{"id":52358,"date":"2025-06-20T12:04:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T16:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?post_type=cu_story&p=52358"},"modified":"2025-06-23T11:07:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T15:07:01","slug":"crafting-ethical-true-crime","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/crafting-ethical-true-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Crafting Ethical True Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Crafting Ethical True Crime\n <\/h1>\n \n \n\n

A Carleton Master’s Grad Creates a Guide for Care-Full Storytelling<\/p>\n\n\n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Story and photos by Ainslie Coghill<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Content Warning\n <\/p>\n

\n The following story contains multiple references to and discussions about sexual and gender-based violence.\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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\u201c\u2026does our collective desire to consume true crime and search for justice, particularly for women, root itself in a search for justice from a system that so rarely delivers it?\u201d <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailey Reid, Creating Care-Full True Crime: A Sandbox Methodology (2024)<\/strong> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

True crime demands to know \u201cWhodunnit?\u201d but rarely asks, \u201cHow did this happen? How can we prevent it from happening again? And how can we heal?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Podcasting and the democratization of the medium has brought countless true crime stories about gender-based violence (GBV) to the mainstream, and almost anyone can tell these stories.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bailey
Reid graduated with her Master’s in Sociology from Carleton University.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Through her thesis project, Bailey Reid (MA\/25, Sociology) has devised a framework for storytellers (and fans) to carefully consider their choices when creating and consuming true crime.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Care-Full True Crime Sandbox<\/a> is the first tool of its kind created for and in collaboration with true crime storytellers to address themes like GBV in a more \u201ccare-full\u201d way. The tool is fully available online, including video tutorials and other helpful resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m always thinking, \u2018How do we prevent gender-based violence?\u2019 True crime has great power to create change, and if we can think about how to use true crime as a means of advocacy, that is what I wanted to capture with this work,\u201d says Reid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201csandbox\u201d methodology, borrowed from Dr. Max Liboiron\u2019s<\/a> work, invites us to consider four parameters (think: sandbox walls) for true crime storytellers and critical listeners: expert GBV Analysis, Purposeful Storytelling, Narrative Style, and Storyteller Identity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Inside the sandbox, \u201cthe sand\u201d is where narrative formulation, creativity, experimentation and advocacy can take shape for those willing to put in the work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reid began her master\u2019s degree while working at Carleton University. She\u2019s the Senior Advisor for Gender and Sexual Violence Prevention and Support<\/a> and is the university\u2019s top expert in GBV and sexual violence prevention. For nearly twenty years, she has dedicated herself and her career to survivors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Episode One: The Beginnings<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When the podcast sensation Serial<\/a><\/em> was released in 2014, like many of us, Reid was immediately enthralled. She also recognizes she\u2019s part of true crime\u2019s top audience: a millennial, white, cisgender woman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bailey
Reid with her family at Convocation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Koenig, the host and producer of Serial, is a professional journalist with an impressive resume, and Serial<\/em> is often credited with taking podcasting into the cultural mainstream.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI started reading things about it online, and one of the biggest criticisms of Koenig was that she was a woman looking in on two communities that she wasn\u2019t part of at all,\u201d says Reid. \u201cThat made some of her storytelling problematic.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post-2014 proliferation of true crime happened alongside Reid\u2019s emerging career and her frontline work with survivors, and there came a point where she could no longer stomach the genre and felt frustrated by how it continually approached themes of GBV through stereotypes, tropes and misinformation. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cMany of these cases are framed as a \u2018mystery,\u2019 but the statistics about gender-based violence tell us we likely know what happened and should have known all along. But that\u2019s not talked about because these podcasts are a blend of entertainment and mystery,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Episode Two: True Crime\u2019s Potential for Change<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nearly a decade later, Reid felt ready to revisit the genre for her thesis work, which included a critical discourse analysis of seven serialized (i.e. one case per season) podcasts dealing with GBV: Serial, Suspect, Do You Know Mordechai, Someone Knows Something, Missing & Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams, Dirty John <\/em>and Welcome to Paradise<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The critical listening process is what led her to identify common tropes and gaps in storytelling and helped shape the parameters of her Sandbox tool. She also consulted several true crime creators and subject matter experts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bailey
Reid and her father at Carleton’s Convocation ceremony.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In her thesis, she writes, \u201cPeople have disregarded news [about GBV] for decades, and yet, since 2014, they will keenly tune in to a serialized podcast that discusses decades-old unsolved cases that centre around those very issues.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Reid, this is a clear missed opportunity for the genre to do more and undo harm.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor example, Cree journalist Connie Walker did this with the Missing & Murdered<\/a> series,\u201d she says. \u201cShe raised awareness about violence against Indigenous women and systemic racism and shows the potential for telling true crime in ways that change the narrative around gender-based violence and encourage advocacy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says the Sandbox offers creators some structure to tap into that kind of advocacy more easily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor instance, it asks people to think about what their identities and privileges are in relation to the people in the story. GBV is rooted in power, and an imbalance of power, so that must be a critical piece of the work,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Finale:  A Long Time in the Making<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reid wrote the bulk of her thesis in January 2024, while caring for a toddler and nine months pregnant with her second child. She recalls daily 5 a.m. writing sessions, necessitated by the fatigue that would set in later in the day. Her thesis defense took place when her second child was six months old.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bailey
Reid with her son at Carleton’s Convocation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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\u201cFor me, this was an amazing way to bring some of my passions together and doing it as a mom was special because it gave me something outside of this new identity as \u2018mom,\u2019\u201d she says. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m now going to go to a convocation twenty years after I went to my first one, and I think that\u2019s pretty fun.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reid has taken the day off work to attend the ceremony on Friday, June 20, 2025, where she will cross the stage to receive her Master\u2019s degree, supported by proud family and colleagues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n