Great Britain has a rich and varied history when it comes to true crime. This statement applies as much to the crimes themselves as it does to media producers’ coverage of them. While a global canon of true crime is forming, there has to date still been an emphasis placed on Western narratives according to American culture, with crimes from this region dominating media attention. However, Britain itself has a long history of true crime that warrants further critical attention, to include some of the most prolific serial killers within the genre: Fred and Rose West; Harold Shipman; John Christie; Dennis Nilsen; and, more recently, and controversially, Lucy Letby. There is a dual approach to studying this area whereby critics might consider the killers themselves – their motivations, behaviours, and psychologies – alongside the representations of these killers, that have since contributed to Britain’s own true crime canon.

This conference aims to explore a British history of true crime by considering infamous killers and their media counterparts in tandem, to inspect the psychological and social influences behind (British) serial killing; the ways in which media outlets and productions have represented or re-presented British serial killing; and how the two seemingly divorced areas of Britishness and serial murder have changed, or have the potential to change, cultural and social understandings both of the violent offender and British culture.

This conference, to be held in-person at the University of Worcester, UK, welcomes critical explorations of British true crime – covering news reports through to books, filmic productions, and podcasts – including but not limited to offenders such as:

Beverley Allitt (a paediatric nurse found guilty of killing children in her care)
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley (the so-called Moors Murderers)
John Christie (known as The Rillington Place Strangler)
Mary Ann Cotton (enacted murder to claim life insurance for her victims)
Amelia Dyer (known as The Ogress of Reading, a proven baby farmer)
John Haigh (known as The Acid Bath Murderer)
Dennis Nilsen (known as The Muswell Hill Murderer)
Harold Shipman (known as Dr Death, proven to have killed over 200 patients)
Peter Sutcliffe (known as The Yorkshire Ripper)
Fred West and Rose West (the so-called House of Horrors Murderers)
Parekh (2000), when defining the British national identity, notes: ‘National identity is the identity of a political community and refers to the kind of community it is, its central values and commitments, its characteristic ways of talking about and conducting its collective affairs, its organising principles, and so forth.’ While it is ‘too complex and elusive to be reduced to a set of easily identifiable features’, there is a wealth of research available in the social sciences that attempts to isolate so-called Britishness, despite its changing form (Parekh, 2000).

With this in mind, other areas that researchers might investigate pertain to general queries and concerns about the shifting relationship between the serial killer figure and their place in British culture. Researchers might consider:

The (alleged) defining qualities of ‘Britishness’ versus the defining qualities of known serial killers
How have serial killers have been represented, historically, in British news media?
Has there has been a notable shift in news media representations of serial killers over time in Britain?
Does gender and/or class impact the way serial killers are (re-)presented in British media? Likewise, does gender and/or class impact the way in which serial killers are perceived or received by British audiences?
Is the appetite for ‘true crime’ as pronounced in Britain as it appears to be in other cultures?
Is there a clear and/or easy distinction between British true crime and American true crime? Consider, here, representations according to media outputs – documentaries, dramatisations and so on – and media encoding?
Throughout, where ‘media’ is used this can refer both to news media and media productions such as documentaries, dramatisations, book publications, podcasts and so on, all of which contribute to the British true crime canon.

In the first instance we invite abstracts of 250 words to be received by 29 September 2025, along with a short biographical note. This should be emailed to Dr Charlotte Barnes: c.barnes@worc.ac.uk. Please use the subject heading “An Awkward Marriage: Considering the serial killer’s social standing in a changing British culture”. Dr Barnes will respond to all abstract submissions in a timely fashion – with replies to be distributed before the end of 2025 – in readiness for an in-person presentation at the University of Worcester, UK in Spring 2026. A date will be confirmed and finalised in due course.