Title: True crime - Wikipedia
Headings: True crime
True crime
Contents
History
Forms
Books
Films and television
Podcasts
Effects
Criticism
References

Content: Many works in this genre recount high-profile, sensational crimes such as the JonBenét Ramsey killing, the O. J. Simpson murder case, and the Pamela Smart murder, while others are devoted to more obscure slayings. True crime works can impact the crimes they cover and the audience who consumes it. The genre is often criticized for being insensitive to the victims and their families and is described by some as trash culture. Contents
1 History
2 Forms
2.1 Books
2.2 Films and television
2.3 Podcasts
3 Effects
4 Criticism
5 References
History
Murder pamphlet, 1812
Zhang Yingyu's The Book of Swindles ( c. 1617) is a late Ming dynasty collection of stories about allegedly true cases of fraud. Works in the related Chinese genre of court case fiction (gong'an xiaoshuo), such as the 16th-century Cases of Magistrate Bao, were either inspired by historical events or else purely fictional. Hundreds of pamphlets, broadsides, chapbooks and other street literature about murders and other crimes were published from 1550 to 1700 in Britain as literacy increased and cheap new printing methods became widespread. They varied in style: some were sensational, while others conveyed a moral message. Most were purchased by the "artisan class and above", as the lower classes did not have the money or time read them. Ballads were also created, the verses of which were posted on walls around towns, that were told from the perpetrator 's point of view in an attempt to understand the psychological motivations of the crime.