True Crime: Key Themes and Perspectives

by Ian Cummins, Martin King, Louise Wattis

Overview

True crime is a huge cultural industry: media organisations use crime stories to push sales and clicks. Yet behind this phenomenon lies the real-life victims and a disconnect between the representation of violent crime and its reality.

This book is a go-to guide for students and researchers in understanding the development of this phenomenon and its social and cultural impacts. Through case studies including Lucy Letby, the Yorkshire Ripper and Fred and Rosemary West, the book considers true crime’s ethical implications and its wider influence on crime and punishment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529238198
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	11/18/2025
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ian Cummins is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Salford University. He qualified as a probation officer and subsequently worked as a mental health social worker. His research interests including the history of community care and mental health issues in the CJS. His most recent work has focused on poverty, inequality and advanced marginality.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

Part 1: Exploring True Crime

2. A Short History of True Crime

3. Ethics and True Crime

4. True Crime and Punishment

Part 2: Case Studies

5. Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song

6. British Serial Killers on Screen

7. Darkness Doubled: The Bundy Myth

8. Fear of Masks: The Crimes of Peter Sutcliffe

9. True Crime/True Detective

10. True Crime and News Representations of a Femicide in Bulgaria: Narratives of Conspiracy and State Corruption - Katerina Gachevska

11. Lucy Letby - The Vanilla Killer: A Case Study

12. Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

'True crime has been largely ignored by criminologists to date but this concise but comprehensive study will change all of that. It examines every aspect of the genre relevant to the social sciences, including vicarious thrills, digital culture and femicide. A key text for everyone researching or studying critical, cultural or narrative criminology.' Rafe McGregor, Edge Hill University

'An engaging study of the fascination with true crime and the media representation thereof. It offers a detailed examination of some of the most (in)famous examples of crime and criminals.' Ian Marsh, University of Chester

From the Publisher