The rising norm to treat trauma as exculpatory shifts focus from the act to the backstory, weakening traditional mens rea standards. High‑profile series (Amanda Knox, Menendez) normalize 'own truth' frames that invite audiences—and officials—to discount guilt.
— This cultural shift could rewrite how juries, prosecutors, and clemency boards weigh responsibility, with ripple effects on sentencing and deterrence.
Alden Jones
2025.10.13
63% relevant
By arguing the market favors simple victim narratives and spotlighting a high‑profile (likely false) assault memoir built on recovered memories, the article shows how trauma framing can override factual scrutiny and reshape moral judgments, paralleling how trauma storytelling has been used to discount guilt in true‑crime contexts.
Lily Isaacs
2025.08.25
100% relevant
The article’s claim that 'spectacle is justice' and that the Menendez brothers’ 'own truth' now resonates where it didn’t in 1994.
Gurwinder
2024.12.13
85% relevant
It argues empathy and abuse claims (surfacing only after a defense strategy pivot) reframed double murder as victimhood, shifting attention from premeditation and evidence to backstory—exactly the 'act vs. trauma' displacement described in this idea.