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What does the burgeoning popularity of the true crime genre, spawning everything from books to documentaries, podcasts to newscasts, say about our society? Here a theologian and a forensic scientist use theological and moral engagement to unpack issues of criminal justice, popular media, and forensic science. Vasko and Ferrara use specific cases and situations, including the Steubenville, OH, rape case; the extensive coverage of serial killer Ted Bundy; and the forensic process used (or not) to analyze rape kits after an alleged sexual assault.
Uniquely powerful. True Crime and the Justice of God exposes patterns of systemic ignorance and social inequity that sustain anti-blackness and violent misogyny in American society.
“Raises the level of the reader’s media literacy, forensic science knowledge, and liberative theological understandings . . .”
Kate Ott, author, Christian Ethics for a Digital Society
Elisabeth T. Vasko is associate professor of theology at Duquesne University and author of Beyond Apathy: A Theology for Bystanders. Her work focuses on theological justifications for violence and discrimination and the role that Christian theology and faith communities can play in enacting social change.
Lyndsie Ferrara is a teaching assistant professor of forensic science and law at Duquesne University. She was previously a biologist at the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory and a forensics specialist/contractor for the Department of Justice’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program.
