Justice And Gender: True Crime Media Portrayals Of Women In Digital Platforms

Abstract

The true crime theme has become a dominant digital genre, with its increasing popularity on platforms like Netflix, YouTube and Spotify, completely transforming the perception of crime, justice and gender in society. Even though the platforms claim to be spreading awareness amongst viewers about gender based violence, they present patriarchal stereotypes when women are portrayed as “deviant perpetrators” or “ideal victims”. It reinforces the gender roles rather than dismantling them (Cavender & Bond-Maupin, 1993). Meanwhile, the women from marginalised communities are vastly underrepresented, especially the Dalit, Black and migrant women. The digital erasure mirrors deeply rooted social inequalities (Slakoff & Duran, 2023). The crime media often engage in activities that violate the right to privacy, the right to dignity and the right to fair trial. When the sensationalised content streams across platforms, the victims and their families get re-traumatised. This highlights the clash between the freedom of speech and expression and the rights of an individual (Rodríguez & Lopez-Figueroa, 2022). Additionally, the feminist legal scholars opine that the true crime leads to the commodification of women’s sufferings, transforming the trauma into consumable content for the viewers (Cassandra, 2023). Such portrayals lead to legal and ethical contestations. This paper aims to critically examine the intersection of law, justice, sex and digital media by analysing how true crime shapes the image and perception of women, causing systematic biases. It draws on privacy laws, feminist jurisprudence and case studies across the globe, showing the implications of digital portrayal of women involved in crimes. This paper also argues for regulatory reforms and demands stronger privacy, protection and accountability mechanisms to ensure that true crime media does not cross the boundaries and alliance with feminist legal principles. The ultimate aim of this study is to contend that without the reforms, digital crime will become a form of “trial-by-streaming” where women’s dignity will be crucified for the sake of entertainment.