True Crime Vocab
An illegal act for which someone can be punished by the government.
What is a 'crime'?
A true story with made-up elements like dialogue, thoughts of characters, etc.
What is a 'nonfiction novel'?
The one that started it all in 2014.
What is 'Serial'?
A zoo owner spirals out of control amid a cast of eccentric characters in this true murder-for-hire story from the underworld of big cat breeding.
What is 'Tiger King'?
A person who perpetrates, or commits, an illegal, criminal, or evil act.
What is a 'perpetrator'?
A person who has been attacked, injured, robbed, or killed by someone else.
What is a 'victim'?
Truman Capote's famous nonfiction novel.
What is 'In Cold Blood'?
The investigation into the abduction of Jacob Wetterling and the systemic issues with sherifs in the US.
What is 'In the Dark, season 1'?
Freed from prison, Steven Avery faces a new criminal case amid allegations of police misconduct and witness coercion in this real-life thriller.
What is 'Making a Murderer'?
Something that has not been or cannot be explained.
What is a 'mystery'?
A person who is against something or someone else.
What is an 'antagonist'?
How viewers derive meaning from a sequence of shots.
What is 'the Kuleshov effect'?
Journalist Ronan Farrow follows a trail of clues from his investigation of Harvey Weinstein to other stories about the systems that protect powerful men accused of terrible crimes.
What is 'The Catch and Kill Podcast with Ronan Farrow'?
About the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard, for which her daughter, Gypsy Rose Blanchard, and Gypsy's boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, were accused.
What is 'Mommy Dead and Dearest'?
A favoring of some ideas or people over others.
What is a 'bias'?
A sleuth.
What is a 'detective'?
This term is important as it determines where the viewer's sympathy lies.
What is 'framing'?
An investigation into the shady world of MLMs.
What is 'The Dream, season 1'?
Investigators and witnesses recall the Yorkshire Ripper murders, which cast a shadow over the north of England in the late 1970s.
What is 'The Ripper'?
An activity or form of entertainment that allows people to forget about the real problems of life.
What is 'escapism'?
Dishonest or illegal behavior especially by powerful people (such as government officials or police officers).
What is 'corruption'?
What is our brains wired to do that is activated when watching/listening/reading true crime?
What is 'finding patterns'/'connecting the dots'?
You think you know the story, or maybe you don’t. But Watergate was stranger, wilder, and more exciting than you can imagine. Name that podcast.
What is 'Slow Burn, season 1'?
In 2001, novelist Michael Peterson's wife died, and he claimed she perished after falling down stairs at their home.
What is 'The Staircase'?
The stealing of money entrusted to one's care.
What is 'embezzlement'?