Rural Crime on True Crime Television: Investigation Discovery Network

• In Event: Roundtable: Media Criminology

Abstract

In this paper I examine depictions of rural crime on true crime television. Specifically, I discuss a preliminary content analysis of the television network Investigation Discovery (ID). Owned by Discovery, ID was founded in the late 1990s. Its stock-in-trade is true crime stories recreated in documentary style. The network reaches about 86,000,000 U.S. households and many of the shows feature small town and rural crimes. Titles such as “Murder in the Heartland,” “Hometown Homicide,” “Murder Comes to Town,” “Lake Erie Murders,” “Welcome to Murdertown,” “Fear Thy Neighbor,” “Dead North,” and “Swamp Murders” combine dark, spooky forests scenes, houses nestled in wooded lots, and weathered barns and sheds. In this roundtable discussion, I will present my initial findings on how these shows portray rural places and people as scary, violent crime-ridden locales to avoid. I consider why these types of true crime stories are appealing to audiences at this particular period in American history.

Author

• Karen E. Hayden, Merrimack College