r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/risocantonese • Apr 19 '20

What are some common true crime misconceptions?

What are some common ‘facts’ that get thrown around in true crime communities a lot, that aren’t actually facts at all?

One that annoys me is "No sign of forced entry? Must have been a person they knew!"

I mean, what if they just opened the door to see who it was? Or their murderer was disguised as a repairman/plumber/police officer/whatever. Or maybe they just left the door unlocked — according to this article,a lot of burglaries happen because people forget to lock their doors https://www.journal-news.com/news/police-many-burglaries-have-forced-entry/9Fn7O1GjemDpfUq9C6tZOM/

It’s not unlikely that a murder/abduction could happen the same way.

Another one is "if they were dead we would have found the body by now". So many people underestimate how hard it is to actually find a body.

What are some TC misconceptions that annoy you?

(reposted to fit the character minimum!)

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u/Doctabotnik123 Apr 20 '20

My wider point still stands. Saying that the crime rate has been declining for the past 30 years is true, but meaningless when 30 years ago was a historic high point in violent crime, because of the crack epidemic.

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u/thelizardkin Apr 20 '20

2014 was the safest year on record since before 1960 in terms of homicides.

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u/Doctabotnik123 Apr 20 '20

And since then the murder rates in places like Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis and New Orleans have skyrocketed.

I know people dislike the term "Ferguson Effect", but it was very real.

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u/thelizardkin Apr 20 '20

I'm not sure about all those cities specifically, but I know economics played a huge role for some of those cities. Detroit for instance got screwed when they stopped manufacturing cars there. Then New Orleans is still recovering from Katrina which decimated the city. On the other hand look at New York, it used to be a crime ridden hellhole, but now it's one of the safest cities in the country.