09/04/2026
By Karen Mullins

The School of Criminology and Justice Studies is proud to announce a dissertation proposal defense by Mikayla G. Padilla.

  • Title: "Assessing True Crime Media and Perceptions of Sympathy"
  • Date and time: Wednesday, Sept. 23, at 11 a.m.
  • Location: Coburn Hall, Room 275, or join via Zoom
  • Meeting ID: 978 0773 0701

Committee

  • Emily Greene-Colozzi, Ph.D., chair, UMass Lowell
  • Ryan Shields, Ph.D., UMass Lowell
  • Amber Horning-Ruf, Ph.D., UMass Lowell
  • Jason Silva, Ph.D., William Paterson University

Abstract

True crime documentaries have grown exponentially in popularity within the last several years, raising important questions about how their narrative and directorial choices shape viewer perceptions of perpetrators. This study examines how true crime media influences perceptions of sympathy toward violent perpetrators, with particular attention to cases in which perpetrators have histories of physical, sexual or psychological abuse. Four research questions guide this study, examining how offender characteristics, viewer characteristics and media presentation strategies influence expressions of sympathy. Guided by Murray Smith's (1995) Structure of Sympathy, this research aims to understand how documentary framing, storytelling techniques and the sequencing of information about abuse and crime affect viewers' emotional responses. Using a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design, approximately 250 college students will be recruited across the University of Massachusetts system and will be randomly assigned to watch edited documentary clips spanning three crime categories: serial murder, homicide and familicide. Participants will complete pre-surveys measuring baseline sympathy using adapted items from Davis's (1980) Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Eisenberg and colleagues' (1989) Sympathy Questionnaire, followed by post-surveys measuring shifts in sympathy after viewing. Findings are expected to advance empirical understanding of how true crime media constructs emotional responses, with implications for public perceptions of justice, perpetrator accountability and the ethics of crime as entertainment.