A police-run true crime podcast: A comparison of justice in State crime command – investigations, Bowraville and Phoebe’s fall

Abstract

<p>In 2020, the police force of New South Wales, Australia, began to distribute a true crime podcast titled State crime command – investigations. My previous research investigates the attempts of true crime podcasts to fill 'justice gaps' in formal institutions such as police and courts. By addressing these justice gaps, the true crime podcasts act as mediums of informal justice – forms of reparation outside those formal systems – particularly for victim-survivors and secondary victims of gender-based violence. In this paper, I evaluate State crime command – investigations for its attempts to address justice gaps through a comparison with two well-known Australian podcasts, Phoebe's fall (2016) and Bowraville (2016). The paper concludes that the police true crime podcast seeks information from listeners without attempting to fill any justice gaps and, therefore, seems more useful as an advertisement of investigative procedure, a recruitment strategy, or a tool for tying up the loose ends of investigations.</p>