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True Crime Community

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The True Crime Community (TCC) is an online fandom interested in criminals, particularly high-profile serial and mass killers.[1] Several members of the TCC have gone on to commit their own crimes.[1] It has been linked to nihilistic violent extremism[2] and hybristophilia.[1][3] Not all members support the violent and extremist side of the community; however, the community has increasingly become a violent environment that glorifies serial and mass murderers.[4]

Connection to shootings

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Shooters

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Perpetrators of various school shootings in Russia may have been involved in the fandom.[5] Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, participated in online communities associated with the TCC.[6] In the aftermath of the April 2026 Teotihuacan shooting, some newspapers, including Milenio and El Universal, speculated about the perpetrator's alleged ties to the TCC.[7][8] In June 2026, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found that the two perpetrators of a shooting in the previous month at the Islamic Center of San Diego, though primarily motivated by neo-Nazi accelerationism and white supremacy, had online engagement with and a broader influence from nihilistic extremist online subcultures such as the TCC.[9]

Analysis

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The TCC has been described by researchers as an online subculture associated with nihilistic violent extremism, rather than a coherent political ideology. Individuals linked to the community have carried out school shootings, although their attacks are generally not intended to achieve political objectives. Researchers have identified motivations including personal grievances, identity issues, mental health struggles, and a desire for recognition within the TCC community. Perpetrators of such attacks have left manifestos, social media posts, or other online material expressing admiration for previous mass shooters, alongside feelings of alienation, hopelessness, misanthropy, or dissatisfaction with their lives, society, or the future. According to research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), at least four school shooters and five plots in 2024 were linked to TCC online communities. ISD further reported that the four attacks resulted in eight deaths, excluding the perpetrators, exceeding the number of fatalities attributed to ideologically motivated extremist violence in the United States during 2024.[10][11]

Use of generative AI

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Members of the TCC, on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, create AI-generated videos in which notorious terrorists and mass murderers are depicted dancing against the backdrop of the sites where they carried out their attacks, with references to their victims usually expressed as the number of people killed. For example, Brenton Tarrant is usually depicted next to the scene of his crime — the Al-Noor Mosque — with ‘-51’ appearing on screen, followed by the ‘☪️’ emoji, which is interpreted both as the number of victims of the attack and as a reference to the religious beliefs of those killed, constituting Islamophobic glorification. The dance has been dubbed the ‘Rampage dance’.[12]

See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 "Memetic violence: How the True Crime Community generates its own killers". Institute for Strategic Dialogue. 2 October 2025. Archived from the original on 19 March 2026. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  2. ↑ Ondrak, Joe; Vitelli, Laura (18 December 2025). "Participatory Memetic Violence: Legend, Ostension, and Ideologically Diffuse Violence". GNET. Archived from the original on 13 February 2026. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  3. ↑ Smith, Cadenhead & Broekaert 2026, p. 19.
  4. ↑ rodriguesanafla. "Não é apenas baseado em fatos reais: O aumento da produção e consumo do gênero de true crime | jornalocasarao" (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 30 August 2026.
  5. ↑ Kozachenko, Dima (20 January 2018). "Сообщество тру-крайм: как интерес к убийствам превратился в подростковую субкультуру" [True Crime Community: How an interest in murder became a teenage subculture]. Afisha Daily (in Russian). Archived from the original on 3 November 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  6. ↑ Weill, Kelly (11 January 2019). "Inside the Tumblr Community Where Women Worship Killers". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2 September 2026. Adam Lanza, the man who murdered 20 children and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, was a TCC member
  7. ↑ Brito, Omar (20 April 2026). "The True Crime Community: el fenómeno social al que estaría ligado el tirador de Teotihuacan" [The True Crime Community: the social phenomenon to which the Teotihuacan shooter appears to be linked]. Milenio. Archived from the original on 24 April 2026. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  8. ↑ "¿Qué es la True Crime Community? la liga que une al ataque de Teotihuacán con Columbine" [What is the True Crime Community? The link between the Teotihuacan attack and Columbine]. El Universal. 21 April 2026. Archived from the original on 23 April 2026. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  9. ↑ "San Diego mosque shooting highlights new generation of neo-Nazi accelerationism". Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Retrieved 6 July 2026.
  10. ↑ "Terror without ideology? The rise of nihilistic violence". Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Retrieved 11 July 2026.
  11. ↑ GPAHE (29 December 2025). "Nihilistic Violence: Understanding Online Networks Obsessed With Harm". Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. Retrieved 11 July 2026.
  12. ↑ Lucini, Silvano Rizieri (26 February 2026). "An 'Ode to Violence': Extremist Exploitation of Viggle AI". GNET. Retrieved 25 August 2026.

Works cited

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  • Smith, Peter; Cadenhead, Cat; Broekaert, Clara (2026). "True Crime Community: Understanding the Depths of Digital Fandom and Performative Violence". CTC Sentinel. 19 (2). West Point: Combating Terrorism Center: 17–26.

Further reading

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