education and employment opportunities, and legal strategies, such as effective law enforcement and fair judicial systems. Psychological interventions, like counseling and therapy, can also play a significant role in crime prevention.

Understanding crime is essential to creating a safe and harmonious society. By examining its nature, types, causes, effects, and prevention, we can develop effective strategies to reduce crime rates and mitigate its impact on individuals and communities. It is a collective responsibility that requires the concerted efforts of individuals, communities, and governments.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Crime Against Women
• Essay on How to Reduce Unemployment
• Essay on Conclusion for Unemployment

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Born a Crime — Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

• Categories: Born a Crime

About this sample

Words: 467 |

Published: Jan 29, 2024

Words: 467 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Cultural identity, racial dynamics, survival during a volatile time, analysis of literary techniques.

• Trevor Noah. (2016). Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. Spiegel & Grau.
• Constitutional Rights Foundation. (n.d.). Apartheid and Racial Segregation. https://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/apartheid-and-racial-segregation
• McKaiser, E. (2016). Trevor Noah’s ‘Born a Crime’ is a story of resilience. Times Live. https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/books/2016-11-13-trevor-noahs-born-a-crime-is-a-story-of-resilience/

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50+ True Crime Stories That Will Shock You To Your Core

These true crime stories are so horrific, it’s difficult to believe they actually happened, or that human beings could be capable of committing such atrocities. And yet, these stories are indeed all true. Sometimes, real life is a lot grimmer than fiction. Sometimes, real life involves murder, abduction, betrayal, torture, and death…

12 True Creepy Crimes That Will Make You Lock Your Doors Tonight

1.  angela hammond.

“She was talking on the payphone with her fiance and saying how there is this suspicious truck that keeps driving around the block. Then, that truck parks near her where the payphone is, he gets out and starts looking around with his flashlight as if he lost something, then he confronts Angela and abducts her. Her fiance heard all of this on the other line and immediately got in his car to drive where Angela was. When doing so, he drove past the guy in the truck and Angela was apparently screaming his name for help, so he turns around and tries following the truck and his transmission fucks up and the guy got away. Angela has never been heard from again. And, she was pregnant.”

2. Annie Borjesson

“I find the case of Annie Borjesson really weird. She was a Swedish student studying in Edinburgh. She then went to Prestwick airport (literally the other side of the country, then down a bit), caught on CCTV at the airport for ten seconds, then left. She tried to take out money multiple times from different ATMs, but didn’t have the funds so was denied. She was seen wandering about Prestwick, and then was found dead on the beach. Her long hair had been cut off, and the post mortem (as far as I have read) concluded death by drowning.

She may have been victim to foul play, or it was suicide. I also found that her parents’ e-mails were allegedly hacked later on. It may be a case of self-inflicted violence/mental health issues, but I find Annie’s case just so bizarre and sad.”

3.  The Hinterkaifeck Murders

“The Hinterkaifeck murders . A family saw footprints in the snow leading to their farm, but no footprints out of the farm. A few days later, they were killed in their own home. There was evidence that the perpetrators were staying in their house or the farm before the killings.

It’s creepy because your house is supposed to be the safest place. It’s hard to feel secure when you think about the possibility that your killer may be living with you without you noticing.”

4. Dorothy Scott

“I was just reading about Dorothy Scott recently. Her story is the saddest, and the creepiest was the bones of the dead dog the killer left on top of her remains to throw scavenger dogs off of his trail. Also, how her watch was stopped to the exact moment she died. I just can’t believe that he called her family so often and they could never trace the calls…I know it was the times though. But the whole thing is so horrifying.”

5. Brandon Swanson

“For those who are not familiar with his story, Brandon was a 19 year old who lived in Marshall, MN. He was returning home from a party recently celebrating his graduation from a community college up in a town north of Marshall called Canby and was on his way home.

Along the way home he crashed in a ditch. For some reason he was taking gravel roads even though the highway between the two towns was a straight shot North to South. I am guessing he took this route as a joy ride type of thing since he loved his car and driving in general or maybe he had a little too much to drink at the party and didn’t want to deal with any state troopers on patrol. He called his dad for a ride and eventually got tired of waiting inside his crashed car and started to walk towards Marshall. He claimed to his dad to see ‘lights’ of something nearby then abruptly exclaimed “Oh shit!” to his dad while still on the phone and his call ended. To this day no one knows what happened to him. No body found, none of his belongings found, nothing. There’s more to the story but that’s my summary. If you want to learn more just dig around.

My guess on what happened to Brandon is either he slipped and fell in a river due to not being able to see in the darkness, got shot and buried somewhere by a belligerent farmer who hated people trespassing on his property and would rather shoot then ask questions or was abducted by aliens (which would explain the lights). This case just creeps me out because I too live in Southern MN and I’m semi familiar with the Marshall area. It’s mostly flat farmlands around here so I really do not understand how someone can just disappear into thin air in the middle of nowhere without a body or any remains being found.”

6. The Bennington Triangle Disappearances

“Beginning in November 1945 through October 1950, five people — ages 8- to 74-years-old — went missing in the area. One was an experienced hunting guide and another was a 53-year-old woman described as an experienced camper and hiker who knew the area like the back of her hand. I’ve hiked Vermont’s Long Trail myself and there are places where you get a feeling of being watched by someone or some “thing.” In 2008, an instructor at Bennington College and experienced hiker got lost on the mountain, later recounted his strange experiences and swore he would never again hike the trail alone.”

7. The Setagaya Family

“The killer stayed in the house for hours, eating their [the Setagaya family’s ] food, logging into the family computer and sleeping on their couch. It’s so creepy because rarely does a killer stick around for hours after they commit their crime making themselves at home.”

8. Brandon Lawson

“Ran out of gas in Middle of Nowhere, TX in 2013. Called the cops, much of it is inaudible but he implies he’s being chased into the woods, and says he needs the cops. When police arrived, they find his truck but nothing else. Not a trace of him since.”

9. Katarzyna Zowada (The “Skin case”)

“A young Polish student disappears in Krakow city.

Few months later a ship on the Vistula river stops because ‘something’ stuck into a propeller. What they have found surprised everyone.

They have gotten out a… skin of missing Katarzyna Zowada . To be more precise: A suit made of human skin. Someone had cut all the limbs and head then created a ‘body suit’ from remaining part which was probably worn by the murderer for some time.

Despite media attention and increased police interest every few years a perpetrator never had been found.”

10. Cassie Jo Stoddart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZNFpZfMnew

“She [ Cassie Jo Stoddart ] was house-sitting for her aunt. She invited her boyfriend over and his two friends came over as well. His friends left and said they were going to the movies. They didn’t.

At some point before “leaving”, they unlocked a basement door, unbeknownst to her. They shut the power off to scare her. They sat there (hiding) until her boyfriend left and she was alone and proceeded to put masks on, come in the house and stab her. If that isn’t bad enough, a video was found where they planned to murder her ahead of time. There was footage of them right after they killed her as well.”

11. Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon

“Another creepy mystery that resonates with me is the disappearance of Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon . Long story short, two Dutch girls visiting Panama decide to go on a hike a day before they were scheduled to meet a guide for a tour and they go missing the same night. 10 weeks later their remains and possessions are found down stream from where the girls were hiking.

What creeps me out the most about this disappearance is the pictures that were found on Lisanne’s camera that turned up in the remains. The pictures go from the usual nice pictures of landscapes and of the girls posing with landmarks to cryptic pictures of the darkness as what many assume were attempts to use the flash of the camera to act as a signal for rescuers. Also there was a photo of back of Kris’s head with what possibly looks like blood by her temple. Just the fact that no one knows what happened to these two during their time in the jungle is what is most unsettling about this mystery.”

12. Daniel LaPlante’s Murders

“ Daniel LaPlante is a triple murderer . He killed a nursery school teacher & her 2 kids in 1987. After a massive man-hunt they still could not find him. The ultra creepy thing is what happened. He was eventually discovered-after being on the run-in the closet of a girl he’d dated. She opened her door one night to see him standing there, in her mother’s clothes, face smeared with makeup, holding a machete. He tied her & her family up , but the youngest narrowly escaped. As if this isn’t bad enough, they AGAIN could not find him, till 2 weeks later. The family, who’d moved out, came back home and SAW LAPLANTE IN THE WINDOW. The police were called and later found out why he’d been so hard to find. Daniel had been living in the walls of his former girlfriend’s house the entire time.”

7 Of The Most Brutal Murders Ever Committed In The History Of The Human Race (NSFL)

1. the toolbox killer.

The  transcript  of what happened to Shirley Ledford at the hands of Toolbox Killers Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris is the most disturbing thing you will ever come across.

An excerpt from the transcript:

“At this point, after Bittaker had forced Shirley to fellate him, repeated sounds of an administered beating, interspersed with loud screams can be heard as Bittaker savagely beat Shirley about the breasts and, to a lesser degree, head. Bittaker then extracted his pliers from the tool box. Shirley then emits several high-pitched, prolonged screams and cries of agony as Bittaker alternately squeezes and twists her labia, clitoris, nipples and breasts with the pliers. Bittaker then returns the pliers to the tool box. Banging sounds can also be heard throughout, which are believed to have been made as Shirley came into contact with the walls and inner contents of the van as she writhed and flailed.”

Ledford: My God! Please stop it! (Screams) Bittaker: Is the recorder going? Norris: Yeah! Bittaker: Scream baby !  Scream some, baby.

2. Kelly Anne Bates

Bates was horrifically tortured for days before her tormentor finally killed her. Below are a few examples of what she went through.

According to  Wikipedia , Kelly Anne Bates (18 May 1978 – 16 April 1996) was a British teenager murdered on 16 April 1996 at age 17 in Manchester after being tortured for four long weeks. Kelly’s eyes were gouged from their sockets up to three weeks before she actually died from drowning in a bathtub. These horrific crimes were committed by her partner, James Patterson Smith .

Below is a list from Wikipedia of the specific injuries Kelly Anne Bates endured through torture:

• Scalding to her buttocks and left leg
• Burns on her thigh caused by the application of a hot iron
• A fractured arm
• Multiple stab wounds caused by knives, forks and scissors
• Stab wounds inside her mouth
• Crush injuries to both hands
• Mutilation of her ears, nose, eyebrows, mouth, lips and genitalia
• Wounds caused by a spade and pruning shears
• Both eyes gouged out
• Later stab wounds to the empty eye sockets
• Partial scalping

3.  Junko Furuta

Furuta was a 17-year-old Japanese girl whose case became known as the “concrete-encased high school girl murder case.” Furuta was kidnapped by four teenage boys and, aside from the brutality of the assaults against her, the most disturbing thing is that she was held at one of the kidnapper’s houses and his parents were present the entire time, knew what was going on, and did nothing to stop it.

Also extremely disturbing is that Furuta turned 17 while she was in captivity and enduring these horrors. There’s something tremendously upsetting about that.

According to  Wikipedia :

To avoid concern over her abduction, the perpetrators forced Furuta to call her parents and tell them that she would be staying at a friend’s house for a while. Over the course of her confinement, Furuta was repeatedly raped, beaten, and tortured by her four captors until they killed her. The parents of Kamisaku were present in the home for at least a part of the time that Furuta was held captive, and though she pleaded with them for help, they did not intervene, later claiming that they feared their son too much to do so.

The killers hid her corpse in a 208-litre oil drum filled with concrete. They disposed of the drum in a tract of reclaimed land in Kōtō, Tokyo.

4. The Hi-Fi Murders

In 1974, two men robbing a Hi-Fi store in Odgen, Utah held captive and tormented five individuals. Only two of the captives would survive. Among the sadism levied on the captives were the following, according to Wikipedia :

Violence included a pen being kicked into an ear and the brutal rape of a teenage girl who was later shot in the head. Corrosive drain cleaner was also forcefully given to the hostages causing horrific burns to their mouths and throats.

Not only were they forced to drink drain cleaner but their mouths were then taped shut so they couldn’t spit it out or vomit it up.

One of the victims, Orren Walker, was shot several times, strangled and had a pen kicked into his ear but still survived.

5. The McStay Family

In 2010, in Fallbrook, California, the McStay family (including Joseph McStay, his wife Summer, and their two children), was brutally murdered. The four were then moved by the killer and buried in a shallow grave in the desert but their remains weren’t found until 2013. For three years they’d simply believed to have disappeared.

Forensic evidence showed that all had been beaten to death with a sledgehammer which was found near the family’s remains. Joseph McStay suffered four blows to the head and the family’s youngest child, only four years old, suffered seven. Investigators also believe the family was tortured prior to being killed.

Charles Merritt, McStay’s former business partner has been charged with the family’s murder.

6.  James Bulger

In 1993, in England, two-year-old James Bulger was abducted by two ten-year-olds at the mall while his mother was distracted.

After taking him from the mall, the two boys took Bulger on a two and a half mile walk. At one point they picked Bulger up and dropped him on his head which caused him to have a bump on his head and, according to bystanders, cry.

The two then took him up an embankment and onto a set of railroad tracks where they began torturing him.

More details of the murder according to Wikipedia :

At the trial it was established that at this location, one of the boys threw blue Humbrol modelling paint, which they had shoplifted earlier, into Bulger’s left eye. They kicked and stomped on him, and threw bricks and stones at him. Batteries were placed in Bulger’s mouth. Police believed some batteries may have been inserted into his anus, although none were found there. Finally, a 22-pound (10.0 kg) iron bar, described in court as a railway fishplate, was dropped on him. Bulger suffered ten skull fractures as a result of the iron bar striking his head. Dr. Alan Williams, the case’s pathologist, stated that Bulger suffered so many injuries—42 in total—that none could be isolated as the fatal blow.

Police suspected that there was a sexual element to the crime, since Bulger’s shoes, socks, trousers and underpants had been removed. The pathologist’s report read out in court stated that Bulger’s foreskin had been forcibly retracted.

Before they left him, the boys laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, in the hope that a train would hit him and make his death appear to be an accident.

After Bulger’s killers left the scene, his body was cut in half by a train. Bulger’s severed body was discovered two days later on 14 February.

7.  Amora Bain Carson

Amora Bain Carson, the 13-month-old baby who was tortured to death by her mother’s boyfriend during an “exorcism.” I’ll tell the story by copying some things from each of their appeals. Jesseca Carson was the baby’s mother, and the boyfriend was Blaine Milam. Jessica Carson was sentenced to life, while Blaien Milam was sentenced to death.

WARNING: Graphic Content

“Carson concluded that the child was like ‘Chucky’ or ‘Pet Sematary’ (horror movies) when the “boy dies and comes back to life all evil and stuff” because the child was “biting Blaine to where it was drawing blood on his hands.” After Milam returned to the child, he took a picture of her and gave it to Carson. One of the child’s eyes was stretched and ‘like warped down.’ Carson heard horrible cries from the child as Milam was attempting the exorcism.”

“During the hours involved, Milam had taken the child to a back bedroom in their small dwelling and wedged the door shut. The evidence would allow a jury to conclude that Carson was necessarily aware of what was happening to the child, because she admitted hearing the screams that accompanied such torture and because she saw the child’s deformed head after some time had passed and heard the sounds caused by the blows.”

“They found blood-spatter stains, consistent with blunt force trauma, near the south bedroom. Among the items collected from the south bedroom were: blood-stained bedding and baby clothes; blood-stained baby diapers and wipes; a tube of Astroglide lubricant; and a pair of jeans with blood stains on the lap. DNA testing later showed that Amora’s blood was on these items.”

“As a result of the ‘exorcism’ conducted by Milam, Amora suffered innumerable injuries that led to her death. Forensic evidence showed the child was beaten so severely that the multitude of fractures to her skull connected with each other like a jigsaw puzzle, and her brain was torn and severely damaged. An arm and leg had spiral fractures indicating they were twisted in two, her torso was either struck by a blunt object or squeezed until the ribs and sternum broke, and her body (neck, chest, abdomen, buttocks, both elbows, both forearms, both feet, right arm, left shoulder, left upper arm, left hand, right thigh, and left knee) was riddled with no less than twenty-four distinct bite marks. Her head and face were so scraped and bruised that all the discrete injuries combined into “one giant injury.” Her liver was torn, and her vaginal and anal orifices were so torn that the vagina and rectum were actually connected, an injury the forensic examiner had never seen before. The underside of her tongue was lacerated from blunt force trauma. She was also strangled. Because of all the injuries she sustained, it was not possible to determine which one was the final injury, and no specific, singular cause of death was determinable. Forensic testimony reflected that several of the injuries standing alone would have each been fatal. Police were called several hours later; when they arrived, the child was entirely stiff and in rigor.”

“On December 13th, appellant’s sister, Teresa, went to see appellant in jail. That night, she told her aunt that she ‘was needing to find a way to get back out to the trailer in Tatum’ because “Blaine had told her that she needed to go out there to the trailer to get some evidence out from underneath of it.” The aunt called Sgt. Rogers and told her that “she needed to get out to the trailer immediately, that Teresa was wanting to go out there to get some evidence out from underneath the trailer.”

“Sgt. Rogers immediately obtained a search warrant, crawled under the trailer, and discovered a pipe wrench inside a clear plastic bag. The pipe wrench had been shoved down ‘a hole in the floor of the master bathroom.’ Forensic analysis revealed components of Astroglide on the pipe wrench, the diaper Amora had been wearing, and the diaper and wipes collected from the south bedroom.”

Werner Herzog did an episode of  On Death Row  about Blaine Milam and the full episode is on  YouTube . It has security footage from the pawn shop where they were supposedly pawning a chainsaw to get money for an exorcism (after Amora was already dead) and a gas station, the 911 call, crime scenes photos (not of Amora’s body, of course, just the trailer) and interviews with pretty much everyone involved (except Jesseca Carson). It doesn’t make it any easier… but this case raises a lot of questions and searching online for these kinds of cases can take you horrible places that use Amora for shock value or misrepresent autopsy photos of other unfortunate victims as her (no post-mortem photos of Amora have been released and her autopsy was sealed). Especially since Amora’s case hasn’t been in the MSM very much due to the graphic nature of her death. With Herzog you’re getting quality information on the case coming straight from those involved.

Bonus: 36 Locals Share The Most Horrific True Crimes That Happened In Their Home Towns

1.   “ Stacey Castor poisoned her husband and then poisoned her daughter on the daughter’s first day of college. She wrote a fake suicide note for her daughter saying that she had killed her father and was committing suicide because of the guilt. The daughter almost died but recovered from the poison and testified against her mother. They also found out she had poisoned her first husband.”

2.   “When I was in 3rd grade I saw a kid get into a police car while I was in chess club. Turns out his father murdered his younger twin sisters by stabbing them to death. Apparently he told them to play hide and seek and murdered them when he found them. When he finally returned to school he got bullied by the shitbag kids at our school, making fun of his dead sisters. He was placed in the custody of his aunt who later committed suicide and he was left in the care of the state after that. That boy’s  life was horrible .”

3.  “Around 3 years ago, my friend’s father went berserk and killed my friend, his younger brother and his mother, and then proceeded to hang himself. I remember talking to him the week before about a project we had in lit class. His extended family took the project because it was the last thing he worked on before the incident. I had grief counselors talk to me for every class I had with him (Which was almost all of them). Our school still has a Tree and a memorial dedicated to him.”

4. “Probably David Meirhofer’s murders. Among other things he snatched a seven year old girl out of her tent while her family was camping, molested her, then strangled her to death. They caught him because he called her mother to taunt her a year later.”

5.  “Neighbors that lived across the road from me were having domestic issues. The wife brings over a box of stuff for us to stash because she is afraid he will steal/burn it. We stash it for her no problem. A week later she is missing, the following week they found her dead, stuffed in a box in his storage unit. He got life. We gave the box of stuff to her daughter.”

6.   “Guy beat his pregnant girlfriend to death in front of her kids, then beat her 8 and 6 year old to death. Couldn’t bring himself to beat the 2 year old to death so he threw him in the dryer and turned it on.”

7.   “When I was a kid one of my neighbors and his sister murdered their mom by bashing her head in with a real heavy frying pan and then strangled her with the phone cord. (Back when phones had cords) because the mother told the son that he couldn’t take his underage sister out with him to a party. So they killed her and left her body in the closet and then went to the party like nothing happened.”

8.  “I live in a (relatively) rural county in England, so we normally don’t have many crimes that you could consider too bad.

About three years ago a 17 year girl I’d met once or twice went missing, she was popular and the community really pulled together in trying to find her. She was also the daughter of a detective who works in our town.

Turns out she was murdered by another lad I’d also met a few times. He was a bit older (22 I think) He seemed okay when I met him, a little cocky but nothing too unusual. He was a photographer who once staged a picture with one of my friends where she was hanging by the neck with a bag on her head. Pretty strange stuff, but I assumed it was all in the name of art.

He’d been rejected by this girl so he lured her to his house on the pretense of taking modelling photos. He strangled her to death when she got there and dumped her body miles away.

Apparently the cops found essays he’d been writing obsessively about her. He’d also taken pictures labelled “before-during-after” of her murder, so it was obviously pre-meditated.

He was given a whole-life sentence (which are very rare in the UK) so chances are he’ll never get to see the light of day again.”

9.   “My neighbor that became our family’s friend had a nice step dad. He used to give me rides sometimes. We lived in a bad part of Miami (think inner city, not South Beach) and my nickname there was “smart girl” because I’m the only one in “the hood” that went to college.

Anyway, I moved away and apparently one day my friend’s mom told his step dad she wanted to leave him. He went insane. He grabbed his gun and told her she’s going to die before she leaves or something like that. My friend’s little sister was there too and was crying the whole time (she was like 16). My friend stepped between his step dad and his mom. His step dad told him if he didn’t move he’d kill him too.

He didn’t move. He killed my friend, then the mom. He turned to the little girl and said he couldn’t kill her and that he was so sorry. Then he killed himself.”

10.   “The murder of Maddie Clifton. An 8 year old girl went missing in Jacksonville, FL and it became a huge national story in 1998. There was a massive hunt to find her by law enforcement and local residents. Everyone was looking. It’s all anyone talked about. A week into the search, a mother went into her son’s room while he was at school to clean it after the stench coming from it became overwhelming. His waterbed seemed to be leaking. When she looked more closely, she discovered Maddie’s body stuffed inside the pedestal of the bed.

The woman’s son was only 14 years old. He said him and Maddie were playing baseball, and when he hit the ball, it hit Maddie in the eye causing her to bleed. He says he panicked when she wouldn’t stop screaming, and said his father was abusive and was afraid what would happen to him if he she told on him. So, he dragged Maddie inside, stabbed her 11 times and beat her to death with the baseball bat.

Horrible, tragic story.”

11.  “A woman murdered an expectant mother and cut the baby out, drove off, then called 911 in an attempt to pass the baby off as her own. I was just off work around that time that night and definitely drove by that exact spot before they found the body. It’s right off the highway.  Creepy shit …”

12.  “Our neighbor on our street was having an affair and decided it was a good idea to kill her husband then burn the house down so she could be with her pilot boyfriend.

Stupid thing was her boyfriend used to come into one local bar, said he was never that serious about her and that she was clingy, even went so far as to try and get him to be her alibi. All this happened while we were on vacation, weirdest trip home ever.”

13.  “If you guys aren’t aware what’s going on in the Philippines. Most drug users/dealers are now being killed by unknown assailants. Just last week we have 2 people dumped near where I live with their heads fully wrapped with tape and hands as well with a cardboard sign saying “I’m a drug dealer. Don’t be like me” (translated from our native language).”

14.  “Grew up in a small town north of the bay area, while watching a documentary about Jim Jones my teacher started crying. Found out for several years Jones’s church was in our town (2miles from my house) and after everyone committed ‘suicide’ in Guyana they ran a list of names on the local news. A large number of previous students and their parents were on the list. The shit didn’t go down in my town but a whole generation where I grew up lost friends and family to that guy and the church (with a guard tower) still stands to this day but with a different denomination.”

15.  “When I was a baby there was this nice couple that lived down the street from me. No kids, middle aged, average couple. The wife and my mom would talk sometimes – casual pleasant neighborly chatter. Apparently this lady was a total sweetheart and was loved around town.

So one day my mom is driving home, and the couple’s house is surrounded by police cruisers. Turns out the wife commit suicide by shotgun. The problem was – she shot herself twice.

For months they were investigating the husband…they were so close to having the evidence that they needed to nail him for the murder.

One day, my mom and grandma were going to the store. When they left, he was sitting in his driveway in his car. He waved at them as they left. When they get home, there are police and an ambulance outside his house – he was slumped over dead in his car – suicide by carbon monoxide.

They literally saw him as he was killing himself after he killed his wife. Yikes.”

16. “ Andrea Yates  drowning her five kids. Happened five minutes away and our family still sees her ex husband and his new family on occasion. They’re very nice.”

17.  “Let’s see… Where to start? This list doesn’t even include the stuff related to the meth epidemic.

(1990’s) A guy cut another dude into pieces with a carving knife and stashed the body in the deep freezer in his apartment. The police only found them a week later.

(2000’s) A guy got into an argument with their cousin at the club, drove to their house and chucked a firebomb inside. The fire killed all five of their kids, who were home at the time.

(2000’s again) Another guy heard that his estranged parents had a huge life insurance policy in their name. One night, he left home, drove to his parents’ place in Iowa, and killed almost everyone (6 people) with a shotgun, then drove home to eat dinner, while awaiting the news. He was only caught because his 7 year old niece hid in the closet the whole time and she was able to tell who did it.

(2015-now) Several fatal shootings and beatings that have killed a few people. Heroin epidemic.

Oh also, Michael Swango AKA “Dr. Death”, a serial killer known for poisoning victims (4-60; true number unknown), worked as an EMT around the area here in the 80’s.

So, yeah, Central Illinois is just low-key slang for ‘Trevor Philips country’.”

18.  “Just happened this month, a mother of a one month old punched her baby to death because she was tired of feeding it. She then blamed the father. Fucked up.”

19.   “Whitey here. I live in a small south east town. Back in the 80’s the town was still pretty segregated school wise. Where the railroad tracks once ran through town, was the diving line. South side of the railroad was probably 99.9% black. My backyard fence was part of that dividing line. When I was 10, my parents fostered a black boy my age. He lived in my neighborhood, played on my baseball team. His dad went to prison up in NY and the boy lived with us for 4 years. He moved back when his dad got out. But 30 years later, we still tell people we are brothers.

‘D’ taught me a lot about black community. Especially about times when crimes are committed and the whole black community knows who did it. But don’t tell because “fuck the police” or retaliation from the criminal.

we lived 2 blocks from the closest convenience store/arcade. People walking to the store from the south side of the tracks, walked by my house. It wasn’t the wild west or anything. We may not have gone to the same school sometimes, but we only had 1 recreation department so we played sports together. So we always saw people we knew at the store.

But there was this one guy. For the late 80’s this dude was pretty out and flamboyant when it came to being gay. Remember those 70’s and 80’s short shorts with the stripe. If you hung em just right, your balls were exposed.

Anyway, dude used to walk up and down the street, short short, flip flops, tank top t shirt, medium size afro, and usually sucking on a sucker. He was very friendly. He would stop and talk. He acted like he was a girl. He was alright. My sister and her friend were nice to him. He stopped and talked to them if they were ever about.

Fast Forward. So the dude is found in the bathroom at the ballfield. He had been murdered. Just fucked up big time. Beat to hell and back. And the story every one has head as an urban legend before. They had cut his dick off and put it in his mouth. His balls were in his hand and a broom stick had been shoved in his ass.

No suspects.

Year later, out in the county, a white sherriff’s deputy off duty from another county happens to be in our jurisdiction, checking on his parents’ house. Happens to catch 2 black guys robbing the house. He shoots and kills both after a scuffle.

Oddly enough, under routine drug test, because of the shooting, cocaine shows up on his system. This story is really fishy. Investigation goes on for a long time. The cops finally drop the case, declare it self defense or what have.

This is where my foster brother ‘D’ comes into play. Years later. We’re in our 20’s, shooting the shit and somehow bring up the murder of the gay dude. I was like, ‘I can’t believe they never solved that case.’

D was like what you talking about? Everybody knew who did it. What? He asked, ‘remember the 2 black dudes the off duty cop killed breaking into his parents house?’

Yea I remember that.

Well those were the dudes that did it. Everybody in the “hood” knew it was them. They were always terrorizing everybody. And the house they were breaking into and got caught? Drug deal. Those 2 dudes were dealing drugs, and that white guy, off duty sheriff deputy from another county. Shot em in the middle of the deal.

So two drug dealers/murderers are murdered by a crooked cop, but in the end, I don’t really consider that justice for our friendly neighborhood gay boy that probably never hurt a flea in his 20 years of life.

You may not have any love for ‘the man’ or ‘the police’ but how can a community be silent when innocent people are hurt?”

20.  “Second week in my new apartment and my neighbor gets robbed and stabbed. I heard the whole encounter and was the one that called the cops.”

21.   “I was emancipated really young. I just moved into emergency housing commission and had to sleep in the lounge room because it had the only light bulb and I’m scared of the dark.

For anyone not in Australia Housing Commission is cheap units or houses owned by the government and rented to disadvantaged people. Mostly junkies and welfare bludgers.

Anyway I was sleeping in the lounge room which had the front door attached when I hear the most blood curling screams.

One junkie had poured boiling water over another chick, stabbed her repeatedly and cut off one of her tits.

I was laying maybe 10 meters away.”

22.   “A child was raped and murdered. Guy was arrested and he was killed within 24 hours of being arrested and in a community cell of like 6 inmates instead of segregation he died and no one in the cell seen it.”

23.  “I only remember some of the details as I was on holidays at the time and only heard second hand what happened. So a guy who lived around the corner had an argument with his wife over something, got pissed off and then shot her. People heard the gunshot and called the police, which prompted him to run away in his car down the main road about 2km to his parents house where he got into their gun locker, killed his parents and then had a standoff with the police that lasted a couple of hours and ending in him shooting himself.”

24.  “We had a group of people who would pretend to be the cops, dressed in all black and wore ski masks and stuff, knock on your door, say they had a warrant, and if you opened it up, they would force their way in and rob you.

This went on for months, like, month after month after month. They decided they were above the law, so their crimes kept getting worse and worse, one of their later houses they beat an old man until he had jaw, facial, and skull fractures so bad he had to have a life flight to a major trauma center where he had emergency surgery. The next old couple they killed.

They were sure the local police couldn’t do anything, the newspaper even said the police had nothing to go on, and it just kept getting worse. One of their last home invasions, they just killed the homeowner as he opened the door for absolutely no reason.

I realized that if someone had defended themselves earlier in the chain of criminality, things never would have reached this point. I ended up getting a Ring Video Doorbell and a Strikemaster II door reinforcements for each external door. I keep firearms in electronic safes ready to use at any moment. Nothing like that is going to happen to my family.”

25.  “There was a family in the area I used to live in and I played soccer with the middle daughter. It was three girls — two were adults and one was still in high school — and the parents. The parents were very religious, the mother especially, and they had a lot of beliefs that I (and many people) found…strange.

The eldest daughter (whose name I don’t recall) had a serious mental illness that she managed perfectly well when she lived out of home. She had a job, had a decent life and all was well. The relationship she was in fell apart and she had to move back home for financial reasons. One of the rules her parents had was that she wasn’t to take her meds anymore because they weren’t what they considered ‘godly.’

Things deteriorated over time and the parents continued to withhold her medications. Now, I have a chronic mental illness myself and without my meds things descend into chaos quite quickly so I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like for her with her illness being more serious than mine. Her parents were told by their church to pray over her and everything would be ok.

As I’m sure you can imagine things were  not  ok. She lost her tenuous grip on reality and became unstable. She attacked her family while doing battle with a series of hallucinations that were telling her awful things about her parents and sisters. She took a sharp kitchen knife and went after her youngest sister (the middle one that I knew wasn’t home at the time) and stabbed her to death in the kitchen. Her father kept trying to defend his youngest child while trying to settle the eldest and he sustained serious injuries. The eldest followed him when he ran from the house to get help and she caught him from behind and stabbed him multiple times in the neck. He died on the front lawn. The mother was injured as well but appeared not to be the target of the eldest daughter’s hallucinations and she managed to survive.

The girl was taken down by tasers when the police arrived — they were called by neighbours who heard the commotion — and she was sent to a high security facility where she still is now. She was very obviously not in control of herself at the time so she avoided criminal charges and the mother moved away from the area.

I feel for the mother most; she essentially lost her whole family. The youngest and her husband had been killed and the middle child moved away eventually too, changing her surname when she got married and chose to disconnect from her mother. I know she blames her mum for what happened because she was the one who withheld the medication. I can imagine that the mum blames herself too.

When that happened it helped my mum to put my illness into perspective — if I’m treated properly, everything will be alright. It was a “there, but for the grace of God, go we” moment.

That was the worst crime that happened in our area for quite a while. Years before that there was a massacre (the Milperra Masacre, if you want to google it) between rival biker gangs who had, and continue to have, a presence in that particular suburb. Since then there was a child drowned during an exorcism after parents were told by a priest (or something) that the kid had a demon inside him and trying to force it out was the only way to save him…he was going through puberty, that’s all.”

26.  “The kidnapping of Michael Dunahee. He is still just considered missing but its been 20+ years. You’d have to be pretty optimistic to believe he didn’t meet a horrible fate. He was just a small boy when taken and the incident absolutely ROCKED My small crime free city. It changed everything…parents kept a much more careful eye on us kids..many of our freedoms were taken away…I still feel sick when i think about what horrible things must’ve happened to that poor boy.”

27.   “Growing up two brothers murdered their parents and put them in bags in the Attic. They did this because their parents would not let them go to a party nor own a cell phone, this was when cell phone were just becoming affordable for the upper middle class.”

28.   “DEA bust next door, serial killers dumping ground five minutes from my house, and Sandy hook is within a 30 minutes drive.”

29.   “We sold our house when I was 9 and moved a few miles away. The couple we sold the house to was nice enough, but a little odd. I don’t even know what it was, but even  I  noticed they were weird, and I was a little kid.

Fast forward about 12 years. I’m in college and these people have a son themselves. One day the man cornered his wife in the dining room and blew her head off with a shotgun. They had been having marital trouble prior to that but I’m not sure what exactly set him off. Kind of creepy to know that happened in my old house.”

30.   “The girl who got stabbed by the two slenderman girls? My second cousin. My younger siblings actually played with her 2 weeks prior at a family gathering. Crazy.”

31.   “Some kid beat another to kid to death with a bat over an argument that had to do with something related to weed. Mind you the population in my town is like 8,000. This was crazy.”

32.  “Well, we’ve got a serial killer running around now – he’s killed seven people so far. (Referring to the  current serial killer loose in Phoenix, Arizona ).”

33.  “I live in Downtown Dallas. I was packing for an international trip the night of the police shooting. I took note of the crowds after work and just made a mental note to “stay inside for awhile” after I got home. It wasn’t until I walked downstairs to get some tacos at around 10pm and a couple cops with sniper rifles were posted up in our lobby and told me to “get the fuck back upstairs, we are on lockdown!” that I realized some shit went down. What I witnessed that night and the following day really changed my perspective on a lot. They didn’t show the majority of it on the news. I have always been very supportive and stood behind a lot of social movements…but there is zero excuse for a 14 year old to spit on a cop, tell me I was a “Mexican bitch” that he “ought to rape,” loot a 7-11, or do any of the insane things that I saw.”

34.   The Snowtown, Australia Murders

“In my city some guys went around torturing people to death and then dissolved their bodies in vats of acid. But they used the wrong type of acid (Not strong enough) and people complained of a foul smell, so the police investigated and found semi-liquified remains in barrels.”

35.   “Two people ordered a pizza and killed the teenage driver because they wanted to know what it was like to kill a man.”

36.   “The 10 mile radius around my childhood home is like catnip to serial killers and evil. BTK dumped one of his victims in a ditch a mile away from my house (before I was born,) the Carr Brothers murdered a group of 5 people in the soccer field 4-5 miles from my home (6th one survived because she wore a metal hair clip that caused the bullet to ricochet away from her head,) A man molested small children on the same street, the old lady that hated us kids ended up murdered by her own son (my mom was the one to find her since she started to smell the decomposing body and a family member asked her if she was willing to go in for her.)

Tons of crimes that never were recorded, gunshots going off in the dead of night, a scream that suddenly got cut short, we were just told to lay on the floor while my father paced the house with a shotgun until he felt it was safe.”

January Nelson

January Nelson is a writer, editor, and dreamer. She writes about astrology, games, love, relationships, and entertainment. January graduated with an English and Literature degree from Columbia University.

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We’re addicted to ‘true crime’ stories. This class investigates why

In MSCR 3920: True Crime Media, Laurel Ahnert  takes students through a history of the genre — from 19th-century tabloids to Netflix — and unpacks our collective fascination with the darkest parts of human nature.

Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced, now-jailed former founder of the medical devices startup Theranos, is ripe for case study across a range of academic fields. Biochemistry students can scrutinize the feasibility of Theranos’ claims that its blood-testing technology could perform a wide panel of tests with a finger prick. Law and business students can examine how Holmes defrauded investors and pushed the corporate ethos of Silicon Valley to a breaking point. Budding journalists can learn how she manipulated the media ecosystem, and how dogged investigative reporters finally pulled her claims apart.

In Laurel Ahnert’s class, the Elizabeth Holmes saga is yet something else: true crime. 

Ahnert, a teaching professor in Communications Studies at Northeastern University, has devoted this session of MSCR 3920: True Crime Media (on April Fool’s Day, appropriately) to Holmes — examining her rise and fall alongside a syllabus milieu that includes serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Aileen Wornos, tabloid fascinations like Amanda Knox and streaming series fodder like Gypsy Rose Blanchard.

The 19 assembled students on the Boston campus are dissecting filmmaker Alex Gibney’s 2019 Holmes documentary “The Inventor,” teasing out the ways it relies on — and upends — common tropes in true crime narratives. On one hand, the film puts a heavy emphasis on Holmes’ looks, with lingering camera shots on her pale hair and ice-blue, unblinking eyes. 

This is maddeningly par for the course in depictions of women who commit crimes, Anhert says. There’s an idea that “her appearance gives us insight into who she is,” she tells the class. “There seems to be two polarities: either she’s absolutely monstrous inside and out, and we can see it immediately. Or she’s treated as a trickster, because her appearance doesn’t match what we expect — ‘How could someone so attractive be so horrible?’” 

On the other hand, Holmes’ misdeeds were corporate, and the film posits a more nuanced portrayal of her motives than a violent criminal might expect to receive, students point out. “It’s presented almost like a whoopsie,” says Amos Chapman, a third-year film and media studies major. “But it wasn’t a whoopsie. It was a deliberate thing. I think the documentary is trying to say she’s not as guilty: She thought she could do this, and then it didn’t happen.”

True Crime Media is a new offering in the College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD) for the spring 2024 semester; when Anhert proposed the class last year, she knew interest would be strong. “Young people are really enthusiastic for true crime,” she says in an interview after the class meeting. “A shocking number of my students watch ‘Dateline.’” 

That’s true beyond college campuses: In a 2022 YouGov poll , half of Americans surveyed said they enjoy true crime content, with 1 in 3 consuming it at least once a week. It’s the most popular podcast genre , particularly with women. Fodder is bottomless: The stories of Holmes, Blanchard, O.J. Simpson and scores of other gristly, well-known cases boast fictional and nonfiction multipart series on streaming platforms and podcast networks. 

Young people are really enthusiastic for true crime. A shocking number of my students watch ‘Dateline.’ Laurel Ahnert , Communication Studies assistant teaching professor

“For the past few years, as the U.S. murder rate has approached historic lows, stories about murder have become culturally ascendant,” journalist Rachel Monroe writes in the 2019 book “Savage Appetites,” an assigned reading. “The crime-minded among us were inundated with content, whether our tastes tended toward high-end HBO documentaries interrogating the justice system or something more like Investigation Discovery’s Swamp Murders.”

Anhert saw an opportunity for further inquiry. True Crime Media includes lessons on storytelling technique, and the final project has students working in groups to create their own 10-minute podcasts. But the course also tackles broad questions of perception, truth and the ways we have been conditioned to tell — and understand — certain familiar narratives, from 19th-century tabloids to serialized podcasts and the latest viral Netflix documentary. “The class came out of [asking], how can we think about this in a more critical way?” Anhert says. 

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OId stories, new forms

Thanks to its prevalence in newer media formats, true crime can seem like a recent craze. But as the syllabus makes clear, public fascination with unspeakable deeds is nothing new. (Sherlock Holmes was a sensation in the Victorian era, after all). At the beginning of the semester, Ahnert and her students spent a day looking through police gazettes from the 1800s — pulpy broadsheets that recounted violent crime reports for public consumption and predecessors of the tabloid media that set the tone for most true crime reporting in the 20th century. 

“It was really interesting reading those and seeing them evolve into magazines of the ’60s and ’70s,” says Daniel Heinrichs, a fourth-year economics and environmental studies major with a minor in film. By looking at that archival media, students see how far back many of the genre’s common character tropes — from the “ideal” victim (an attractive white woman, historically) to the depraved killer who seems “perfectly normal” — reach. 

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The course is also heavy on documentaries (Ahnert’s academic specialty), and podcasts, a major driver of the modern-day true crime boom starting with the smash hit “Serial” in 2014. The class has touched on how that formal conceit — a story drawn out over multiple episodes — has come to influence what we as consumers expect from the content. 

“It’s funny the way our linguistics have evolved — a serial killer and a serial show — it’s almost like the way that we watch movies and TV shows is the way that these killings occur,” Heinrichs says. 

It’s had real-world implications as well. A lot of true crime media — from wall-to-wall cable coverage of criminal trials to series like “Making a Murderer” — make the viewer feel like part of the action.  

“We talk about the emergence of Court TV and viewers becoming armchair detectives,” Ahnert says.  “[Shows] invite us to scrutinize the demeanor of witnesses or the accused, to look at evidence. They teach us about forensic science.” 

She’s assigned readings from legal professionals about the “CSI” effect — named after the long-running TV drama franchise about crime scene investigators. “Juries are now coming in expecting a certain level of forensic evidence that historically hasn’t been the threshold for getting a conviction. These shows are shaping people’s perception of what’s possible to prove.” 

‘Everyone’s ready to jump in’

In its first outing, True Crime Media has attracted students from all over the university. “It’s a real mix,” Ahnert says. “I have people who are just starting their second semester, and I have a couple of graduating seniors.” Along with film and media studies majors fulfilling degree requirements, there are business and biology students. “True crime is something they enjoy, and they want to learn more about it. It’s not necessarily because they see it as a clear part of their major.”

Heinrichs says that organic enthusiasm — from both the students and Ahnert herself — has made the class a highlight of his Northeastern experience. “Everyone’s ready to jump into conversation,” he says. “Everyone comes to class having read the readings and watched the documentaries.” 

“You can tell that [Anhert] loves this stuff,” he adds. “It’s almost like a recommendation from a friend when we’re watching a movie or listening to a podcast.”

Heinrichs says he’s also gotten useful lessons beyond the explicit (pun intended) subject matter, both for his own educational trajectory and for navigating today’s informational landscape. He’s been using his econ background to think about true crime as an economic industry, and the ways in which it exploits the hardships of others and often becomes a potential, vital income source for its most high-profile subjects. For example, he points out, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released from prison this year after serving time for murdering her abusive mother. Now, having made no money off adaptations of her story, she’s trying to get by as a TikTok star. True Crime Media helped illuminate those dynamics. 

“It’s an awesome class. I wouldn’t be talking to you if it wasn’t,” he says.

Schuyler Velasco is a Northeastern Global News Magazine senior writer. Email her at [email protected] . Follow her on X/Twitter @Schuyler_V .

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Guest Essay

I Thought the Bragg Case Against Trump Was a Legal Embarrassment. Now I Think It’s a Historic Mistake.

By Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Mr. Shugerman is a law professor at Boston University.

About a year ago, when Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, indicted former President Donald Trump, I was critical of the case and called it an embarrassment. I thought an array of legal problems would and should lead to long delays in federal courts.

After listening to Monday’s opening statement by prosecutors, I still think the district attorney has made a historic mistake. Their vague allegation about “a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election” has me more concerned than ever about their unprecedented use of state law and their persistent avoidance of specifying an election crime or a valid theory of fraud.

To recap: Mr. Trump is accused in the case of falsifying business records. Those are misdemeanor charges. To elevate it to a criminal case, Mr. Bragg and his team have pointed to potential violations of federal election law and state tax fraud. They also cite state election law, but state statutory definitions of “public office” seem to limit those statutes to state and local races.

Both the misdemeanor and felony charges require that the defendant made the false record with “intent to defraud.” A year ago, I wondered how entirely internal business records (the daily ledger, pay stubs and invoices) could be the basis of any fraud if they are not shared with anyone outside the business. I suggested that the real fraud was Mr. Trump’s filing an (allegedly) false report to the Federal Election Commission, and that only federal prosecutors had jurisdiction over that filing.

A recent conversation with Jeffrey Cohen, a friend, Boston College law professor and former prosecutor, made me think that the case could turn out to be more legitimate than I had originally thought. The reason has to do with those allegedly falsified business records: Most of them were entered in early 2017, generally before Mr. Trump filed his Federal Election Commission report that summer. Mr. Trump may have foreseen an investigation into his campaign, leading to its financial records. He may have falsely recorded these internal records before the F.E.C. filing as consciously part of the same fraud: to create a consistent paper trail and to hide intent to violate federal election laws, or defraud the F.E.C.

In short: It’s not the crime; it’s the cover-up.

Looking at the case in this way might address concerns about state jurisdiction. In this scenario, Mr. Trump arguably intended to deceive state investigators, too. State investigators could find these inconsistencies and alert federal agencies. Prosecutors could argue that New York State agencies have an interest in detecting conspiracies to defraud federal entities; they might also have a plausible answer to significant questions about whether New York State has jurisdiction or whether this stretch of a state business filing law is pre-empted by federal law.

However, this explanation is a novel interpretation with many significant legal problems. And none of the Manhattan district attorney’s filings or today’s opening statement even hint at this approach.

Instead of a theory of defrauding state regulators, Mr. Bragg has adopted a weak theory of “election interference,” and Justice Juan Merchan described the case , in his summary of it during jury selection, as an allegation of falsifying business records “to conceal an agreement with others to unlawfully influence the 2016 election.”

As a reality check: It is legal for a candidate to pay for a nondisclosure agreement. Hush money is unseemly, but it is legal. The election law scholar Richard Hasen rightly observed , “Calling it election interference actually cheapens the term and undermines the deadly serious charges in the real election interference cases.”

In Monday’s opening argument, the prosecutor Matthew Colangelo still evaded specifics about what was illegal about influencing an election, but then he claimed , “It was election fraud, pure and simple.” None of the relevant state or federal statutes refer to filing violations as fraud. Calling it “election fraud” is a legal and strategic mistake, exaggerating the case and setting up the jury with high expectations that the prosecutors cannot meet.

The most accurate description of this criminal case is a federal campaign finance filing violation. Without a federal violation (which the state election statute is tethered to), Mr. Bragg cannot upgrade the misdemeanor counts into felonies. Moreover, it is unclear how this case would even fulfill the misdemeanor requirement of “intent to defraud” without the federal crime.

In stretching jurisdiction and trying a federal crime in state court, the Manhattan district attorney is now pushing untested legal interpretations and applications. I see three red flags raising concerns about selective prosecution upon appeal.

First, I could find no previous case of any state prosecutor relying on the Federal Election Campaign Act either as a direct crime or a predicate crime. Whether state prosecutors have avoided doing so as a matter of law, norms or lack of expertise, this novel attempt is a sign of overreach.

Second, Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued that the New York statute requires that the predicate (underlying) crime must also be a New York crime, not a crime in another jurisdiction. The district attorney responded with judicial precedents only about other criminal statutes, not the statute in this case. In the end, the prosecutors could not cite a single judicial interpretation of this particular statute supporting their use of the statute (a plea deal and a single jury instruction do not count).

Third, no New York precedent has allowed an interpretation of defrauding the general public. Legal experts have noted that such a broad “election interference” theory is unprecedented, and a conviction based on it may not survive a state appeal.

Mr. Trump’s legal team also undercut itself for its decisions in the past year: His lawyers essentially put all of their eggs in the meritless basket of seeking to move the trial to federal court, instead of seeking a federal injunction to stop the trial entirely. If they had raised the issues of selective or vindictive prosecution and a mix of jurisdictional, pre-emption and constitutional claims, they could have delayed the trial past Election Day, even if they lost at each federal stage.

Another reason a federal crime has wound up in state court is that President Biden’s Justice Department bent over backward not to reopen this valid case or appoint a special counsel. Mr. Trump has tried to blame Mr. Biden for this prosecution as the real “election interference.” The Biden administration’s extra restraint belies this allegation and deserves more credit.

Eight years after the alleged crime itself, it is reasonable to ask if this is more about Manhattan politics than New York law. This case should serve as a cautionary tale about broader prosecutorial abuses in America — and promote bipartisan reforms of our partisan prosecutorial system.

Nevertheless, prosecutors should have some latitude to develop their case during trial, and maybe they will be more careful and precise about the underlying crime, fraud and the jurisdictional questions. Mr. Trump has received sufficient notice of the charges, and he can raise his arguments on appeal. One important principle of “ our Federalism ,” in the Supreme Court’s terms, is abstention , that federal courts should generally allow state trials to proceed first and wait to hear challenges later.

This case is still an embarrassment, in terms of prosecutorial ethics and apparent selectivity. Nevertheless, each side should have its day in court. If convicted, Mr. Trump can fight many other days — and perhaps win — in appellate courts. But if Monday’s opening is a preview of exaggerated allegations, imprecise legal theories and persistently unaddressed problems, the prosecutors might not win a conviction at all.

Jed Handelsman Shugerman (@jedshug) is a law professor at Boston University.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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DA Alvin Bragg's case against Donald Trump is 'historic mistake': New York Times guest essay

M anhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case against former President Trump is a "historic mistake," a law professor argued in an opinion piece published Tuesday. 

In a New York Times guest essay, Boston University law professor Jed Handelsman Shugerman argued Bragg was overreaching in his attempts to try a federal election crime under New York state law. He said the Manhattan's DA allegation against Trump was "vague" since the prosecution failed to specify "an election crime or a valid theory of fraud."

Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to alleged hush money payments made to pornography actress Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election. The presumptive GOP presidential nominee returned to court Tuesday as the trial continues, Fox News Digital reported.

GOV GAVIN NEWSOM WORRIES ABOUT ‘OVERINDULGENCE,’ ‘OBSESSION’ WITH TRUMP HUSH MONEY TRIAL: ‘LESS IS MORE’

Shugerman suggested Bragg should instead center his argument around the idea that "it's not the crime; it's the cover-up" and pointed to allegedly falsified business records.

"Most of them were entered in early 2017, generally before Mr. Trump filed his Federal Election Commission report that summer. Mr. Trump may have foreseen an investigation into his campaign, leading to its financial records. Mr. Trump may have falsely recorded these internal records before the FEC filing as consciously part of the same fraud: to create a consistent paper trail and to hide intent to violate federal election laws, or defraud the FEC," Shugerman wrote. 

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However, the law professor noted Bragg's filing and Monday's opening statements do not indicate prosecutors were following this approach. He also conceded that his own explanation could also have "significant legal problems."

Bragg's election interference theory is "weak," Shugerman wrote. "As a reality check, it is legal for a candidate to pay for a nondisclosure agreement."

TRUMP SAYS CRIMINAL TRIAL IS HAVING 'REVERSE EFFECT' AS HE CAMPAIGNS AT NEW YORK BODEGA, VOWS TO SAVE CITY

Shugerman also raised three problems with Bragg's effort to try a federal crime in a state court. The first, he wrote, was that there was no previous case of "any state prosecutor relying on the Federal Election Campaign Act," which he called an "overreach."

The second issue he raised was that the prosecutors didn't cite judicial precedents involving the criminal statute at hand.

"Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued that the New York statute requires that the predicate (underlying) crime must also be a New York crime, not a crime in another jurisdiction. The Manhattan DA responded with judicial precedents only about other criminal statutes, not the statute in this case. In the end, they could not cite a single judicial interpretation of this particular statute supporting their use of the statute," Shugerman wrote.

The third problem was that precedent in New York did not allow "an interpretation of defrauding the general public," Shugerman wrote.

Shugerman said it was reasonable to question whether the case against Trump was about "Manhattan politics" rather than New York law.  

"This case is still an embarrassment of prosecutorial ethics and apparent selective prosecution," Shugerman concluded, adding that Trump could win in appellate courts if he is convicted. "But if Monday’s opening is a preview of exaggerated allegations, imprecise legal theories and persistently unaddressed problems, the prosecutors might not win a conviction at all."

Original article source: DA Alvin Bragg's case against Donald Trump is 'historic mistake': New York Times guest essay

FBI data shows America is seeing a 'considerable' drop in crime. Trump says the opposite.

Jeff Asher is a New Orleans-based crime data analyst who has worked at the CIA and Department of Defense. He leans towards caution when describing trends in his line of work.

Amid the heated crime rhetoric that is a staple of politics and is continuing this year – former President Donald Trump and his conservative allies in Congress and the media are using dire terms to describe crime trends in America – Asher has been carefully sifting through the data.

The story he tells has been slow to emerge but stands in stark contrast to Trump's narrative.

As early data showed murders declining nationwide last year, Asher was careful about overstating things. But as the big decline continued, he wrote in December that he had “seen enough” and was ready to declare that the U.S. was experiencing a major drop in killings.

“Murder plummeted in the United States in 2023, likely at one of the fastest rates of decline ever recorded,” Asher wrote online.

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The decrease in murders is "potentially historically large," Asher told USA TODAY, and it's not just killings that are declining. Preliminary 2023 FBI data “paint the picture" of a big decrease in overall crime, he wrote.

That’s not the picture Trump and his supporters are painting on the campaign trail , with voters likely to hear plenty more in the coming months that attempts to cast President Joe Biden as weak on crime. A House Judiciary Committee field hearing scheduled for Friday in Philadelphia is expected to focus on the topic, picking up on a theme the GOP-led panel covered during similar sessions last year in New York and Chicago.

Trump’s crime rhetoric has been escalating as he faces his own criminal jeopardy, with the former president arguing that prosecutors are ignoring the real crime problem in America to pursue a political “witch hunt” against him.

He complained last summer about the "filth and the decay" in Washington, D.C. as he headed back to the nation's capital for his arraignment on federal criminal charges tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Campaigning in Georgia last month, where he's fighting additional state-based criminal charges , Trump declared that “crime is rampant and out of control like never, ever before.”

Yet even as the data contradicts Trump’s description of a nation in the grip of terrible crime wave, many Americans are inclined to agree with him, polls show , and crime could be a key issue this election cycle.

Trump is making public safety concerns, particularly crimes committed by undocumented immigrants , a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign. His message is targeted at swing voters who might have qualms about Trump and GOP policies on issues such as abortion but could find a tough-on-crime pitch appealing.

"The suburban housewives actually like Donald Trump. You know why? Because I'm the one who's gonna keep them safe,” Trump said recently , referencing a voting block that could swing the election.

The Trump campaign referred questions about Trump's rhetoric conflicting with FBI data to the Republican National Committee, which pointed to articles raising questions about the accuracy of the FBI data and conflicting information in federal reports.

RNC spokeswoman Anna Kelly said USA TODAY was "trying to gaslight Americans into believing that their lived experiences are wrong" and noted "families are rightfully concerned" about crime.

"Biden’s weakness has made Americans less safe, and his policies have failed," Kelly added.

Aggressive crime rhetoric has been a staple of GOP politics going back decades, but Trump’s comments clash with the reality laid out in FBI and other reports of a nation mending after a troubled period.

Pandemic crime wave

Republicans also ran on tackling crime during the 2022 midterm election cycle, and they had data to back up their claims that it was a growing problem.

The United States experienced a spike in violent crimes that coincided with the pandemic and social unrest surrounding police killings of George Floyd and other unarmed African American individuals.

The FBI reported that violent crimes increased an estimated 5.6% in 2020 and remained at that elevated level in 2021, dipping by just 1%.

The 29% estimated increase in murders in 2020 was particularly shocking, and murders jumped another 4.3% in 2021 estimates.

While the increase was alarming, crime was still well below levels seen a few decades ago, said Jeffrey Butts, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and director of the school’s Research and Evaluation Center.

“When COVID hit we saw this spike, so from 2020 to 2022 it was bad but…  it still came nowhere near where we were in the 1990s,” Butts said, noting crime soon began to drop again as expected.

Researchers believe the crime increase was a blip caused by pandemic disruptions, Butts said.

'Horrible things are happening'

Regardless, Republican leaders accused Biden and Democrats of triggering an “onslaught of violent crime that is ravaging our communities,” as GOP Reps. Steve Scalise and Scott Fitzgerald wrote in a Fox News column . They blamed "defund the police" rhetoric – which Biden rejected – and criminal justice reform efforts on the left, such as ending cash bail.

“House Republicans are ready to stand up to the criminals who think that this country is theirs for the taking, and the leftists in Washington who are enabling this outbreak of violent crime,” the lawmakers wrote.

Trump has continued that type of rhetoric, even as crime as ebbed.

The FBI’s national crime estimates for 2022 found that violent crime decreased 1.7% and there were 6.7% fewer murders. Complete FBI crime data for 2023 won’t be released until the fall, but quarterly reports show violent crime continuing to drop.

University of New Haven criminal justice Professor Maria Tcherni-Buzzeo said the downward trend in crime means "we are kind of returning to where we were before the pandemic."

Asher cited preliminary 2023 FBI data in predicting that the final numbers for the year could show a "considerable" drop. The third quarter FBI data showed murders dropping an estimated 15.6% compared with the same period in 2022 and violent crime dropping 8.2% overall.

The fourth quarter 2023 report released in March show an estimated 4% drop in property crime, 6% drop in violent crime and 13% decrease in murders from 2022. The fourth quarter report covers the entire 2023 calendar year, and can be considered a preliminary year-end report.

Questions about crime data

The FBI relies on voluntary reporting from police agencies to develop national crime statistics. Some police departments don't report their data, so the agency estimates crime levels in those regions to come up with a national number.

The FBI transitioned to a new system in 2021, causing problems for some police departments and a drop in agencies reporting their data. The agency had to lean more on estimates, and that has led to questions about the accuracy and completeness of the information.

The percentage of police departments reporting their data has been increasing since then, but the information is still incomplete – 79% of agencies reported in the fourth quarter of 2023 – and the agency uses methods to adjust for missing data and publish estimates.

While FBI data showed violent crime decreasing in 2022, another widely-cited crime barometer showed a different picture. The 2022 National Victimization Survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which captures both reported and unreported crimes, found a steep increase in the violent victimization rate.

That survey measures a different timespan, though, starting with crimes that occurred in July of 2021 when pandemic disruptions were more acute and continuing through November of 2022. The 2023 survey won't be released until the fall, and there aren't interim reports like the FBI data.

Because of the different timeframes and other factors, Asher believes the victimization survey and FBI reports shouldn't be compared. He and other crime statistics experts say they are confident in the overall trend laid out in the FBI data of crime decreasing. The data have a margin of error because they rely on estimates, but clearly point in the direction of reduced crime.

“The trends are clear, there’s no questioning the trend in good faith in my opinion," Asher said.

Some communities continue to experience elevated crime levels, or increases in certain crimes. Murders are up 9% in Los Angeles, 8% in St. Louis and 23% in Denver this year compared to the start of 2023, according to data compiled by Asher's firm, AH Datalytics. Nationwide, 2023 third and fourth quarter FBI crime reports show motor vehicles thefts increasing.

Overall, though, crime is going down and is at or near pre-pandemic levels, according to the FBI data, experts interviewed by USA TODAY and other leading groups that study the issue.

"Crime rates are largely returning to pre-COVID levels as the nation distances itself from the height of the pandemic, but there are notable exceptions," the non-partisan Council on Criminal Justice wrote in a year-end 2023 analysis of crime trends in 38 cities.

That trend is continuing into 2024.

Big drop in murders

There are 532 fewer murders so far this year in the 218 cities tracked by AH Datalytics, when compared with the same period last year, a 20% decline.

“I would have no problem walking around any big city in the United States right now,” said University of Miami criminologist Alex Piquero, who previously ran the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, which publishes crime data. “The issue that we have is people are diving into social media and they’re not taking the time to digest really what’s happening.”

Piquero said people can "cherry pick" a few cities or crime types to argue crime still is a growing problem, but the national picture shows a steady decrease.

"There’s no doubt in my mind that 2022 was better than 2021, 2023 is going to be better than 2022 and 2024 will be better than 2023, I think every single data point we’re seeing is showing that," Piquero said.

Trump often focuses on crime in a few cities.

Murders are down 18% in New York City and 24% in Washington D.C. so far in 2024, according to police data, yet Trump continues to portray both cities as crime infested.

At his Georgia rally, Trump said businesses are going to leave New York “over crime” and described Washington D.C. as “a nightmare of murder and crime.”

“People from Georgia go down to Washington now and they get shot,” Trump said. “Horrible things are happening.”

Washington D.C. had 274 murders in 2023, the most since 1997, and up from 166 in 2019. So even if the 24% decrease holds for the entire year, the city would still be above the pre-pandemic murder level.

Yet the city's crime problem appears to be ebbing this year, with violent crimes down 25% and property crime down 13% so far when compared with the same period in 2023, according to the D.C. police department.

Politics of crime

Trump’s crime rhetoric continued as his trial kicked off earlier this month in New York City on charges stemming from alleged hush money payments to an adult film star to hide an affair.

After the first day of jury selection, Trump emerged from the courtroom and attacked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

“You go right outside and people are being mugged and killed all day long and he’s sitting here all day with about 10 or 12 prosecutors over nothing ," the former president said.

Trump later visited a New York City bodega where a man was stabbed to death to further argue that the city has a crime problem. Earlier this month he held an event in Michigan with law enforcement to highlight crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, seizing on the case of Ruby Garcia , who was killed by her undocumented partner.

Garcia’s sister rebuked Trump for claiming he spoke with the slain woman’s family, which she said is not true.

The downward crime trend could hurt Trump’s efforts to deflect attention away from his own criminal cases by claiming there are bigger crime concerns. But polls show many Americans aren’t convinced crime is down.

A Gallup survey released in November found that 77% of Americans believe there is more crime than a year ago, despite FBI data showing the contrary.

The survey also found that more people say crime is an extremely or very serious problem now than in 2021, when murders actually increased.

That’s despite the fact that only 17% of people say crime is a big problem where they live.

That may be a sign that people’s opinions are driven more by political and media narratives around crime in faraway places than by the data.

Tcherni-Buzzeo said that “it may seem that… Trump makes people feel like crime is up,” but in her experience the mistaken belief that crime is increasing predates the former president’s political campaigns.

Going back more than a decade, whenever she asked students if crime is on the rise, the majority of the class would say yes, even though crime generally has been trending down since the 1990s.

Such beliefs may be “fueled by the fact this is what they see on the news,” she said.

The reality with violent crime is that “the trend is positive” recently and that should be the baseline for policy debates, Asher said.

“That does not endorse the level (of crime), it doesn’t mean there’s not work to do,” he said, adding: “But we don’t argue about whether the Chiefs won the Super Bowl.”

Opinion: Republicans’ 2025 agenda tells you how they really feel about crime and cops

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For all their leadership instability , one common refrain echoed almost daily by congressional Republicans is that we have a crime crisis in America and Democrats (and the president) are to blame. Not to let the facts get in the way of a good story, it’s worth noting that homicide rates across the country are plummeting. And yet, the rhetoric from House Republicans across the country from New York to California tells a completely different story.

Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) tweeted earlier this month, “I ran on re-funding the police and standing up to lawless bail-reform.” Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Santa Clarita) posted : “More police funding and actually enforcing the law? A novel idea.” As did Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.): “We stand by our police and protect them from damaging legislation that undermines public safety.” Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) lectured : “For families worried about crime across the country, it’s simple — defunding law enforcement means defunding public safety.” Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) pledged : “I will always back the blue and fight to keep our communities safe.” Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) warned : “Calls to defund the police are dangerous and radical. I will always stand with law enforcement and vote to support the police.”

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And while there is great geographic diversity among these House Republicans, what they all have in common is that they are a part of the Republican Study Committee , one of the most powerful coalitions in Congress whose membership includes 100% of the current Republican leadership and nearly 80% of the entire House GOP conference. Past RSC chairs include former Vice President Mike Pence, current Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, and current House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

Since its inception in 1973, it has represented the largest ideological block within the Republican conference, giving it an outsized say in what goes into legislation and what legislation is ultimately given a vote on the House floor. When it comes to Republican politics in Congress, it is virtually impossible to ascend to any leadership position without the blessing of the study committee. Its stamp of approval is a necessity for any bill that has a prayer of advancing through the legislative process.

Given its members’ rhetoric about crime and public safety, it might surprise you to discover that the Republican Study Committee just released a new budget proposal for 2025 that actually cuts funding meant for localpolice departments.

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The proposal would defund the Community Oriented Policing Services program, or COPS. The program was created in the wake of the rise in crime in the 1990s. It has provided more than $20 billion to more than 13,000 different police departments nationwide, resulting in the addition of more than 160,000 officers focused on the kind of accountable, proactive law enforcement that’s called community policing.

The thinking behind the RSC budget seems to be that federal dollars shouldn’t be used for local and state law enforcement; it particularly cites punishing cities that have trimmed or wanted to trim their police budgets in recent years. But defunding the COPS program to punish liberal San Francisco could diminish a host of successful initiatives , such as school-based policing in Arizona and Georgia, community outreach programs in Arkansas, efforts to keep youth out of the criminal justice system in Fresno, uncovering drug trafficking and manufacturing operations in Florida and Indiana, and a training program that established “police assisted referrals” for follow-up in domestic violence cases in Cleveland.

If you dig deeper into the RSC’s budget proposal, you’ll find that Republicans also target the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act , passed with GOP votes in 2022, which has, among other things, helped keep guns out of the hands of people with felony convictions, and those with serious mental illness. The committee’s budget proposal considers it an affront to 2nd Amendment rights and claims it “will do nothing to reduce gun violence.”

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I’m not sure how on one hand, you can talk about crime rates and “backing the blue” but on the other, defund programs that actually help hire and train police officers, ensure guns don’t fall into the hands of the wrong people and set up programs that establish trust between communities and cops. Quite frankly, the RSC budget proposal makes things much more dangerous for local law enforcement and for communities.

You cannot have it both ways. You can’t be pro-cop and pro-public safety while backing a proposal that undermines local law enforcement’s ability to police crime. The hypocrisy is staggering, albeit, hardly surprising.

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) proudly proclaimed : “I proudly support our Police Officers and Law and Order. Do you?”

Looking over the budget proposal you just backed, Nick, it’s a good question to ask — do you?

Kurt Bardella is a contributing writer to Opinion and is a NewsNation contributor. @KurtBardella

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