Crime & Pop Culture Office Hours

S 1 E 6 The Juvenile Super Predator: The Monster We Imagined and the Crime Wave That Never Came

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2561761/fan_mail/new] This episode of Crime & Pop Culture Office Hours examines the rise and impact of the juvenile “super-predator” myth through two influential 1990s articles by John DiIulio. Using these texts as cultural artifacts, the episode explores how academic claims, media amplification, and political rhetoric converged to construct a racialized narrative linking youth, crime, and Blackness. The episode critically analyzes the demographic and “moral poverty” arguments underlying the prediction, highlighting their analytical flaws and broader social consequences. The episode then contrasts this narrative with empirical reality, drawing on scholarship such as The Crime Drop in America to show how changing social conditions—not demographic inevitability—explain both the rise and decline in youth violence. Ultimately, the episode underscores how powerful crime narratives can shape public perception and policy, even when they are fundamentally wrong.

S 1 E 5 "The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House": Black Christmas (1974) and 1970s Cultural Anxieties

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2561761/fan_mail/new] Black Christmas (1974) is more than an early slasher film. It is a reflection of 1970s cultural anxiety. Set in a sorority house during the holidays, the film follows a group of young women stalked by an unseen killer whose threatening phone calls originate from inside the home. Through its use of point-of-view shots, fragmented voices, and domestic invasion, the film helped establish many conventions that later defined the slasher genre. But beyond its stylistic influence, the film engages deeply with issues of gender, autonomy, and institutional failure. Jess’s decision to seek an abortion places the story inside the political tensions that followed Roe v. Wade, while her growing fear of Peter complicates the idea that danger comes only from strangers. The police are dismissive and ineffective, reinforcing themes of distrust in authority. By blending holiday imagery with violence, and by ending without closure, Black Christmas captures a moment when safety, tradition, and institutions all felt fragile.

S 1 E 4 Houston Serial Killer Panic: The Real Cultural Anxieties

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2561761/fan_mail/new] In this final episode of our four-part series on the Houston serial-killer panic of 2025, we look beyond the rumors in the bayou to examine the deeper forces shaping the city’s fear. We unpack why “targeted” violence still feels threatening in urban space, how clearance rates and investigative delays cloud public understanding, and why trust in institutions fractures when answers are slow or uncertain. We also explore the real impact of strained policing, forensic backlogs, and overburdened social systems—and how these pressures shape the experiences of citizens, grieving families, and frontline professionals. Finally, Dr. Heather Goltz joins us to ground the discussion in the human side of fear, uncertainty, and the systems people must navigate when tragedy strikes.

S 1 E 3 Houston Serial Killer Panic: Medical Examiners' Reports and Undetermined Cases

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2561761/fan_mail/new] In this episode, death investigations expert Elizabeth Gilmore takes us inside the medical examiner’s office to explain how cause and manner of death are determined—a process that is far more complex and far more critical than most people realize. She breaks down the five official manners of death, what each classification really means, and how those determinations shape everything from criminal investigations to prosecutorial decisions to charge. She also helps us understand the challenges and gray areas that forensic pathologists confront, especially in cases where evidence is limited or circumstances are ambiguous. Her insight brings much-needed clarity to a system that often sits at the center of public controversy and, in the case of the Houston serial-killer panic, played a pivotal role in how the story unfolded.

S 1 E 2 Houston Serial Killer Panic: Cultural Understandings and Empirical and Definitional Realities

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2561761/fan_mail/new] This is the second episode in our four-part series on the Houston serial killer panic of 2025. This episode takes a closer look at how we think—and often misthink—about serial murder. I sit down with two criminologists who bring both clarity and nuance to a topic that’s usually buried under myth and media hype. First, Krista Gehring joins me to unpack the cultural narratives we’ve built around serial killers: the tropes we repeat, the fears we amplify, and the ways pop culture shapes what the public believes these offenders look like, think like, and act like. Then, Casey Akins helps ground the conversation in the empirical reality, walking us through how serial murder is actually defined, what the data really show, and why our cultural imagination so often drifts far from the facts. Together, their insights help us understand how the gap between perception and reality played a significant role in shaping the 2025 Houston scare.