2022-2023 Academic Catalog

May 10, 2024

2022-2023 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

PSYC 245 - TRUE CRIME: Gender, Race, and Sexuality as Lenses

This course focuses on the role of gender, sexuality, and race-and their intersections-in the reality and (mis)representation of crime. This course seizes on the accelerating and persistent cultural fascination with true crime, as made evident by the recent explosion in true crime media, including documentaries and podcasts. Blending critical readings, empirical research, pop culture, and media analysis, and drawing from multiple disciplines (psychology, sociology, criminology, media studies, communication, journalism), it assumes an intersectional lens to consider why true crime is so popular as a genre, and to examine how dominant media portrayals of crime, victims, and perpetrators deviate from or reflect “reality,” and the consequences of such portrayals.

We will examine true crime stories, both high-profile and little-known, and those stories will be used to explore issues related to masculinity, femininity, sexuality, power, violence, and intersectionality, as well as the relationship between agency (i.e., the individual) and social structures and systems (e.g., the legal system). We will center gender, race, sexuality, and class in examining both the reality and representation of true crime-for example, research on, narratives about, and media representations of missing children, trans women murders, and women serial killers. In this way, we will consider offending and victimology (e.g., why do women kill?) as well as ideas about and representations of female murderers (e.g., white women like Amanda Knox are positioned as “femme fatales”). We will explore true crime cases through an intersectional lens, taking stock of not only who and what highlighted in crime, but what is invisible in the accounting, representation, or societal focus surrounding the case. Dominant media narratives can impact how jury members, policy makers, and the general public view women, people of color, and LGBTQ people, for example; in turn, we also consider the individual and societal impacts of true crime and its representation.

Some of the common threads and key questions that we will revisit throughout the course include: How does media coverage of crimes impact individuals and society? What does an ethical approach to “true crime” look like? What are the effects of centering the victim versus the perpetrator in crime narratives?

This course covers intense topics including murder, sexual assault, abuse/neglect, and intimate partner violence, and is therefore not appropriate for all students.

Prerequisities require a minimum grade of C-

This course fulfills the mid-level First Seminar requirement of the Psychology major.

Prerequisites: PSYC 101 or Instructor’s Permission

Course Designation/Attribute: DI

Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually or Bi-annually