2026 June Illinois Fellows Lunch
Please join Illinois Fellows State Chair Michael J. Hernandez for a complimentary Illinois Fellows lunch and presentation by ABF Research Professor and Northwestern University Board of Lady Managers of the Columbian Exposition Chair and Professor of Sociology, Laura Beth Nielsen.
Thursday, June 11, 2026
Franczek P.C.
300 South Wacker, Suite 3400
Chicago, Il 60606
11:30 AM CT – Networking Lunch
12:00 PM CT – Presentation
“Representations of Vengeance, Justice, Expertise, and Emotion in True Crime Podcasts”
True crime podcasts rank among the most-consumed digital media, with millions of weekly downloads. More than entertainment, they function as vernacular trials that invite audiences to deliberate on crime, culpability, and punishment. Analyzing 30 episodes (~36 hours) from five top podcasts in 2022 (Crime Junkie, Morbid, Dateline, Small Town Murder, Sword & Scale), Professor Nielsen identifies three patterns. First, persona-driven storytelling shifts attention from “whodunit” to what kind of person could do this. Second, hosts place perpetrators on a moral spectrum progressing from weird to creepy to evil to monster. The spectrum naturalizes dehumanization. Third, gestures toward mitigation (psychosis, intellectual disability, trauma, youth) typically collapse into demands for harsh punishment. This presentation will document the punitive turn within sympathetic narration and argue that these podcasts both reflect and produce legal consciousness: they teach listeners how to evaluate culpability, weigh mitigation, and imagine justice.
The Fellows gratefully recognize event sponsor:
