It Keeps Me Awake Too: Reactions to Inequality and Injustice in Making a Murderer

• In Event: Constructing 'the Criminal' in TV and Film

Abstract

An online petition (with nearly half a million signatures) requesting that the President of the United States ‘Free Steven Avery’ indicates that the audience response to the Netflix series Making a Murderer has been overwhelming. Rather than examine the filmmakers’ objectivity or the question of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey’s guilt or innocence, I suggest that this true crime documentary series presents criminologists with an opportunity to explore how citizens make determinations of guilt, evaluate evidence, and conceive of the police, the courts, and the criminal justice system more generally. An analysis of Reddit discussion boards reveals that some members of the public take police and prosecution corruption and wrongdoing for granted, assume that financial resources are required to prevent wrongful convictions and ensure an adequate defense, and sympathize readily with offenders. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for our understanding of the relationship between media representations of crime and justice and criminal justice attitudes.

Author

• Liam Kennedy, King's University College, Western University Canada