True crime
Zhang Yingyu's The Book of Swindles (c. 1617) is a late Ming dynasty collection of stories about alleged cases of fraud.
Hundreds of pamphlets, broadsides, chapbooks and other street literature about murders and other crimes were published from 1550 to 1700 in Britain as literacy increased and cheap new printing methods became widespread.
Ballads 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 motivations of the crime.
Such pamphlets remained in circulation in the 19th century in Britain and the United States, even after widespread crime journalism was introduced via the penny press.
"[4] An American pioneer of the genre was Edmund Pearson, who was influenced in his style of writing about crime by De Quincey.
Before being collected in his books, Pearson's true crime stories typically appeared in magazines like Liberty, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair.
[6] Truman Capote's "non-fiction novel" In Cold Blood (1965) is usually credited with establishing the modern novelistic style of the genre[7] and the one that rocketed it to great profitability.
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.
An informal survey conducted by Publishers Weekly in 1993 concluded that the more popular true crime books focus on serial killers, with the more gruesome and grotesque content performing even better.
[5] 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.
[11] Other prominent true crime accounts include Truman Capote's In Cold Blood;[12] the best-selling true crime book of all time, Helter Skelter, by the lead Manson family prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry;[13] and Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me, about Ted Bundy.
[20][21] Multiple cable networks in the United States focus predominantly on true crime, including Investigation Discovery, and Oxygen—a network that originally aired a generalist format targeting women, but pivoted entirely to true crime in 2017 amid the success of series such as Snapped among the channel's target demographic.
[40] Other notable true crime podcasts have included Criminal, Dirty John, My Favorite Murder, Someone Knows Something, and Up and Vanished among 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".
[45] Another strength of these podcasts is use of typical sensationalist techniques, such as inclusion of direct dialogue and focus on victims and their families.
[56] 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.
[61] Author Jack Miles believes this genre has a high potential to cause harm and mental trauma to the real people involved.
[63] Recent discussions about the consumption of true crime media have also focused on the impact on the audience's mental health.
[55] Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to well-established facts in journalistic fashion or can be highly speculative.
