About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


24 J. Gender Race & Just. 131 (2021)
True Crime and Danger Narratives: Reflections on Stories of Violence, Race, and (In)Justice

handle is hein.journals/jgrj24 and id is 139 raw text is: True Crime and Danger Narratives True Crime and Danger Narratives: Reflections on Stories of Violence, Race, and (In)justice Lindsey Webb- ABSTRACT In the United States, white people have long told both overt and veiled narratives of the purported danger and criminality of people of color. Some- times known as 'danger narratives,' these gruesome accounts often depict the kidnapping, assault, and murder of white women at the hands of men of color. These narratives have been used to promote and justify enslavement, lynching, mass incarceration, and a host of other methods and institutions of white supremacy and racial control. While white people have been creating and consuming danger narratives, they have also been telling other stories about crime. Like danger narratives, these stories, known as 'true crime,' have existed for centuries, purport to be based on actual criminal acts, and largely focus on violence against white women. Like danger narratives, true crime stories are intended to invoke feel- ings of horror and shock among their audiences and suggest specific meth- ods-arrest, incarceration, or death of the perpetrator-by which social or- der may be restored. Unlike danger narratives, however, true crime stories focus almost exclusively on white-on-white crime. Scholars and others often characterize danger narratives as violence-fo- cused stories with explicit racial and racist intent and outcomes, while true crime is generally treated in the media as entertainment, in which crime and punishment are explored largely as if people of color do not exist. This Article challenges this disparate treatment, arguing that true crime narratives serve to justify and support institutions of racial control while claiming racial im- partiality. The study of these stories may nevertheless contribute to *Associate Professor, University of Denver Sturm College of Law. JD, Stanford Law School; LLM, Georgetown University Law Center; BA, Wesleyan University. Thank you to my col- leagues Nantiya Ruan and Robin Walker Sterling for your helpful feedback. I also am appre- ciative of my research assistants, Lauren Selby, Nadiah Bierworth, and Erika Kelley, and my colleague Colin Lambert-thank you all. 131