Violence and brutality are everywhere; you only have to turn on the TV and watch the news for ten minutes to get a sense of how bleak and dark the modern world is. Why, then, is true crime one of the most popular entertainment genres? Podcasts, documentaries, dramatisations, detective novels, the tellings of murders, kidnappings and horror are some of our favourite sources of media, even though on the surface, it would make sense for us to avoid it like the plague.
Growing up in a house with a parent that worked in CSI, I was raised reading books about serial killers and hearing first-hand stories about murders and burglaries. It wasn’t until I got to high school and realised that this was not just a unique experience in my household, but something many young people, women in particular, enjoy. Series such as Netflix’s Dahmer (the series based on prolific serial killer, cannibal and rapist Jeffery Dahmer) have opened a new conversation about drawing the line between education and spreading awareness, and a voyeuristic obsession with family trauma as entertainment. There is a very valid point to be made about producing media on brutal crimes, especially without consulting the families of the victims, who, in the case of Dahmer, were horrified at seeing the deaths of their loved ones on the biggest streaming services in the world.
Despite the validity of these criticisms, perhaps women love true crime because they are at risk themselves. It’s no secret that we are made to take on numerous measures to ensure our safety in day-to-day life. Whether it’s fitting rape alarms to our keys, making sure we don’t walk by ourselves in the dark, or not taking drinks from strangers in bars, women are constantly on edge and trying to reduce any possible risk of violence. A 2010 study by the University of Illinois (by Vicary and Fraley) suggests that true crime stories are specifically more popular with women, which may link to this fear of being victimised. In this sense, it could be that women are drawn to true crime as a preventative source, giving them actions they themselves can take to stay safe. It is a very reasonable explanation as to why female consumership of this genre is much higher than that of our male counterparts.
There is certainly an interesting debate to be had about the ethics of the true crime genre. Does our morbid obsession as a society with the cruel and macabre outweigh the lived experiences of the victims of these crimes? Is there any benefit to making these criminals more famous than they already were (which for many, was the end goal all along)? In my opinion, it is a conversation that has made me rethink my consumption of the genre, and should be spoken of more, especially when it comes to dramatisation over education of these experiences. What are your thoughts on this compellingly complex debate?
Written by: Charlotte Hunter
Edited by: Hannah Clarke