‘Caught between the panic and pleasure of crime’ An exploraton into the positive relationships between new forms of crime media, fear of crime and mental health in post-modern society

Tracing the complex relationships between crime, gender, psychological well-being and technology illustrates one of the many challenges facing cultural criminologists concerned with analysing the effects of contemporary mediated processes of cultural exchange. Whilst social media and fear associated with crime are targeted as causes of anxiety and declining mental health in post-modern society; broader harms associated with culturally embedded practices of consumerism, individualism and social control are often overlooked in political debates. This paper critically explores the relationship between emerging forms of media, mediated images of crime and mental health. Qualitative data was obtained from in-depth interviews and open-ended surveys from participants of a social media community dedicated to a true crime podcast. Although some tenuous links were acknowledged between consuming crime media and anxiety; the findings corroborate the lesser researched positive effects between forms of social media, true crime and overall psychological well-being. The study concludes that newer forms of media have the potential to lessen the underlying harms embedded within the capitalist political economy, and aid in increasing positive mental health and well-being