Violent crime in the United States has fallen 49% since 1993. Yet 77% of Americans believe it is rising. That gap is not ignorance — it is a product of a multibillion-dollar industry that packages real suffering as entertainment. From Netflix recreating a victim's courtroom breakdown without her consent, to a $10 million defamation verdict against a TikTok user who accused an innocent professor of murder, the cost of sensationalised true crime is measurable and growing.