Sociological thinkers have long pointed to the importance of crime in forming communities, setting moral boundaries, and maintaining social solidarity. We know that crime is an important factor in social cohesion, yet to date there are few sociological studies investigating communities formed around “true crime.” Using data from in-depth interviews, virtual ethnography, and traditional ethnography,  “Gluttons for Punishment” explores how people who consume and create true crime media conceptualize identity with regards to crime, violent victimization, and criminal legal systems.

Zozula situates her data in theoretical conversations about civilian responsibilization for crime control, necropolitical constructions of personhood, and calls for specific kinds of gendered and racialized justice. The project explores the emotional subjectivities of people who participate in true crime communities and draw connections with scholarship that describes how discursive notions of community are mobilized under neoliberal governance. Zozula examines how her respondents make sense of contemporary anxieties around safety and community, and how they interpret the legitimacy and effectiveness of traditional criminal legal systems. Finally, she traces how consumers and producers of true crime media engage in politicalized interpretations of victimhood and violence especially with regards to gender and race.

Following Mbembe’s (2019) articulation of necropolitics, Puar’s (2017) discussion of biopower and state violence, and Butler’s (2007) concept of grievable lives, Zozula discusses how people in the true crime community grapple with ethical questions surrounding death as spectacle, critiques of criminal legal systems, political-legal consciousness, and social responsibilities to others.