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Season 1: Episode 3: Dangerous Obsessions: American Murder and Lotta True Crime

This is a student-made episode from the Cultural and Creative Criminology class of 2025 at the University of Stirling. It discusses the docuseries American Murder: Gabby Petito (2025) and the song Lotta True Crime (2020) by Penelope Scott, in relation to the complex ethics and appeal of true crime.

Episode Credits:

Credits: Anna Ortakchiyska (presenter/ researcher/ editor), Ella Swan (presenter/ researcher), Isla Reid (presenter/ researcher/ editor), Estelle Raeburn (researcher/ editor), Samuel Wilson (composer).

References:

Aguayo, A.J. (2019) Documentary Resistance: Social Change and Participatory Media. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

American Murder: Gabby Petito (2025) [Television series]. Available at: Netflix.

Hebdige, D. (1981) Subculture: The Meaning of Style, Oxford: Taylor & Francis.

Lyon, D. (2018) ‘The culture of surveillance: watching as a way of life’, The Culture of Surveillance: Watching as a Way of Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Rafter, N.H. (2011) ‘You’re giving me a nervous breakdown: strain theory and traffic’, in M. Brown (ed.) Criminology goes to the movies: crime theory and popular culture. New York: New York University Press, pp. 88-91. Available at: https://doi.org/10.18574/9780814745298.

Scott, P. (2020) Lotta True Crime. Bandcamp: Tesla’s Pigeon. You can listen to the song here: https://soundcloud.com/penelope-scott/lotta-true-crime?in=user-93640985/sets/id-sell-my-own-bones-for