Crime Monthly: Making Sense of Crime July 2025
Updates, Murder, and Crime Investigation
Dear Readers,
Three short announcements before we jump into this month’s featured reads.
First, I want to apologize for being absent during the past two weeks. Although it is no excuse, I have been quite busy relocating to the United Kingdom for doctoral study. Then there were a few holiday trips where I was less productive than I had hoped. We managed to publish weekly for 58 weeks, and that is no small feat.
I promise to try to do better.
Second, I have decided not to publish during August. I am turning forty (August 9th) , and I have been inspired by other writers taking a break. Nevertheless, I will be publishing a Crime Monthly that month.
Third, I am expanding Beyond the Archives beyond Substack. Later this year, Curing Crime will feature an interview with game developers that touch on crime, crime investigation, and judicial systems.
Crime Monthly July 2025: Making Sense of Crime
This month, all four posts are about trying to make sense of something.
First, Joni Johnston makes an effort to make sense of Coleman and his decision to murder his children. Secondly, Jason Frowley demands that we think about what exactly we are up to when we are trying to explain why an individual committed a crime.
Angela Buckley and Sophie Michell are also trying to “make sense” of something, albeit in a different way. These two posts amass a series of previous posts and research to draw broader conclusions about crime investigations and inquests. They also work nicely together, for one is about investigating crimes and the other about the use of these investigations.
All four posts are brilliant, thoroughly researched, and I beseech you to please check them out.
Ideas, Research, Conspiracies, and Murder
This post is excellent and insightful. In this post, you can read how a man’s ideas, online research, and his community allowed him to believe in conspiracies. Slowly, he became convinced that his children would grow into monsters because of their reptilian DNA. Thus, in a misguided effort to save the world, he murdered them.
We recently featured Joni E. Johnston, Psy.D., and her Substack The Mind Detective on our Beyond the Archives series.
Joni E. Johnston, Psy.D. provides an overview of this case and explores the factors that allowed Coleman to develop these beliefs. This is a tragic story. In this post, Johnston uses this case study to make inferences about radicalization and how one’s beliefs can push them to commit terrible acts.
Making Sense of the Bad
Jason Frowley PhD is fantastic in this one. Taking a risk by writing this in the form of a made-up interview, he addresses the perennial question, “Why did he do it?” Rather than trying to answer it, Frowley asks readers to think just what kind of answer would be satisfactory.
Frowley wraps this discussion around Ed Gein, a serial killer, whose crimes are gruesome. The depravity of these crimes helps us think deeply about the question. Would different groups of people find different answers satisfactory? What kind of answers would satisfy policy makers, politicians, psychiatrists, and the public? What would one do with these? Do these explanations imply actions?
In some ways, this line of questioning reminded me of a film in which a character makes two points
“It's funny how people only say that [I am only human] after they do something bad. I mean, you never hear someone say, "I'm only human" after they rescue a kid from a burning building.”
“Maybe it makes sense now. Maybe somewhere in all of this there's a reason. Maybe somewhere in all of this there's a why. Maybe somewhere there's that thing that lets you tie it all up with a neat bow and bury it in the backyard. But nothing, not getting angry, not prayers, and not tears, nothing can make something that happened unhappen”.
“The worst part is knowing that there is goodness in people. Mostly it stays deep down and buried. Maybe we don't have God because we're scared of the bad stuff. Maybe we're really scared of the good stuff. Because if there's no God, well, that means it's inside of us and we could be good all the time if we wanted. So when we do bad things, it'd be because we want to or because we have to. Or maybe we just need the bad stuff to remind us what the good stuff is in the first place”.
Victorian Detectives: Emerging Practices
Recently, Dr Angela Buckley has rebranded her Substack to shift its focus to Sleuthing. In this “first” new post, she distills her deep knowledge of the field into her top ten insights.
Among these findings are: the first detective unit in England, the reliance of investigators on their memory, and the creation of criminal databases.
I was surprised by several of these takeaways and think this is an exciting period because there are no widely established practices, and one can explore how these become institutionalized. Moreover, we can start to see that police departments were facing similar problems: how to solve crimes, determining whether an individual is a reoffender, and more.
The Victorian Courtroom
I love reading the detailed cases that often get published on Substack and often wonder how these fit into a broader narrative. Sophie Michell seeks to do just that in this insightful post, where she draws from tens of her other posts.
Here, Michell explores the drama and antics of the Victorian Courtroom. She first distinguishes inquests, which focus on victims, from trials, which focus on alleged perpetrators. This distinction allows her to explore the kinds of defence that alleged perpetrators used. These claims reveal underlying assumptions about Victorian life.
There are so many interesting articles being published on Substack. I am surprised that patterns emerge over the kinds of articles that are posted. For example, in this post, we feature two writers who, during the same month, decided to write more holistic pieces.
I hope to plan ahead during August and schedule future posts. I will also be writing about my PhD journey and sharing some non-crime-related history over at Dispatches from a Wonderer.
Lots of exciting posts to come: prison reform experiments, video games, and more lobotomy films.
Remember to take some time to enjoy, relax, and reflect. Share experiences and time with those you care about. See you in late August!
Congratulations on the move to the UK and good luck with your studies!
Thank you so much for highlighting the recent change in my Substack and for your ongoing support, which is very much appreciated. Enjoy your break and have a lovely birthday!