When vulnerable populations are rendered socially invisible, decisions about which cases are amplified and which are neglected reveal deeper hierarchies of value.
Reshaping True Crime Stories from the Global Margins: Voicing the Less Dead draws on criminal cases, news coverage, and media analysis from around the world to examine the thousands of missing and murdered individuals from marginalized communities whose stories often go untold. Contributors invite readers to question how these victims are perceived in comparison to others and how law enforcement, government institutions, and media organizations shape those perceptions. Grounded in Steven Egger's concept of the “less dead,” the volume offers an interdisciplinary, global perspective on the systematic erasure of marginalized groups while also demonstrating pathways for making their stories visible. In doing so, the book challenges the conventions of true crime and underscores why whose lives are mourned-and whose are ignored-matters profoundly for justice, memory, and public accountability.

Francesca Borrione is Assistant Professor in Media Studies at the University of Virginia.
Heather J. Macpherson teaches writing at Clark University, Worcester.