True crime is a genre of
non-fiction
Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or content (media), media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real life, real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to pre ...
work in which an author examines a
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...
, including detailing the actions of people associated with and affected by the crime, and investigating the perpetrator's
motives. True crime works often deal with
violent crimes such as
murders and
serial killers, including high-profile cases (such as
JonBenét Ramsey,
O. J. Simpson, and
Pamela Smart), and more obscure or unsolved cases that the author wishes to bring wider attention to. A true crime work may use either a
journalistic
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...
style with a focus on known facts, or a speculative style with a larger focus on the author's personal conclusions regarding a crime.
True crime has taken the form of various
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Interactive media, media that is inter ...
, including literature such as magazines and books, television series and documentaries (which may sometimes feature
dramatized scenes of the crime based on published accounts), and
digital media
In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, an ...
such as
podcasts
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...
and
internet video. A true crime series may be structured as an
anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...
of stories focusing on different cases, or cover a single case in a
serialized format. True crime podcasts experienced a major growth in popularity in the mid-2010s, with ''
Serial'' setting listenership records, and the genre as a whole having seen long-term gains in overall listenership. True crime works have been particularly popular among women.
True crime has been credited with helping to increase interest in crime among the general public, while decreasing trust in the
criminal justice system. Some true crime series have influenced perceptions of specific cases among the public and authorities. The genre has faced criticism for often relying on
sensationalism
In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emoti ...
and
shock value, with concerns that true crime works are disrespectful to crime victims and their families, may emphasize specific points over others in order to suit an author's preferred
narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...
or opinion, or may contain fictionalized content. True crime has been credited with helping to increase interest in crime among the general public, while decreasing trust in the
criminal justice system. Some true crime series have influenced perceptions of specific cases among the public and authorities. The genre has faced criticism for often relying on
sensationalism
In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emoti ...
and
shock value, with concerns that true crime works are disrespectful to crime victims and their families, may emphasize specific points over others in order to suit an author's preferred
narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...
or opinion, or may contain fictionalized content. Further criticism, based on analysis of popular
podcasts
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...
, suggests that the genre's narrative conventions can lead to the
dehumanisation of female victims, whose stories are often framed around their bodies rather than their personhood.
History

Zhang Yingyu's ''
The Book of Swindles'' () is a late Ming dynasty collection of stories about alleged cases of fraud. Works in the related Chinese genre of
court case fiction (''gong'an xiaoshuo''), such as the 16th-century ''
Cases of Magistrate Bao'' were both fiction & based on actual accounts.
Hundreds of
pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...
s,
broadsides,
chapbook
A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 1 ...
s and other
street literature about murders and other crimes were published from 1550 to 1700 in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales
* The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
as
literacy
Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...
increased and cheap new printing methods became widespread. They varied in style: some were sensational, while others conveyed a moral message. Most were purchased by the "artisan class and above", as the lower classes did not have the money or time to read them.
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...
s were also created, the verses of which were posted on walls around towns, that were told from the
perpetrator's point of view in an attempt to understand the
psychological
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
motivations of the crime. Such pamphlets remained in circulation in the 19th century in Britain and the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, even after widespread crime journalism was introduced via the
penny press
Penny Publications, LLC is an American magazine publisher specializing in puzzles, crosswords, sudokus as well as mystery and science fiction magazines. Penny Publications publishes over 85 magazines distributed through newsstands, in store ...
.
In 1807,
Henry Tufts published ''A Narrative of the Life, Adventures, Travels and Sufferings of Henry Tufts'', which is likely the first extensive biography of an American criminal.
Thomas De Quincey published the essay "
On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts" in ''
Blackwood's Magazine'' in 1827, which focused not on the murder or the murderer but on how society views crime.
Starting in 1889, Scottish lawyer
William Roughead wrote and published essays for six decades about notable British murder trials he attended, with many of these essays collected in the 2000 book ''Classic Crimes.'' Many regard Roughead "as the dean of the modern true crime genre."
An American pioneer of the genre was
Edmund Pearson, who was influenced in his style of writing about crime by De Quincey. Pearson published a series of books of this type starting with ''Studies in Murder'' in 1924 and concluding with ''More Studies in Murder'' in 1936. Before being collected in his books, Pearson's true crime stories typically appeared in magazines like ''
Liberty
Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...
'', ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'', and ''
Vanity Fair''. Inclusion in these high-class magazines distinguished Pearson's crime narratives from those found in the penny press.
The foreword of a 1964 anthology of Pearson's stories contains an early mention of the term "true crime" as a genre.
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...
's "
non-fiction novel
The non-fiction novel is a literary genre that, broadly speaking, depicts non-fictional elements, such as real historical figures and actual events, woven together with fictitious conversations and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The ...
" ''
In Cold Blood'' (1965) is usually credited with establishing the modern novelistic style of the genre
and the one that rocketed it to great profitability.
Forms
Magazines

The first true crime magazine, ''
True Detective
''True Detective'' is an American Anthology series, anthology Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created by Nic Pizzolatto for the premium cable network HBO. The series premiered on January 12, 2014, and ...
'', was published in 1924. It featured fairly matter-of-fact accounts of crimes and how they were solved. During the genre's heyday, before
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, 200 different true crime magazines were sold on newsstands, with six million magazines sold every month. By itself, ''True Detective'' had two million in circulation. The covers of the magazines generally featured women being menaced in some way by a potential criminal perpetrator, with the scenarios being more intense in the 1960s. Public interest in the magazines began declining in the 1970s, and by 1996, almost none were being published, including ''True Detective'', which had been bought and shut down by a new owner.
Books
True crime books often center on sensational, shocking, or strange events, particularly murder. Even though murder makes up less than 20% of reported crime, it is present in most true crime stories. Typically, the crimes most commonly include
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
; about 40 percent focus on tales of
serial killer
A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone:
*
*
*
*
* (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...
s.
Serial killers have been a highly profitable sub-genre. An informal survey conducted by ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' in 1993 concluded that the more popular true crime books focus on serial killers, with the more gruesome and grotesque content performing even better.
Some true crime works are "instant books" produced quickly to capitalize on popular demand; these have been described as "more than formulaic" and hyper-conventional.
Others may reflect years of thoughtful research and inquiry and may have considerable
literary merit.
A milestone of the genre was
Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...
's ''
The Executioner's Song'' (1979), which was the first book in the genre to win a
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
.
Other prominent true crime accounts include
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...
's ''
In Cold Blood'';
the best-selling true crime book of all time, ''
Helter Skelter'', by the lead
Manson family
The Manson Family (known among its members as the Family) was a Intentional community, commune, gang, and cult led by criminal Charles Manson that was active in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The group at its peak consisted of a ...
prosecutor
Vincent Bugliosi and
Curt Gentry; and
Ann Rule's ''
The Stranger Beside Me'', about
Ted Bundy.
Rule's 1987 work, ''Small Sacrifices'', tells the story of
Diane Downs, an Oregon woman who in May 1983 murdered her daughter and attempted to murder her other two children. An example of a modern true crime book is ''
I'll Be Gone in the Dark'' by
Michelle McNamara.
Erik Larson's ''
The Devil in the White City'' gives a novelistic account of
H. H. Holmes' operations during the
1893 World's Fair.
In 2006,
Associated Content
Yahoo! Voices, formerly Associated Content (AC), was a division of Yahoo! that focused on online publishing. Yahoo! Voices distributed a large variety of writing through its website and content partners, including Yahoo! News. In early December ...
stated that since the start of the 21st century, the genre of writing that was growing the quickest was true crime. Much of this is due to the ease of recycling materials and the publication of numerous volumes by the same authors differing only by minor updates.
The majority of readers of true crime books are women.
Films and television
True crime
documentaries
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill ...
have been a growing medium in the last several decades. One of the most influential documentaries in this process was ''
The Thin Blue Line'' (1988), directed by
Errol Morris. This documentary, among others, feature reenactments, although other documentary filmmakers choose not to use them since they do not show the truth.
In the early 1990s, a boom of true crime films began in Hong Kong. These films ranged from graphic
Category III–rated films such as ''
The Untold Story'' and ''
Dr. Lamb'' (based on serial killers Wong Chi Hang and
Lam Kor-wan, respectively) to more general audience fare such as the film ''
Crime Story'' (based on the kidnapping of businessman
Teddy Wang Tei-huei), which featured action star
Jackie Chan.
Multiple cable networks in the United States focus predominantly on true crime, including
Investigation Discovery
Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries, similar to corporate sibling HLN. It is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery's netw ...
, and
Oxygen
Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...
—a network that originally aired a generalist format targeting women, but pivoted entirely to true crime and
police procedurals
The police procedural, police show, or police crime drama is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasises the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agency, law enforcement agencies ...
in 2017 amid the success of series such as ''
Snapped'' among its target demographic.
An earlier example—
Court TV—featured a mix of true crime-oriented programming (such as ''
Forensic Files''), as well as a daytime
news
News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...
block
Block or blocked may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting
* Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting
* W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...
featuring coverage of legal news and jury trials. The channel later shifted to primarily airing
reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...
programming, and then relaunched as the more generalized
TruTV
TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable Television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of Television comedy, comedy, Reality television, docusoaps and reality shows, with a rec ...
in 2008.
Turner Broadcasting later syndicated some of Court TV's library to the
digital multicast television network Justice Network (which itself rebranded as "
True Crime Network" in 2022).
In 2018, the rights to the Court TV brand and much of its library was sold to the
E. W. Scripps Company, who subsequently relaunched the Court TV brand as a digital television network.
Streaming services
A streaming media service (also simply called a streaming service) is an online platform that allows users to watch or listen to content, such as film, movies, Television show, TV shows, music, or podcasts, over the internet. Instead of downloadi ...
have also carried true crime programming;
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
experienced success with its 2015 series ''
Making a Murderer'', leading the service to make further investments into the genre to ride off its popularity.
Other prominent documentaries
* ''
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills'' (1996)
* ''
Making a Murderer''
* ''
The Jinx''
* ''
The Sons of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness''
[Sons Of Sam: 11 True Crime Docuseries To Watch If You Like The Netflix Series , Cinemablend](_blank)
/ref>
* '' The Keepers''
* '' Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer''
* '' Evil Genius''
Podcasts
Podcast
A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...
s with a true crime theme are a recent trend. The 2014 true crime podcast ''Serial'' broke podcasting records when it achieved 5 million downloads on iTunes
iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
quicker than any previous podcast. As of September 2018, it had been downloaded more than 340 million times. Other notable true crime podcasts have included ''Criminal'', '' Dirty John, My Favorite Murder, Someone Knows Something,'' and '' Up and Vanished'' among others.
Podcasts have now expanded to more platforms, such as Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...
, Apple Music
Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...
, YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
and others. Spotify has an expanding number of true crime podcasts with ''Rotten Mango'', ''Conviction American Panic'', ''Bed of Lies'', ''Catch & Kill'' among many more. This genre has been on the rise as psychologist, Amanda Vicary, said her report found "women were most drawn to true crime stories that gave them tips for spotting danger and staying alive". Apple Podcasts added a dedicated "True Crime" category in 2019, and until then the podcasts that would be moved into the section had existed across many other categories, such as History, News & Politics, and even Comedy.
It has been speculated that fear
Fear is an unpleasant emotion that arises in response to perception, perceived dangers or threats. Fear causes physiological and psychological changes. It may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the ...
could play a role in the popularity of true crime podcasts. These podcasts often recount horrific crimes, which triggers the fear response and the release of adrenaline
Adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, is a hormone and medication which is involved in regulating visceral functions (e.g., respiration). It appears as a white microcrystalline granule. Adrenaline is normally produced by the adrenal glands a ...
in the body. Due to the possibility of binge-watching
Binge-watching (also called binge-viewing) is the practice of watching entertainment or informational content for a prolonged time span, usually a single television show.
Statistics
Binge-watching overlaps with marathon (media), marathon viewin ...
podcasts, adrenaline rushes can be experienced in quick bursts. Another explanation for the popularity of true crime podcasts is due to the serialized nature of crime, in which events happen one after another. Podcasts that explore a crime episodically can utilize this aspect in their storytelling. Another strength of these podcasts is use of typical sensationalist techniques, such as inclusion of direct dialogue and focus on victims and their families. Podcasts can use music or other sound cues to maximize the intended impact or shock value of a fact, as seen in '' Serial''.
Trends in the United States
In the U.S. women are predominantly the consumers of digital true crime podcasts, in 2019 making up around 73% of the content audience. The 2019 Edison Research Report found that at the time of data collection, an estimated 90 million of the U.S. population older than 12 had listened to a podcast in the last month, and of those polled, around 28% were interested in true crime as a topic to listen to in a podcast.
In 2020, true crime podcasts held many of the U.S. top 50 spots for popularity by most listens, with '' Crime Junkie'' at 3, '' My Favorite Murder'' at No. 5, and others scattered among the top 50, such as; ''Serial'' at No. 13, '' Dateline NBC'' at No. 22, and ''Criminal'' at No. 30. In that year, true crime ranked third overall for genres by listen behind both comedy and news. From November 2019 through May 2022, true crime podcast listening increased the most of the top three genres by percentage gain in listeners, with a 66% gain (from ~12.9 million to ~21.5 million) in current listeners, versus the 44% and 37% gain in listeners by comedy and news respectively.
On Apple Podcasts, True Crime podcasts make up just less than half a percent of the total number of podcasts on the platform. On a collated list of 432 podcasts from the most-visited results of a search for "Top Podcasts of 2021", true crime podcasts made up more than 20% of the podcasts constituting the lists.
Trends in Australia
In 2017, as many as 30% of podcast listeners had listened to true crime podcasts, and in 2019, this had increased to up to 44%.
Impact
True crime works can impact the crimes they cover and the audience who consumes it. Also, coverage of true crime events can have a direct effect on the aftermath of the crime and how it is dealt with by authorities or a given community. The Netflix show ''Making A Murderer'' has had a range of real-life effects, ranging from the show being shown in law schools as instructional material to increased mistrust in criminal investigators. The investigative process of the true crime genre can lead to changes in the cases being covered, such as when Robert Durst seemingly confessed to murder in the documentary ''The Jinx'' and was arrested.
A study conducted in 2011, in Nebraska
Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...
, showed that consuming non-fiction crime shows is correlated
In statistics, correlation or dependence is any statistical relationship, whether causal or not, between two random variables or bivariate data. Although in the broadest sense, "correlation" may indicate any type of association, in statistic ...
with an increased fear of being a victim of crime. As the frequency of watching true crime shows increased, support for the death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
increased, while support for the criminal justice system decreased. In Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, the amount of reports given to the crime reporting network Crime Stoppers Australia that led to charges being pressed doubled from 2012 to 2017. This increased interest in crime is attributed to popular true crime podcasts.
The true crime genre has been criticized as being disrespectful to crime victims and their families and is described by some as trash culture. Author Jack Miles believes this genre has a high potential to cause harm and mental trauma to the real people involved. True crime media can be produced without the consent of the victim's family, which can lead to them being re-traumatized. Recent discussions about the consumption of true crime media have also focused on the impact on the audience's mental health.
Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to well-established facts in journalistic
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...
fashion or can be highly speculative. Writers can selectively choose which information to present and which to leave out in order to support their narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...
. Artists have offered fact-based narratives blending fiction and historical reenactment. Author Christiana Gregoriou analyzed several books of the genre and concluded that tabloidization and fictionalization are pervasive in the works of some of the authors of true crime literature. In some cases, even books by the same author disagree on specifics about the same killer or events. For instance, some facts reported in Capote's ''In Cold Blood'' were challenged in 2013.[Helliker, Kevin. "In Depth: Long-Lost Files Cast Doubt on 'In Cold Blood'." ''Wall Street Journal Europe''. 19 February 2013: 14+.] Capote's second attempt at a true crime book, '' Handcarved Coffins'' (1979), despite being subtitled "Nonfiction Account of an American Crime", was already noted for containing significant fictional elements.
See also
* Cold case
* Crime fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...
* Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal investigation, investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around ...
* Film noir
Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...
* Fear of crime
* Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955. The term "pulp" derives from the Pulp (paper), wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, due to their ...
References
{{Authority control
External links
''The Rise of True Crime'' on VICE's official YouTube channel
Non-fiction genres