Interview: Crime Reporter Melissa McCarty on Gangs, Mental Illness, and #Metoo

Melissa McCarty travelled the country for 3 seasons with armed bodyguards confronting accused killers for the Emmy award-winning show Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen. Her memoir, The Making of a Crime Reporter, covers crime, addiction, and mental illness, and the #Metoo movement.

McCarty grew up in a high-crime community in Northern California. There were gang members everywhere, including her brother Mikey. That’s him on the cover of her book.

In an interview, McCarty talked about the role of addiction and mental illness in crime, what inspired her to find a way out, what she has learned from crime victims and survivors, and how she heard her own story differently when she read it aloud for the Audible version.

You say that people have a choice, even those who grow up in high-risk environments. You and your brother made different choices. He joined a gang and you became a journalist. What made the difference?

Not everyone has drive, it has to be empowered each day by some kind of force, or else you remain content. My brother was always content with the basic needs of survival. It also had to do with the beginning stages of his unforeseen enemy. He was experiencing bi-polar, manic episodes with severe panic attacks not knowing at…