Beyond the Archives Sept 2025: TrueCrime and The Importance of Crime Narratives
Dawn Cecil Discusses Crime Representation in the Media
This month Curing Crime is excited to share our conversation with
whose Substack explores crime representation in the media. In this interview, Cecil shares how she first got interested in true crime and how discourses about crime significantly shape how the public perceives crime, criminal activity, and how to respond to those who have committed crimes.Cecil’s page offers a variety of insightful articles ranging from analysing true crime shows and narratives to curated playlists featuring songs about crime. We encourage you to subscribe.
CC: What sparked your interest in your field of study? Was there anything specific?
I actually started college as a business major. I took a criminal justice class as a general elective and was hooked. My professor had worked in a prison for many years. Inspired by her and the class, I knew I wanted to be a professor or work in a prison, so I changed my major. My interest specially in media representations of crime and justice did not emerge until I became an assistant professor. I created a class on crime, media, and popular culture. The class itself inspired me to merge my interest in prisons with this interest in media representations and to study how prisons are represented in the media. I laugh now when I think about that fact that one of my earliest research pieces looked at how newspapers covered Martha Stewart’s incarceration and the lessons it provided about women’s prisons (It was called “Doing Time in Camp Cupcake”!).
CC: Why Substack? What do you hope to achieve here? How do you balance storytelling with academic rigor when publishing?
For the past two decades I have lived in the world of publish or perish. In criminology this means peer-reviewed pieces that for the most part fit a specific formula. It is a process that I respect, but creatively speaking it is limiting. I kept talking about wanting to write (not just research). My husband repeatedly said “you need to start a Substack.” I resisted as I did not think I had anything to write about. Yet, people are obsessed with crime shows of all kinds. Probably a year after he first suggested it, I was inspired and took the plunge. Ultimately for me, Substack is a creative outlet, as well as a way for me to share my observations in a more accessible way.
In terms of balancing storytelling with academic rigor, I write different types of pieces with this in mind. Sometimes I just want to share something I personally like or my crime mixtapes. I might add some background information in these pieces but the intent is not to be analytical. For other pieces, I draw from my research and the literature to write more informative pieces; it is in these where I use the same guiding principles that I use when writing for peer-reviewed journals.
CC: Briefly, tell us what you study and, in your opinion, what is the most pressing issue or the most intriguing unanswered question in your field. Why do you think it matters today?
My main research, at this point in time, focuses on prison stories and the possibility of narrative change. In other words, how can stories, such as the podcast Ear Hustle, generate empathy and a better understanding of crime and justice?
We live in a media culture that is divisive (in many ways). Many crime-related representations create a gap between us and them, thereby stifling empathy. Yet, to transform the criminal legal system we need empathy.
CC: What’s the most surprising or counterintuitive thing you’ve learned in your research?
I don’t really have an answer for this question, so this may not fit.
I was invited to write a piece for an edited collection on literary journalism in prison. It was curated by two journalism professors. Being trained in criminology, my focus was on the content and messaging in order to understand how the imagery shapes people’s perceptions. I proposed a chapter on Ear Hustle, a podcast produced in a prison. Their feedback allowed me to dive into the impact of stories and, in particular, the impact of podcasts. This experience has taken my research to a different level. It has broadened my interest in storytelling as a tool to develop empathy, critical thinking, and potentially, shifts in commonly held beliefs
CC: Are there any historical cases or theories that you believe deserve more attention? Why?
A case that I think more people should know about is that of Curtis Flowers. Flowers spent more than two decades incarcerated in Mississippi while battling to establish his innocence and gain freedom.
It is an extreme miscarriage of justice (he was tried six times for the same crimes). This case demonstrates the unbridled power of a prosecutor and the impact of racism. The second season of the podcast In the Dark did an incredible job investigating this case.
CC: What books, films, or documentaries would you recommend for someone looking to understand your field better?
Given my interest in stories, this could be a really long list! There is one book that, in my opinion, everyone interested in the criminal legal system should read—Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson.
If they want to understand incarceration, they should begin with the podcast Ear Hustle (at the end of July I will be putting a Spotify Playlist with a variety of prison podcast episodes on FRAMED to coincide with a talk I am giving on the power of these stories).
CC: If the public could grasp just one key idea about crime and justice, what would it be and why?
Whether you realize it or not each and every one of us is “one beer away from jail!” In other words, just one different decision in our lives can completely change the path we are on. When thinking about crime and justice, I think it is important to remember this.
CC: Do you think true crime as a genre helps or harms public understanding of crime? Are there ethical concerns in how it’s presented?
Like many things in life, there is no simple answer to this question. True crime is problematic and damaging in many ways—overrepresentation of violence, especially serial killers, fixation with missing white women, and impact on victims to name a few.
Yet, there are also examples of impactful true stories that open our eyes up to miscarriages of justice and some even provide comfort to people who have been victims of crime. Since true crime stories will never cease to provide entertainment to people, I think the key is to help people consume it more responsibly—through a critical lens.
CC: What is one way in which you think the media can do better at discussing crime?
Selecting one thing is challenging. To keep in line with the things I am focusing on now, it is to give voice to the voiceless. Supporting people with lived experiences in the creation of crime stories.
CC: Our readers would find your work valuable. Could you recommend 2-3 of your posts?
The following post relates to your question on true crime:
Here is the first part of a two part piece on popular images of jail:
Finally, I try to publish a quarterly crime mixtape. This one contains songs about women who commit crime.
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