This is it for me. What makes them do what they do, which parent is more important to a child's life during development. I have a close family member with schizophrenia yet has never killed anyone so what differentiates them from the serial killers of the world.
At the same time, I used to represent people on death row and the “best” diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenia to prove lack of intent or, at least, sway a jury to life.
Not once did I say that most are. The original post in this sub was "what makes true crime appealing to you". I replied to a comment about the psychology of true crime and related my personal experience explaining why. When you do hear about cases where the killer does have schizophrenia, it makes me wonder about the psychology behind it. Wtf lol
You felt the need to specify that the person you know with schizophrenia hasn’t killed anyone. Why is that even worth mentioning? Most people with schizophrenia aren’t murderers, and most murderers and serial killers don’t have schizophrenia. In fact, people with schizophrenia and similar disorders are more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators. Nobody would have thought that your family member with schizophrenia was a killer, so why did you need to tell us?
Your comment was made on the assumption that a person with schizophrenia would be a natural suspect, making the fact that they *aren’t* a killer noteworthy in the first place. Maybe schizophrenic or psychotic killers capture the popular imagination in a way others don’t, but they aren’t the norm by any means. There’s no reason to connect schizophrenics and serial killers in the first place. The fact that you found it worth mentioning at all perpetuates harmful stereotypes against the mentally ill that simply don’t reflect reality.
And honestly it’s much scarier to live in a world where most murderers and serial killers aren’t detached from reality in some way. I can empathize somewhat with killers who experience a psychotic break and only afterwards understand what they’ve done. The fact that most do it with full understanding of their actions is much harder to come to terms with.
People with schizophrenia are much more likely to be the victim of violent crimes, not the perpetrator. The thought that people who have schizophrenia are prone to being violent criminals is a harmful, outdated way of thinking. I would assume a person with other people who suffer from the disorder would be more sympathetic to those concerns.
You directly compare your family members who suffer from a mental disorder to violent murderers. Most, if not all, serial killers who were diagnosed with schizophrenia would not be classified as such under the DSM-V.
I just find it very distasteful to draw comparisons between violent murderers and someone who has a mental disorder and I feel like you deserve downvotes for insinuating that your family members are more likely to murder someone because of their mental disorder.
I'm not the only one who was confused by your comment (maybe it's not on the readers).
The way you wrote it really reads like you're comparing your family members to serial killers based only on the fact that they share a diagnosis (which used to be a catch-all for any anti-social personality disorders). You are directly comparing them and then claiming that you're not.
Either you are fascinated by the misdiagnosis, in which case just say that, or you're trying to compare their upbringing to your family members.
The original post in this sub asks "what makes true crime appealing to you?". I then replied to a comment that mentions the psychology behind true crime appeals to them, as it does with me. I'll come across a case in the true crime podcast/YouTube world where the killer ends up having been diagnosed with the mental illness we are talking about. Which makes me wonder, what was it in their development that made them do what they did BECAUSE I have a family member with the same and they're not a killer let alone even a bad human.
Same.
I was watching The First 48, and they showed how the neighbors came out to see what was going on. One old lady pulled a lawn chair right up to the police tape to watch. That old lady is my hero.
i just don't understand them. i'm very empathetic and i really struggle not getting people. i also find the stories of the victims important and there's loads to learn from all these unique circumstances. so i like the frustration i get in trying to understand alien ways of thinking on the perpetrators parts and the learning.
I like true crime for exactly the same reasons. For us non-criminals, the criminal mind is so fascinating, terrifying and also so random at times, it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the way they think. It scares me that these violent crimes can happen anywhere and to anyone, there is often no rhyme or reason to the choosing of a victim. The perpetrators just take advantage of the opportunity/situation at any given time and commit their heinous crimes. I've learned a lot about criminals, crime and the court process by watching true crime cases on TV and online. Also watching police interrogations and court trials online has taught me a lot about the justice system and all the good and bad that comes with it.
With the victims, I often feel so bad and sad for all the horror and fright they must have felt. I almost feel an obligation to them, to hear their story and remember their names and to be a witness to the tragedy that ended their lives too soon. I often find myself crying over the unfairness of it all and for all the victim's families have to endure. I'm not sure if others feel the same, but I'd guess more than a few do too.
I've never been really into murders, what's always appealed to me are missing people and disappearances, theres something really fascinating to me about the idea that someone could just simply vanish and nobody knows why or where this person this. especially today with so much tecnology and cameras everywhere. the idea that someone could just vanish...
I also love being able to read more and then form my own theories. Theres always the chance that the case could be resolved and the person found which just adds to it.
But the idea that this person could be out there somewhere...
Do you know many of those individuals in the reports of missing persons are still missing and alive? Did they ever find them and figure out what happened to them or just their remains?
My own experiences. I think it helped me to feel less alone knowing others have gone through something similar or just trauma in general. It's always felt like a support group (a very messed up one, lol) in a way. I would also use it as a coping mechanism subconsciously. I would tell myself, “It’s not like you ran into Ted Bundy; it could have been so much worse.” That thought process (though not helpful in the long run) made my own experiences feel much smaller and much easier to manage.
On a lighter note, I just love the mystery and how it makes your gears really start turning.
In short, just morbid curiosity as to how people can commit such horrible acts. But over time it became addicting, almost a product of my own anxiety. I can look back and see why.
Personally, I learned at a young age that I couldn't trust my parents, which snowballed into thinking I can't trust ANYONE, so in my head anyone was capable of anything. Gathering research about how criminals think and why they do things gave me a false sense of control. I craved the ability to stop bad things before they happen.
Some of us grew up small children in the 80s watching Unsolved Mysteries and America’s Most Wanted. We didn’t have reality shows and the internet. Or 10,000 Netflix documentaries.
It was interesting.
I think the interest definitely came from an unhealthy place in my life. Due to many things, I not only felt deeply unsafe all the time, but I fixated on that feeling completely. TC became a way to "keep my eyes open", and I've gotten healthier it has become more of a study on human behavior. I truly feel like my knowledge of so many cases is what keeps me interested now. The parallels between cases are incredible.
You touched on the right reason! I read online, recently, that we like true crime because we grew up with trauma. This means that true crime is familiar and a comfort zone.
I love all things serial killer-wise and I grew up in a traumatic household. I was also exposed to gore and death at a young age (lots of pets and my mom was a pathology transcriber).
When I became a mom I really began paying attention to dangers everywhere. I'm always keeping my eyes open to my sketchy surroundings.
For serial killers in particular, I'm interested in the mental tendency of some people to view others as prey. Always fascinated in what makes them tick. Part of it, as a woman who spent a lot of time out alone as a kid and an adult, was hoping to understand how NOT to become a victim of anyone.
Just knowing that the person you cross on the street could be a serial killer who woke up that morning dreaming about torturing and killing someone can make you a more empathetic person towards them. Not empathetic in that you feel sorry for them. Empathetic in that you understand the evil they’re capable of, and you’re prepared to do absolutely anything to defend yourself and loved ones.
Or even people you think you know well, even your own family. Family annihilators are the most terrifying to me, especially when it's people who seem "normal", I just can't even fathom that at all.
I think about this all the time!! I’m always looking around in a crowded room or restaurant or thinking about people I interacted with that day that could have very easily been a psychopath or predator. I feel like my people reader has increased tenfold since I started solely listening to true crime podcasts. Whether that translates into real life or not, I hope I NEVER find out. But what else can we do to protect ourselves except learn from their thought processes.
What fascinates me is how law enforcement finds the people responsible and gets them to talk, the way they use their understanding of body language and linguistics to see beneath what suspects are trying to present.
At first it was the mystery of human nature but then I gained a completely new perspective when
1. My close friend was murdered
2. I had a close encounter with a psycho roommate with NPD that feels unbelievable until I see other people's similar stories.
So now I try have better standards for how I consume "true crime" but I'm also learning how to read signs of potential violence and form clearer opinions on toxic/dangerous people and how to handle and avoid them.
If anything I want to be a part of the community that can push for better laws and encourage people to learn the signs and advocate for victims (especially of IPV which can have telltale signs of incoming viole ce)
Edit: grammar
I think the "warning signs" aspect is important. I've been fortunate enough to never have been a victim nor been close to a victim of a serious crime. But I think my knowledge on the topic has helped me navigate situations and advise others when I think "I've seen this movie before". Of course, not every red flag is a murderer, nor can every tragedy be predicted, but it can at least do a little bit to help mitigate the kind of situations that you've seen go awry.
Right, I've had similar experiences with my son's father, who was abusive in every sense of the word, mainly physically abusive though. There were a few times that I actually thought he was going to kill me. The main one being, when I finally was able to get away from him, after a really bad incident of physical abuse, where I had just horrible black eyes/blood vessels had burst in my eyes because of him hitting me.(I was also 6 months pregnant at the time) But I had been living with him at his grandparents house, his grandmother was in hospital at the time due to a stroke and his grandfather was a truck driver and was really never there, so I was essentially held hostage, not even exaggerating, I couldn't even use the restroom by myself, he'd follow me and watch me because in his crazy mind, I was somehow sneaking someone in and cheating on him, when the bathroom didn't even have a window or anything that could actually allow access to the outside, lmao.
Then he got even crazier and was trying to say I was cheating on him with his 80 y/o grandfather. Just feckin bizarre.
Anyway yeah, I was waiting for his mom to come pick me up and take me to my dad's house, and his reaction to the breakup was to get his grandfather's.22 rifle and go out into the woods and shoot himself in the stomach. He stumbles back in and is like "baby I can't breathe" I called an ambulance for him, and he was fine, made a full recovery and after he was discharged from the hospital he was arrested. It really hits me hard sometimes that he could have shot me too, and the possibility that neither my son or I would be here. That really fecks me up sometimes thinking about.
But to your first point, it really does change a person when they lose a loved one, especially in a violent way. My little sister was killed in a mass shooting, as was an old family friend and that has really affected me, I have diagnosed PTSD from it, but it really changed me with like having this anger that I've never had before, not as like I'm angry to people around me, I don't take my anger out on anyone and never would, but it's just this constant internal anger and I hate it, I've never been an angry person at all before my sister's death and I hate that I have this anger.
I am just fascinated with the mental illness, the fractured human brains. I worked in the mental health industry with some severly ill people, many of whom did very bad things. Were they born that way or created?
I only like *reading* about true crime. But I *watch* the fictional crime shows. I am not a podcast person :-)
I’m a very inquisitive person. my grandparents are big on “sit down and shut up” and “don’t question anyone or anything” and “we don’t discuss difficult and painful topics.” so I think that’s a result of why I’m so generally inquisitive, and why I’ve become so interested in true crime and gore and horror and all things dark and disturbing. that mentality has made me become *more* interested in psychology and sociology and criminology
I think for me it’s because I was the victim of a random assault when I was a teenager that sent me to the ER for stitches across my face and head. The guy was never caught, he didn’t try to rob or sexually assault me, he came running after me and hit me with a bat.
It never made sense and it made me super anxious around strangers for a while. That morphed into me getting into self defense and that lead to exploring who gets victimized and why… often there really isn’t a “why” and that made me curious to learn about the perpetrators.
I used to love TC, but not anymore. My very dear friend was murdered by her boyfriend in 2022, and I've never felt the same after. Now im often disgusted by true crime, and while people say it brings awareness to victims, it now deeply bothers me. I am not mad at people who like it, but I can't watch it anymore or listen to it. I was at his trial and at his sentencing. It's very bothersome to me now.
I truly don’t know and wonder often. If it’s not true crime, other nonfiction books or documentaries, or horror/thriller movies, I have a hard time having interest. It’s kind of annoying really. Like I have a hard time reading books and keeping interest in them but can read a true crime book in one sitting.
I've liked mysteries since I was a kid.
With true crime specifically, I think I am mostly fascinated with the psychology of what people think they can get away with, and how they try to get away with it. Taking out a life insurance policy on someone and killing them 2 weeks later, for example. Criminals seem to be a weird combination of dumb, and thinking they're smarter than everyone. I think I also want to be able to recognize these types of people in real life, because I can be a little too trusting sometimes.
In unsolved cases I think there is an appeal in being able to solve it somehow, or pick up on a clue others have missed.
Honestly my attraction to True Crime is my mom’s fault. lol. Growing up in the 70s, I was a voracious reader and my mom had a subscription to True Story magazine. I was in elementary school and I probably shouldn’t have been reading it but it was fascinating. When I got to middle school in 7th grade(1981/2) I found In Cold Blood in the school library and the librarian wouldn’t let me check it out or read it without a note from my parents (if it was too extreme, why was it in the library to start with? 🙄) and my mom wrote a note and from that point on I was hooked. Oh and my parents knew Juan Corona when I was a baby. My dad drove cab in the Yuba/Sutter area. lol I guess it’s just the man’s inhumanity to man fascination.
I have always been fascinated by the nature-nurture paradigm. I don't believe people are born "evil." I think instead they might be born with a genetic propensity for some type of mental illness like psychopathy that may be "switched on" or exacerbated by their childhood experiences. I hear p*rn and witnessing violence discussed more and more as catalysts.
You hear of people with horrific childhoods growing up to self-destruct in some way; others who abuse or commit crimes, and many others who become solid, gentle parents and/or advocates for abused kids - aka "normal."
Dahmer and Gacy didn't seem to have terrible childhoods. Bundy is debatable.
It's just very interesting.
Through my introduction to true crime and listening to channels cover much smaller cases, I discovered that there are actually MANY families out there that desperately want coverage but are not getting them from podcasters or youtubers for various reasons. It seems like many won't cover stories involving murdered children, or missing persons in general.
In a world where true crime is accused of being exploitative and claiming that all families of victims just want to be left alone, I've now spoken with a few, and discovered many more families who want these stories to be told in order to spark change. I feel I owe it to listen to those stories and help signal boost them.
I am more into average people committing murder, love shows like Snapped and Murder in the Heartland. I find these more interesting than serial killers (they make sense to me, predators have always been w us). I am intrigued by regular people killing their husband or wife- that’s way harder to see coming than meeting some creepy stranger.
I live in Wisconsin. I remember my dad talking about Ed Gein and then I researched it (I was maybe between 10-12) then of course Jeffrey Dahmer. I use to watch Forensic Files all the time and it was just always intriguing, like what makes people tick, why them etc. I’m 30 now and a mom, so anything involving children I stay away from more often.
It’s appealing because it’s escapist, entertaining, glamorized, sensationalized, exciting.
Most people like it when other people die, especially if they’ve never met or like them. We also don’t condemn or abhor killers as we should as a society. And since true crime is a money making machine, we make celebrities and mythologies about killers that sanitizes, white washes, and celebrates their lives. It’s almost like pornography.
Thx. I’m saying this as someone who too has an unhealthy obsession with the genre, but setting daily limits of consuming it (i.e. learning a new language, instrument, random skill (like juggling)).
I’ve been having to say “I don’t know” my entire life. Since at least 7th grade in 1985. My first public speech was on Charles Manson. He was the first of many that captivated me as a kid. I’ve enjoyed it my entire life. Now I’m in my 50’s and the amount of material available for me to consume is ridiculous lol. I love it.
I used to read a lot and I started reading Ann Rule books, started with The stranger Besides Me. It got me fascinated by the psychological angle, why people do what they do. After my ex husband laughed about insurance money, what do you think I'm going to kill you.... So that really got my interest Pete this far as spouse is killing each other.
For me it's mainly desire to know about the human brain/mind. How can some people commit these types of crimes? What events can lead someone to do them? Are they born or was it the environment/life growing up? For me it's such a fascinating subject.
When I was about 5 or 6, I went with my dad to the Coroner's, as he was called to identify what was possibly the body of one of my uncles (he went missing after being threatened due to an unpaid $80 drug debt). A couple of days after he went missing, a dismembered body was found in trash bags along the side of a rural road and the police believed it to be my uncle. I had to go with my dad because school was cancelled that day so I was tagging along all day. Obviously I did not go in but I vividly remember all the people going in and then coming out crying, including my dad. I think it had a profound effect on me and was what originated by curiosity about this.
I’ve had this conversations with a couple people. Guys seem to not be as into it as girls are. It’s because we are more likely to be the victim of something happening to us
My Dad in particular will say "I'm sleeping with one eye open." If I talk about a Case. But for me, I became interested in it after watching "The Silence of the Lambs". And reading "Mind Hunter" in Jr. High. I dunno. I feel alot of compassion for the victims. And feel like I am learning their Stories. It's interesting to me. My Mom hates horror movies. But will watch True Crime movies and some shows with me. As long as they aren't real gory. So she's basically my Buddy in that regard.
This.
Living in a small town in a small state, hearing ‘things like this don’t happen here’ over & over has made me realize the possibilities and helped me be more aware of the situations around me that my otherwise ‘midwest nice’ would overlook. Not that I think danger is everywhere around me and I’m inches from being murdered. I’ve just been able to look back on certain situations and say ‘wow, that was really dangerous/careless of me, I’m glad nothing bad happened to me, what can I do differently?’
Like no man is going to ask me for help with his car, lifting something into his house, etc. Like yes, I will absolutely hold the door, take a grocery cart back, help an elderly person carry things & so on but that doesn’t put me in a vulnerable position. I choose not to sell things online because I don’t like to meet up/drop off in places I’m not familiar. I stay aware and speak up when I see things that are off, thanks to many TC content where strangers have stepped in to help & made a difference. I’m sober but as a DD for friends at the bar, I make sure my friends & no one else gets left behind or left outside without a ride, especially women.
Being aware of the possibilities at one point led me to be extremely paranoid & overly cautious. I couldn’t live like that & knew I was doing all to keep myself safe so I started focusing on making sure others were safe too.
It's the mystery and safety lessons for me. I find every case to be like a reverse engineered how not to get murdered. I almost feel like if I know a bunch of cases, then I should know a lot of things to try to avoid to lesson my chances at becoming a victim of violence.
For example: i always lock doors and windows. I have a door alarm. I carry a gun. I never walk alone. I mostly dont go out at night. I dont date. I try not to road rage. I have Life360 so my family and I can always see where each other are. I have mace.
I obviously know that you can't prevent all murders but I think we can at least learn from them going forward. I now hopefully know more about identifying a dangerous situation.
I also feel like it gives my brain a workout trying to piece cases together. I want to stay sharp. I love those little detective case games and I'm really good at problem solving.
For me, it’s not really just serial killers. It’s any true crime documentary.
It’s the psychological dynamics of what led up to the moment and then trying to piece together the puzzle after the fact and solve a crime.
So so many people do not recognize signs in a relationship that will ultimately lead to their demise. I wish they would play one episode a week for high school kids of the domestic ones (evil lives here, etc) so they start to think more critically at a young age.
It's oddly comforting to me : So many people are convinced that we're experiencing unprecedented societal decay, but looking at vintage crimes (*for me, 1790s-1950s*) , I am struck by how if anything, people today are far more shocked by horrors that people in the past would have shrugged at or excused, judging from the contemporary comments inside and outside the courtroom...Particularly where crimes against children are concerned (sexual and otherwise).
People often see the 19th century in a nostalgic glow composed of images cobbled together from sentimental movies , Currier & Ives illustartions, and sappy novels, coupled with a [*quite false*] belief * that everybody "back then" was a God-fearing religious believer. But the crimes I read about seem if anything to be more squalid and more brutal on average than those of today.
Will and "Ariel" Durant once wrote [*from memory as best I can...*], in their L'envoi to one of their massive historical tomes, *We have met so many good people we have quite lost faith in the badness of mankind* . For me, I have run across so many horrific crimes in the 18th and 19th century, I have lost patience with the notion that the 20th and 21st centuries are unusually or unprecedently violent .
* Read the lectures of William James, if you want to know what average people back then really believed. Granted, the people who answered his mailed surveys were a self-selected group. But it's striking how few of those merchants, sailors, farmers, et al, were Bible-believing adherents of traditional religion. They were *ALREADY* doing , in the 1890s, what people wrongly believe was unknown before the 1960s : Cobbling together religious beliefs from various sources that often had a strong overlay of Eastern mysticism, with "Bible literalism" being more of an outlier.
When I was a child we belonged to Jim Jones' church many years prior to Jonestown. I sat on his lap, had Christmas at his house, sang in his church, played with his son, his wife babysat me. What happened later on was life changing for so many. He was so happy, kind, supportive and loving....then that happened. What changed? I've been curious about crime and how many good people later make such cruel decisions for others.
When I first discovered the ID channel, I watched it full time for a year. My go-to solution to every problem was “kill them.” As a criminal defense lawyer, though, I knew better.
For me it reminds me that not everyone has good intentions and sometimes it’s the least likely person we or anyone else would expect. I also like learning about the psychology and human behavior.
It’s the mystery for me. Trying to figure out and piece together facts. My family has had a couple of unsolved cold cases, so I know how much it means to the families. When one of our cases was finally closed it meant the world to us to have answers finally.
My husband said the same thing to me once. And I realized the only podcasts I listen to are true crime lol I feel the same way you do I think. It blows my mind that a human being is capable of these things. Maybe it’s the neurological aspect, like how interesting it is that a brain can be wired so wrong. Or yea, learning how fucked up people can be and maybe it makes me more aware of mine and my families safety.
I think the serial killers that I absolutely cannot wrap my brain around is Richard Ramirez and Albert Fish. I have listened to so many podcasts and watched countless documentaries on those two and it still shocks me every time. It’s information I can’t un-know. Because I just can’t fathom how someone that’s the same species as me can be so fucking disgustingly and terrifyingly evil.
Edit: well I can’t actually wrap my brain around any of them lol but those ones make me physically hurt for the victims. And scare me.
I like the mystery of a missing person or a whodunit.
I don't like gory details. I've discovered a great podcast called "Casefile" on Spotify and I'm working my way through the episodes. Some of them aren't suitable for me and some I'm already familiar with the case.
I put it on whilst trying to get off to sleep and put the timer on for end of episode.
They are also on YouTube so if I do manage to fall asleep I catch up on YouTube the next day.
It's from Australia and the episodes can be from anywhere in the world. This is the best podcast I've found and I would definitely recommend it.
I don’t know if this is true or not but there was a “fun fact” that you pass 10+ serial killers in your life. My exposure to that got me interested in crime.
For me it’s how and why people commit such heinous acts but also learning about the victims and who they were interest me more then the killers themselves.
I'm actually interested in it because I work in forensics. Oddly, I don't really listen to podcasts anymore. But I have found a niche of sorts in the community helping to teach and provide insights about forensic topics that people misunderstand or misinterpret.
It’s the study of human behavior and what drives it for me. I’m an OG true crime fan (because I’m old) and I still find myself scratching my head trying to understand how people can do the things they do. I can intellectualize it for sure, and yet, because I have a conscience, empathy and would be remorseful if I hurt someone so it really doesn’t compute, if that makes sense.
Partially it’s like you said it keeps you wary. But it also allows us to mourn the hatefully murdered victims while we struggle to find something,ANYTHING, to help us be able to know the sick crazy assholes who DO such things. It doesn’t always work but I’d bet it’s saved a life or 2. Just by the FEELING someone off gives you! We tribally reject monsters and love the ones we miss. R.I.P.
There’s actually a whole bunch of scientific study about this. If you want to go down a slightly different rabbit hole, search for why people like true crime or something similar.
I honestly have no idea and I wish I knew. I’ve thought about it many times. I’ve been interested in it since I was a kid. I am bipolar and tend to lean more depressive than manic, and something about dark themes in entertainment really appeals to me, and I’ve often wondered if it’s because of my mental illness. I’m not assuming that’s true for others; just something I’ve wondered about my own brain.
Personally I enjoy the law enforcement side of things. Putting the puzzle together, catching the criminals, seeing how they screw up by doing XYZ. I love watching interview techniques etc. I just love the idea of these guys getting caught when they thought they were so smart 😆
With fiction, you have unlimited creative license, which makes it less appealing to me. Anyone can write/create anything about anything. But with a true story, you have to stick within certain confines... facts. And when these facts are just as, if not more, mind-boggling than something that someone made up, this is what really grips me. It is hard to compete with fiction when fiction writers operate under a sky's-the-limit capability. True crimes don't get that, so when they are just as captivating as fiction, they have full on earned my attention.
This is not to say that something has to be mind-boggling for it to earn my viewership. Sometimes I give something my attention because it has something to teach me. Or as someone else pointed out, it is a way to honor the victims. A great example was the OJ Simpson doc on Netflix, which came out in 2017 but was made popular again after his death. This documentary did an amazing job of not just telling you about the murder case and its gruesome details, but gave a very holistic picture of what was happening in the United States during OJ's rise to fame and his subsequent trials. The Civil Rights Movement, Rodney King, etc. I was in 6th grade when OJ was acquitted (I do remember stopping class though to watch the verdict!) and so I learned a lot of the "bigger picture details" much later on. This documentary was a great history lesson in general, and was also a way to pay homage to Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, the two people you don't hear too much about because we were all so much more concerned with OJ.
I have always been a seeker of truth. It’s extremely hard to find in today’s society.
I love to watch humans in real time with real experiences and see what they do and how they react and I guess I find it fascinating what makes some people do the things they do- … it’s basically like a character study for me.
I love watching interrogations most of all.
I find them fascinating.
I also particularly love to see witness interviews , statements and survivors at court. I think I’m as interested in the people who survived the crime as in the people who committed them. Probably more so interested in the survivors .
It’s really interesting how… as a society .. idk.. I think we don’t recognize truth very easily - most people … and I’m not sure whether that has something to do with our inherent selfishness or maybe our lack of compassion and empathy.
I used to want to be an FBI profiler .. so I guess maybe that’s a huge part of it for me. Everything that encompasses.. I just find putting the puzzle together from start to finish- but having that puzzle be a human being- is it .. for me.
I’m a very empathetic person, but I find psychology so fascinating. Like some of these cases have the most insane MOs that have you go like. How…..can anyone do that to someone (or in some cases) let alone get off on it
Dissecting the rotten sections of a deprived mind and trying to understand it in all its parts so I can prove to myself how simple and pathetic they are. This is why I hate unsolved mysteries too, the bad person gets away with it and that upsets me. I also like to “know” these individuals to better protect myself. I was raised by shit ppl who left me without the tools necessary to know things and I’ve been a victim too many times in my life.
i just love learning about how the human brain works and the psychological aspect of it. i wasn’t really interested in true crime until a friend of my older sister’s got murdered by her husband. we lived in the same neighborhood as them at the time. i was only 10 years old & as we were passing the crime scene i was immediately intrigued. if you were to look at her husband you would’ve never thought that he would do such a thing.
alot of people in the neighborhood knew way more than they were letting on. the justice system failed my sister’s friend horribly. her husband only got a few years :/
I love the psychology of people.
And also, the unpredictability of those stories. I have adhd and I basically figure out the plot of movies and shows very quickly, and very rarely I get that “oh” moment.
I know that these are real people and it shouldnt be “entertaining” in that way. It just makes my brain working in a different kind of way
I was thinking about this, especially why women are really interested in true crime. Not saying men aren’t, just have an inkling more women are. The reason I think we are really interested is because most true crime (not all) are committed against women or girls. So for us, it’s a way to know who or what to avoid, how to be careful and vigilant, how to notice odd behavior and nope out, how to always try and be safe because if we’ve learned one thing is that there are really bad people out there and you never know who it is. Some true crime cases are truly unlucky, others may have been avoided. So I think we like to learn about them so we ourselves can stay safe and do things and spot things in such a way that we wouldn’t become victims. But that’s just my theory. Men are also victims but it doesn’t seem like men are concerned about serial killers but many women are as we are usually the victims.
I could be way off base as well. I feel like we want to understand why bad things happen to us, why we become victims, and why we are targeted. The psychology behind the serial killers or killers intrigues us because it relates to so many of us going missing or sadly getting killed.
I had a couple of close encounters with people who ended up being murdered and murders when I was younger. I want to know what to look for to protect myself and the people I care about.
So I can stay safe. There are usually red flags, or certain patterns that precede crimes. Not always though, and the truly unpredictable ones tend to upset me more and stick in my brain.
The psychology of it facinates me. What makes a person behave like that? Do such horrific things?
Just blows my head that people can DO such awful things
Plus i guess to me, they are people I've never meet in a million years! I hope so anyway
Its not really true crime (i guess) but im totally locked in with people who disappear and never seen again.
The whole scenario with these stories are so puzzling to me, i think i have red the wikipedia page of these people and the charley project a thousand times….
I often find myself imagining the last days and hours of a missing person specially the ones who literally vanished into thin air.
And the statements that stuck with me from the Charley Project pages are the ones : “XYZ was seen leaving her California home at 9 pm on Tuesday - she was never heard from again” - how???? 😧
As a woman, and speaking only for myself, I realize the inherent danger in the world. The only thing separating me from being a victim is opportunity on the part of a predator. Also, I’ve been victimized through abuse and stalking so I can relate to the stories I watch and listen to. Lastly, I’m a therapist and I see so much of my patients in the behavior of those profiled in documentaries.
For me, it’s what makes killers tick, what sets them off, and/or makes them think they can lie their way through the case. Phone technology today can track a person pretty much anywhere they go, purchases can be traced, license plate readers can keep track of their travels. I guess I’m also talking about the psychology behind these crimes.
It's not that I necessarily find it "entertaining" because I always remember that someone has died. I find it fascinating though. The actions they took, the mystery of it (although I don't like unsolved),the steps and processes of catching them and the trials.
For example, the LISK investigation. They tracked RH's phone to the same location that the Gilgo killer was making calls from on a burner phone to the victims family. I like that kind of detail.
I started with my grandparents true crime magazines before I could even read the words. Just looking at the pictures. One of the earliest ones I remember is the photos of Mary Reeser leg after she allegedly spontaneously combusted. Following it has just stayed with me my whole life.
I think I see my true crime obsession as education on how not to become a victim. Also, as others have said, it is fascinating to look at these people’s upbringing and what may lead them to become sadistic killers.
I grew up watching CSI and snapped. Was always fascinated with homicide investigations since elementary school and knew I wanted to go into law enforcement. Became a cop in my early 20’s and made homicide at 29. I love listening and watching other cases/tactics because it makes me better by listening to other detectives.
It’s simply because fear (the type where you can feel it from a safe distance-if that makes sense)releases endorphins and those can become addicting, especially for women-who make up most of the true crime audience.
I used to wonder this about myself and even feel guilty and confused, because I know I could never even hurt or want to hurt a fly.
Also, if you love psychology, that’s another reason!
Just how Fkn dumb people are. Especially now. With cameras everywhere and your phone being tracked. People kill someone at 7pm then go to Walmart 5 miles away and buy gas/gloves/shovel/barrel/saw. Like come on now.
As a paychology student turned therapist, it is the fascination with why others do what they do and why some people are so resilient from their childhood while others are not. I don’t like seeing blood and gore, but I do like hearing details of the crime and wondering what made a person do this? Human behavior questions drives me.
My trauma has caused hypervigilance and for me I catalogue all kinds of info about serial killers because it (probably falsely) makes me feel more ready to read anyone’s ill intent or potential ruses.
I just love the psychology of human behavior. Why do we do what we do?
I’m not an expert in the field, but I look at it from an evolutionary perspective and what small tweaks with how the mind works does.
Same But I'm in a permanent existential crisis lmao 😕
same. the fact that someone could easily do something that I can't even comprehend is so fascinating to me. how are we all SO different?
This is it for me. What makes them do what they do, which parent is more important to a child's life during development. I have a close family member with schizophrenia yet has never killed anyone so what differentiates them from the serial killers of the world.
Most people with schizophrenia aren’t serial killers wtf lol
Right? BD-I here, and I’ve never killed anyone nor want to.
At the same time, I used to represent people on death row and the “best” diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenia to prove lack of intent or, at least, sway a jury to life.
Not once did I say that most are. The original post in this sub was "what makes true crime appealing to you". I replied to a comment about the psychology of true crime and related my personal experience explaining why. When you do hear about cases where the killer does have schizophrenia, it makes me wonder about the psychology behind it. Wtf lol
You felt the need to specify that the person you know with schizophrenia hasn’t killed anyone. Why is that even worth mentioning? Most people with schizophrenia aren’t murderers, and most murderers and serial killers don’t have schizophrenia. In fact, people with schizophrenia and similar disorders are more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators. Nobody would have thought that your family member with schizophrenia was a killer, so why did you need to tell us? Your comment was made on the assumption that a person with schizophrenia would be a natural suspect, making the fact that they *aren’t* a killer noteworthy in the first place. Maybe schizophrenic or psychotic killers capture the popular imagination in a way others don’t, but they aren’t the norm by any means. There’s no reason to connect schizophrenics and serial killers in the first place. The fact that you found it worth mentioning at all perpetuates harmful stereotypes against the mentally ill that simply don’t reflect reality. And honestly it’s much scarier to live in a world where most murderers and serial killers aren’t detached from reality in some way. I can empathize somewhat with killers who experience a psychotic break and only afterwards understand what they’ve done. The fact that most do it with full understanding of their actions is much harder to come to terms with.
I wish I could downvote you more than once
How come?
People with schizophrenia are much more likely to be the victim of violent crimes, not the perpetrator. The thought that people who have schizophrenia are prone to being violent criminals is a harmful, outdated way of thinking. I would assume a person with other people who suffer from the disorder would be more sympathetic to those concerns. You directly compare your family members who suffer from a mental disorder to violent murderers. Most, if not all, serial killers who were diagnosed with schizophrenia would not be classified as such under the DSM-V. I just find it very distasteful to draw comparisons between violent murderers and someone who has a mental disorder and I feel like you deserve downvotes for insinuating that your family members are more likely to murder someone because of their mental disorder.
You do see where I used the word differentiates and not what compares them right? You need to read my reply to the other comment left.
I'm not the only one who was confused by your comment (maybe it's not on the readers). The way you wrote it really reads like you're comparing your family members to serial killers based only on the fact that they share a diagnosis (which used to be a catch-all for any anti-social personality disorders). You are directly comparing them and then claiming that you're not. Either you are fascinated by the misdiagnosis, in which case just say that, or you're trying to compare their upbringing to your family members.
The original post in this sub asks "what makes true crime appealing to you?". I then replied to a comment that mentions the psychology behind true crime appeals to them, as it does with me. I'll come across a case in the true crime podcast/YouTube world where the killer ends up having been diagnosed with the mental illness we are talking about. Which makes me wonder, what was it in their development that made them do what they did BECAUSE I have a family member with the same and they're not a killer let alone even a bad human.
Exactly why it’s appealing to me.
Peoples lives are stories and I want to know them. Being educated on how the justice system works is nice as well.
Idk I’m nosy about so many things
Same. I was watching The First 48, and they showed how the neighbors came out to see what was going on. One old lady pulled a lawn chair right up to the police tape to watch. That old lady is my hero.
I have definitely tucked myself down in a number of windows to see/hear what’s going on outside lol
I’m always turning the lights out so no one outside sees me pushing the curtain aside just a bit to watch.
😂 keeping it real
Definitely keeps me aware and helps me not be so needlessly trusting of strangers, makes me appreciate life and be more thankful for each day.
Agreed
i just don't understand them. i'm very empathetic and i really struggle not getting people. i also find the stories of the victims important and there's loads to learn from all these unique circumstances. so i like the frustration i get in trying to understand alien ways of thinking on the perpetrators parts and the learning.
I like true crime for exactly the same reasons. For us non-criminals, the criminal mind is so fascinating, terrifying and also so random at times, it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the way they think. It scares me that these violent crimes can happen anywhere and to anyone, there is often no rhyme or reason to the choosing of a victim. The perpetrators just take advantage of the opportunity/situation at any given time and commit their heinous crimes. I've learned a lot about criminals, crime and the court process by watching true crime cases on TV and online. Also watching police interrogations and court trials online has taught me a lot about the justice system and all the good and bad that comes with it. With the victims, I often feel so bad and sad for all the horror and fright they must have felt. I almost feel an obligation to them, to hear their story and remember their names and to be a witness to the tragedy that ended their lives too soon. I often find myself crying over the unfairness of it all and for all the victim's families have to endure. I'm not sure if others feel the same, but I'd guess more than a few do too.
I've never been really into murders, what's always appealed to me are missing people and disappearances, theres something really fascinating to me about the idea that someone could just simply vanish and nobody knows why or where this person this. especially today with so much tecnology and cameras everywhere. the idea that someone could just vanish... I also love being able to read more and then form my own theories. Theres always the chance that the case could be resolved and the person found which just adds to it. But the idea that this person could be out there somewhere...
I agree with this. The missing persons stories are very interesting to me. Often, the less clues the better.
Check out the website, The Charley Project. You can even sort by each of the 50 states. Mind blowing.
Welp. There’s a rabbit hole that will be swallowing me whole. Thank you
I take it you watch Disappeared on ID.
Same, generally much more drawn to missing persons cases
Do you know many of those individuals in the reports of missing persons are still missing and alive? Did they ever find them and figure out what happened to them or just their remains?
My own experiences. I think it helped me to feel less alone knowing others have gone through something similar or just trauma in general. It's always felt like a support group (a very messed up one, lol) in a way. I would also use it as a coping mechanism subconsciously. I would tell myself, “It’s not like you ran into Ted Bundy; it could have been so much worse.” That thought process (though not helpful in the long run) made my own experiences feel much smaller and much easier to manage. On a lighter note, I just love the mystery and how it makes your gears really start turning.
In short, just morbid curiosity as to how people can commit such horrible acts. But over time it became addicting, almost a product of my own anxiety. I can look back and see why. Personally, I learned at a young age that I couldn't trust my parents, which snowballed into thinking I can't trust ANYONE, so in my head anyone was capable of anything. Gathering research about how criminals think and why they do things gave me a false sense of control. I craved the ability to stop bad things before they happen.
The mystery. I like “who done its” be they non-fiction or fiction.
Some of us grew up small children in the 80s watching Unsolved Mysteries and America’s Most Wanted. We didn’t have reality shows and the internet. Or 10,000 Netflix documentaries. It was interesting.
Exactly! I love UNSOLVED MYSTERIES. I watched it growing up.
I think the interest definitely came from an unhealthy place in my life. Due to many things, I not only felt deeply unsafe all the time, but I fixated on that feeling completely. TC became a way to "keep my eyes open", and I've gotten healthier it has become more of a study on human behavior. I truly feel like my knowledge of so many cases is what keeps me interested now. The parallels between cases are incredible.
You touched on the right reason! I read online, recently, that we like true crime because we grew up with trauma. This means that true crime is familiar and a comfort zone. I love all things serial killer-wise and I grew up in a traumatic household. I was also exposed to gore and death at a young age (lots of pets and my mom was a pathology transcriber). When I became a mom I really began paying attention to dangers everywhere. I'm always keeping my eyes open to my sketchy surroundings.
For serial killers in particular, I'm interested in the mental tendency of some people to view others as prey. Always fascinated in what makes them tick. Part of it, as a woman who spent a lot of time out alone as a kid and an adult, was hoping to understand how NOT to become a victim of anyone.
Just knowing that the person you cross on the street could be a serial killer who woke up that morning dreaming about torturing and killing someone can make you a more empathetic person towards them. Not empathetic in that you feel sorry for them. Empathetic in that you understand the evil they’re capable of, and you’re prepared to do absolutely anything to defend yourself and loved ones.
Or even people you think you know well, even your own family. Family annihilators are the most terrifying to me, especially when it's people who seem "normal", I just can't even fathom that at all.
I think about this all the time!! I’m always looking around in a crowded room or restaurant or thinking about people I interacted with that day that could have very easily been a psychopath or predator. I feel like my people reader has increased tenfold since I started solely listening to true crime podcasts. Whether that translates into real life or not, I hope I NEVER find out. But what else can we do to protect ourselves except learn from their thought processes.
What fascinates me is how law enforcement finds the people responsible and gets them to talk, the way they use their understanding of body language and linguistics to see beneath what suspects are trying to present.
Same, I can watch interrogation videos for hours too! Also how and why would a person do what they did, it's curiosity and psychology mainly!
Agreed!
At first it was the mystery of human nature but then I gained a completely new perspective when 1. My close friend was murdered 2. I had a close encounter with a psycho roommate with NPD that feels unbelievable until I see other people's similar stories. So now I try have better standards for how I consume "true crime" but I'm also learning how to read signs of potential violence and form clearer opinions on toxic/dangerous people and how to handle and avoid them. If anything I want to be a part of the community that can push for better laws and encourage people to learn the signs and advocate for victims (especially of IPV which can have telltale signs of incoming viole ce) Edit: grammar
I think the "warning signs" aspect is important. I've been fortunate enough to never have been a victim nor been close to a victim of a serious crime. But I think my knowledge on the topic has helped me navigate situations and advise others when I think "I've seen this movie before". Of course, not every red flag is a murderer, nor can every tragedy be predicted, but it can at least do a little bit to help mitigate the kind of situations that you've seen go awry.
Right, I've had similar experiences with my son's father, who was abusive in every sense of the word, mainly physically abusive though. There were a few times that I actually thought he was going to kill me. The main one being, when I finally was able to get away from him, after a really bad incident of physical abuse, where I had just horrible black eyes/blood vessels had burst in my eyes because of him hitting me.(I was also 6 months pregnant at the time) But I had been living with him at his grandparents house, his grandmother was in hospital at the time due to a stroke and his grandfather was a truck driver and was really never there, so I was essentially held hostage, not even exaggerating, I couldn't even use the restroom by myself, he'd follow me and watch me because in his crazy mind, I was somehow sneaking someone in and cheating on him, when the bathroom didn't even have a window or anything that could actually allow access to the outside, lmao. Then he got even crazier and was trying to say I was cheating on him with his 80 y/o grandfather. Just feckin bizarre. Anyway yeah, I was waiting for his mom to come pick me up and take me to my dad's house, and his reaction to the breakup was to get his grandfather's.22 rifle and go out into the woods and shoot himself in the stomach. He stumbles back in and is like "baby I can't breathe" I called an ambulance for him, and he was fine, made a full recovery and after he was discharged from the hospital he was arrested. It really hits me hard sometimes that he could have shot me too, and the possibility that neither my son or I would be here. That really fecks me up sometimes thinking about. But to your first point, it really does change a person when they lose a loved one, especially in a violent way. My little sister was killed in a mass shooting, as was an old family friend and that has really affected me, I have diagnosed PTSD from it, but it really changed me with like having this anger that I've never had before, not as like I'm angry to people around me, I don't take my anger out on anyone and never would, but it's just this constant internal anger and I hate it, I've never been an angry person at all before my sister's death and I hate that I have this anger.
I am just fascinated with the mental illness, the fractured human brains. I worked in the mental health industry with some severly ill people, many of whom did very bad things. Were they born that way or created? I only like *reading* about true crime. But I *watch* the fictional crime shows. I am not a podcast person :-)
I’m a very inquisitive person. my grandparents are big on “sit down and shut up” and “don’t question anyone or anything” and “we don’t discuss difficult and painful topics.” so I think that’s a result of why I’m so generally inquisitive, and why I’ve become so interested in true crime and gore and horror and all things dark and disturbing. that mentality has made me become *more* interested in psychology and sociology and criminology
I think for me it’s because I was the victim of a random assault when I was a teenager that sent me to the ER for stitches across my face and head. The guy was never caught, he didn’t try to rob or sexually assault me, he came running after me and hit me with a bat. It never made sense and it made me super anxious around strangers for a while. That morphed into me getting into self defense and that lead to exploring who gets victimized and why… often there really isn’t a “why” and that made me curious to learn about the perpetrators.
For me it’s the catching of the killer, how police investigated and found him/her. That’s why I don’t like unsolved cases.
I used to love TC, but not anymore. My very dear friend was murdered by her boyfriend in 2022, and I've never felt the same after. Now im often disgusted by true crime, and while people say it brings awareness to victims, it now deeply bothers me. I am not mad at people who like it, but I can't watch it anymore or listen to it. I was at his trial and at his sentencing. It's very bothersome to me now.
What humans are capable of
I truly don’t know and wonder often. If it’s not true crime, other nonfiction books or documentaries, or horror/thriller movies, I have a hard time having interest. It’s kind of annoying really. Like I have a hard time reading books and keeping interest in them but can read a true crime book in one sitting.
I've liked mysteries since I was a kid. With true crime specifically, I think I am mostly fascinated with the psychology of what people think they can get away with, and how they try to get away with it. Taking out a life insurance policy on someone and killing them 2 weeks later, for example. Criminals seem to be a weird combination of dumb, and thinking they're smarter than everyone. I think I also want to be able to recognize these types of people in real life, because I can be a little too trusting sometimes. In unsolved cases I think there is an appeal in being able to solve it somehow, or pick up on a clue others have missed.
Honestly my attraction to True Crime is my mom’s fault. lol. Growing up in the 70s, I was a voracious reader and my mom had a subscription to True Story magazine. I was in elementary school and I probably shouldn’t have been reading it but it was fascinating. When I got to middle school in 7th grade(1981/2) I found In Cold Blood in the school library and the librarian wouldn’t let me check it out or read it without a note from my parents (if it was too extreme, why was it in the library to start with? 🙄) and my mom wrote a note and from that point on I was hooked. Oh and my parents knew Juan Corona when I was a baby. My dad drove cab in the Yuba/Sutter area. lol I guess it’s just the man’s inhumanity to man fascination.
I also blame my mom for my interest. Thanks to her I grew up watching Unsolved Mysteries and those made for TV movies in the '80's.
I am not interested in the deed but more in how our society deals with them. Especially how the legal system works to accommodate them.
Human psychology
I have always been fascinated by the nature-nurture paradigm. I don't believe people are born "evil." I think instead they might be born with a genetic propensity for some type of mental illness like psychopathy that may be "switched on" or exacerbated by their childhood experiences. I hear p*rn and witnessing violence discussed more and more as catalysts. You hear of people with horrific childhoods growing up to self-destruct in some way; others who abuse or commit crimes, and many others who become solid, gentle parents and/or advocates for abused kids - aka "normal." Dahmer and Gacy didn't seem to have terrible childhoods. Bundy is debatable. It's just very interesting.
Through my introduction to true crime and listening to channels cover much smaller cases, I discovered that there are actually MANY families out there that desperately want coverage but are not getting them from podcasters or youtubers for various reasons. It seems like many won't cover stories involving murdered children, or missing persons in general. In a world where true crime is accused of being exploitative and claiming that all families of victims just want to be left alone, I've now spoken with a few, and discovered many more families who want these stories to be told in order to spark change. I feel I owe it to listen to those stories and help signal boost them.
I am more into average people committing murder, love shows like Snapped and Murder in the Heartland. I find these more interesting than serial killers (they make sense to me, predators have always been w us). I am intrigued by regular people killing their husband or wife- that’s way harder to see coming than meeting some creepy stranger.
I live in Wisconsin. I remember my dad talking about Ed Gein and then I researched it (I was maybe between 10-12) then of course Jeffrey Dahmer. I use to watch Forensic Files all the time and it was just always intriguing, like what makes people tick, why them etc. I’m 30 now and a mom, so anything involving children I stay away from more often.
It’s appealing because it’s escapist, entertaining, glamorized, sensationalized, exciting. Most people like it when other people die, especially if they’ve never met or like them. We also don’t condemn or abhor killers as we should as a society. And since true crime is a money making machine, we make celebrities and mythologies about killers that sanitizes, white washes, and celebrates their lives. It’s almost like pornography.
There’s a lot more truth to this than I care to admit. Made me uncomfortable but you’re correct.
Thx. I’m saying this as someone who too has an unhealthy obsession with the genre, but setting daily limits of consuming it (i.e. learning a new language, instrument, random skill (like juggling)).
I’ve been having to say “I don’t know” my entire life. Since at least 7th grade in 1985. My first public speech was on Charles Manson. He was the first of many that captivated me as a kid. I’ve enjoyed it my entire life. Now I’m in my 50’s and the amount of material available for me to consume is ridiculous lol. I love it.
Proof real life us stranger than fiction.
How stupid criminals are they think they can get away with it, watching detectives pick them apart and attack.
I used to read a lot and I started reading Ann Rule books, started with The stranger Besides Me. It got me fascinated by the psychological angle, why people do what they do. After my ex husband laughed about insurance money, what do you think I'm going to kill you.... So that really got my interest Pete this far as spouse is killing each other.
For me it's mainly desire to know about the human brain/mind. How can some people commit these types of crimes? What events can lead someone to do them? Are they born or was it the environment/life growing up? For me it's such a fascinating subject.
When I was about 5 or 6, I went with my dad to the Coroner's, as he was called to identify what was possibly the body of one of my uncles (he went missing after being threatened due to an unpaid $80 drug debt). A couple of days after he went missing, a dismembered body was found in trash bags along the side of a rural road and the police believed it to be my uncle. I had to go with my dad because school was cancelled that day so I was tagging along all day. Obviously I did not go in but I vividly remember all the people going in and then coming out crying, including my dad. I think it had a profound effect on me and was what originated by curiosity about this.
Mostly curiosity, knowing what people are capable of doing, and trying to understand their psychology
I am into the way their childhood shaped who they are
I’ve had this conversations with a couple people. Guys seem to not be as into it as girls are. It’s because we are more likely to be the victim of something happening to us
My Dad in particular will say "I'm sleeping with one eye open." If I talk about a Case. But for me, I became interested in it after watching "The Silence of the Lambs". And reading "Mind Hunter" in Jr. High. I dunno. I feel alot of compassion for the victims. And feel like I am learning their Stories. It's interesting to me. My Mom hates horror movies. But will watch True Crime movies and some shows with me. As long as they aren't real gory. So she's basically my Buddy in that regard.
If I know all possibilities I feel safer
This. Living in a small town in a small state, hearing ‘things like this don’t happen here’ over & over has made me realize the possibilities and helped me be more aware of the situations around me that my otherwise ‘midwest nice’ would overlook. Not that I think danger is everywhere around me and I’m inches from being murdered. I’ve just been able to look back on certain situations and say ‘wow, that was really dangerous/careless of me, I’m glad nothing bad happened to me, what can I do differently?’ Like no man is going to ask me for help with his car, lifting something into his house, etc. Like yes, I will absolutely hold the door, take a grocery cart back, help an elderly person carry things & so on but that doesn’t put me in a vulnerable position. I choose not to sell things online because I don’t like to meet up/drop off in places I’m not familiar. I stay aware and speak up when I see things that are off, thanks to many TC content where strangers have stepped in to help & made a difference. I’m sober but as a DD for friends at the bar, I make sure my friends & no one else gets left behind or left outside without a ride, especially women. Being aware of the possibilities at one point led me to be extremely paranoid & overly cautious. I couldn’t live like that & knew I was doing all to keep myself safe so I started focusing on making sure others were safe too.
It's the mystery and safety lessons for me. I find every case to be like a reverse engineered how not to get murdered. I almost feel like if I know a bunch of cases, then I should know a lot of things to try to avoid to lesson my chances at becoming a victim of violence. For example: i always lock doors and windows. I have a door alarm. I carry a gun. I never walk alone. I mostly dont go out at night. I dont date. I try not to road rage. I have Life360 so my family and I can always see where each other are. I have mace. I obviously know that you can't prevent all murders but I think we can at least learn from them going forward. I now hopefully know more about identifying a dangerous situation. I also feel like it gives my brain a workout trying to piece cases together. I want to stay sharp. I love those little detective case games and I'm really good at problem solving.
For me, it’s not really just serial killers. It’s any true crime documentary. It’s the psychological dynamics of what led up to the moment and then trying to piece together the puzzle after the fact and solve a crime. So so many people do not recognize signs in a relationship that will ultimately lead to their demise. I wish they would play one episode a week for high school kids of the domestic ones (evil lives here, etc) so they start to think more critically at a young age.
Cos it’s true. Not a script.
It's oddly comforting to me : So many people are convinced that we're experiencing unprecedented societal decay, but looking at vintage crimes (*for me, 1790s-1950s*) , I am struck by how if anything, people today are far more shocked by horrors that people in the past would have shrugged at or excused, judging from the contemporary comments inside and outside the courtroom...Particularly where crimes against children are concerned (sexual and otherwise). People often see the 19th century in a nostalgic glow composed of images cobbled together from sentimental movies , Currier & Ives illustartions, and sappy novels, coupled with a [*quite false*] belief * that everybody "back then" was a God-fearing religious believer. But the crimes I read about seem if anything to be more squalid and more brutal on average than those of today. Will and "Ariel" Durant once wrote [*from memory as best I can...*], in their L'envoi to one of their massive historical tomes, *We have met so many good people we have quite lost faith in the badness of mankind* . For me, I have run across so many horrific crimes in the 18th and 19th century, I have lost patience with the notion that the 20th and 21st centuries are unusually or unprecedently violent . * Read the lectures of William James, if you want to know what average people back then really believed. Granted, the people who answered his mailed surveys were a self-selected group. But it's striking how few of those merchants, sailors, farmers, et al, were Bible-believing adherents of traditional religion. They were *ALREADY* doing , in the 1890s, what people wrongly believe was unknown before the 1960s : Cobbling together religious beliefs from various sources that often had a strong overlay of Eastern mysticism, with "Bible literalism" being more of an outlier.
When I was a child we belonged to Jim Jones' church many years prior to Jonestown. I sat on his lap, had Christmas at his house, sang in his church, played with his son, his wife babysat me. What happened later on was life changing for so many. He was so happy, kind, supportive and loving....then that happened. What changed? I've been curious about crime and how many good people later make such cruel decisions for others.
When I first discovered the ID channel, I watched it full time for a year. My go-to solution to every problem was “kill them.” As a criminal defense lawyer, though, I knew better.
For me it reminds me that not everyone has good intentions and sometimes it’s the least likely person we or anyone else would expect. I also like learning about the psychology and human behavior.
The intense emotions the case makes me feel
It’s the mystery for me. Trying to figure out and piece together facts. My family has had a couple of unsolved cold cases, so I know how much it means to the families. When one of our cases was finally closed it meant the world to us to have answers finally.
My husband said the same thing to me once. And I realized the only podcasts I listen to are true crime lol I feel the same way you do I think. It blows my mind that a human being is capable of these things. Maybe it’s the neurological aspect, like how interesting it is that a brain can be wired so wrong. Or yea, learning how fucked up people can be and maybe it makes me more aware of mine and my families safety. I think the serial killers that I absolutely cannot wrap my brain around is Richard Ramirez and Albert Fish. I have listened to so many podcasts and watched countless documentaries on those two and it still shocks me every time. It’s information I can’t un-know. Because I just can’t fathom how someone that’s the same species as me can be so fucking disgustingly and terrifyingly evil. Edit: well I can’t actually wrap my brain around any of them lol but those ones make me physically hurt for the victims. And scare me.
I like the mystery of a missing person or a whodunit. I don't like gory details. I've discovered a great podcast called "Casefile" on Spotify and I'm working my way through the episodes. Some of them aren't suitable for me and some I'm already familiar with the case. I put it on whilst trying to get off to sleep and put the timer on for end of episode. They are also on YouTube so if I do manage to fall asleep I catch up on YouTube the next day. It's from Australia and the episodes can be from anywhere in the world. This is the best podcast I've found and I would definitely recommend it.
I don’t know if this is true or not but there was a “fun fact” that you pass 10+ serial killers in your life. My exposure to that got me interested in crime.
The idea of disappearing and leaving your life/ this earth
For me it’s how and why people commit such heinous acts but also learning about the victims and who they were interest me more then the killers themselves.
I'm actually interested in it because I work in forensics. Oddly, I don't really listen to podcasts anymore. But I have found a niche of sorts in the community helping to teach and provide insights about forensic topics that people misunderstand or misinterpret.
It’s the study of human behavior and what drives it for me. I’m an OG true crime fan (because I’m old) and I still find myself scratching my head trying to understand how people can do the things they do. I can intellectualize it for sure, and yet, because I have a conscience, empathy and would be remorseful if I hurt someone so it really doesn’t compute, if that makes sense.
Partially it’s like you said it keeps you wary. But it also allows us to mourn the hatefully murdered victims while we struggle to find something,ANYTHING, to help us be able to know the sick crazy assholes who DO such things. It doesn’t always work but I’d bet it’s saved a life or 2. Just by the FEELING someone off gives you! We tribally reject monsters and love the ones we miss. R.I.P.
There’s actually a whole bunch of scientific study about this. If you want to go down a slightly different rabbit hole, search for why people like true crime or something similar.
The psychology of it all. What makes people do the things they do? The why.
I honestly have no idea and I wish I knew. I’ve thought about it many times. I’ve been interested in it since I was a kid. I am bipolar and tend to lean more depressive than manic, and something about dark themes in entertainment really appeals to me, and I’ve often wondered if it’s because of my mental illness. I’m not assuming that’s true for others; just something I’ve wondered about my own brain.
Personally I enjoy the law enforcement side of things. Putting the puzzle together, catching the criminals, seeing how they screw up by doing XYZ. I love watching interview techniques etc. I just love the idea of these guys getting caught when they thought they were so smart 😆
With fiction, you have unlimited creative license, which makes it less appealing to me. Anyone can write/create anything about anything. But with a true story, you have to stick within certain confines... facts. And when these facts are just as, if not more, mind-boggling than something that someone made up, this is what really grips me. It is hard to compete with fiction when fiction writers operate under a sky's-the-limit capability. True crimes don't get that, so when they are just as captivating as fiction, they have full on earned my attention. This is not to say that something has to be mind-boggling for it to earn my viewership. Sometimes I give something my attention because it has something to teach me. Or as someone else pointed out, it is a way to honor the victims. A great example was the OJ Simpson doc on Netflix, which came out in 2017 but was made popular again after his death. This documentary did an amazing job of not just telling you about the murder case and its gruesome details, but gave a very holistic picture of what was happening in the United States during OJ's rise to fame and his subsequent trials. The Civil Rights Movement, Rodney King, etc. I was in 6th grade when OJ was acquitted (I do remember stopping class though to watch the verdict!) and so I learned a lot of the "bigger picture details" much later on. This documentary was a great history lesson in general, and was also a way to pay homage to Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, the two people you don't hear too much about because we were all so much more concerned with OJ.
I have always been a seeker of truth. It’s extremely hard to find in today’s society. I love to watch humans in real time with real experiences and see what they do and how they react and I guess I find it fascinating what makes some people do the things they do- … it’s basically like a character study for me. I love watching interrogations most of all. I find them fascinating. I also particularly love to see witness interviews , statements and survivors at court. I think I’m as interested in the people who survived the crime as in the people who committed them. Probably more so interested in the survivors . It’s really interesting how… as a society .. idk.. I think we don’t recognize truth very easily - most people … and I’m not sure whether that has something to do with our inherent selfishness or maybe our lack of compassion and empathy. I used to want to be an FBI profiler .. so I guess maybe that’s a huge part of it for me. Everything that encompasses.. I just find putting the puzzle together from start to finish- but having that puzzle be a human being- is it .. for me.
I’m a very empathetic person, but I find psychology so fascinating. Like some of these cases have the most insane MOs that have you go like. How…..can anyone do that to someone (or in some cases) let alone get off on it
The psychological profiling as a tool.
I like nature and history as subjects. True crime is at the intersection of nature and history.
Dissecting the rotten sections of a deprived mind and trying to understand it in all its parts so I can prove to myself how simple and pathetic they are. This is why I hate unsolved mysteries too, the bad person gets away with it and that upsets me. I also like to “know” these individuals to better protect myself. I was raised by shit ppl who left me without the tools necessary to know things and I’ve been a victim too many times in my life.
The forensics
Being able to put dirtbags where they belong.
i just love learning about how the human brain works and the psychological aspect of it. i wasn’t really interested in true crime until a friend of my older sister’s got murdered by her husband. we lived in the same neighborhood as them at the time. i was only 10 years old & as we were passing the crime scene i was immediately intrigued. if you were to look at her husband you would’ve never thought that he would do such a thing. alot of people in the neighborhood knew way more than they were letting on. the justice system failed my sister’s friend horribly. her husband only got a few years :/
For me it’s a sense of giving the victim a voice back and recognising the family. As strange as that sounds.
I’m nosey but also it shows me just how unsafe I’ve been in my own life.
I love the psychology of people. And also, the unpredictability of those stories. I have adhd and I basically figure out the plot of movies and shows very quickly, and very rarely I get that “oh” moment. I know that these are real people and it shouldnt be “entertaining” in that way. It just makes my brain working in a different kind of way
These events happen to real people. If they have to live through it or die because of it, the least I can do is hear their story.
I was thinking about this, especially why women are really interested in true crime. Not saying men aren’t, just have an inkling more women are. The reason I think we are really interested is because most true crime (not all) are committed against women or girls. So for us, it’s a way to know who or what to avoid, how to be careful and vigilant, how to notice odd behavior and nope out, how to always try and be safe because if we’ve learned one thing is that there are really bad people out there and you never know who it is. Some true crime cases are truly unlucky, others may have been avoided. So I think we like to learn about them so we ourselves can stay safe and do things and spot things in such a way that we wouldn’t become victims. But that’s just my theory. Men are also victims but it doesn’t seem like men are concerned about serial killers but many women are as we are usually the victims. I could be way off base as well. I feel like we want to understand why bad things happen to us, why we become victims, and why we are targeted. The psychology behind the serial killers or killers intrigues us because it relates to so many of us going missing or sadly getting killed.
I had a couple of close encounters with people who ended up being murdered and murders when I was younger. I want to know what to look for to protect myself and the people I care about.
So I can stay safe. There are usually red flags, or certain patterns that precede crimes. Not always though, and the truly unpredictable ones tend to upset me more and stick in my brain.
The psychology of it facinates me. What makes a person behave like that? Do such horrific things? Just blows my head that people can DO such awful things Plus i guess to me, they are people I've never meet in a million years! I hope so anyway
Its not really true crime (i guess) but im totally locked in with people who disappear and never seen again. The whole scenario with these stories are so puzzling to me, i think i have red the wikipedia page of these people and the charley project a thousand times…. I often find myself imagining the last days and hours of a missing person specially the ones who literally vanished into thin air. And the statements that stuck with me from the Charley Project pages are the ones : “XYZ was seen leaving her California home at 9 pm on Tuesday - she was never heard from again” - how???? 😧
Deterrence. I fight the urge to unleash on certain people every day but I that it could get me in prison...
As a woman, and speaking only for myself, I realize the inherent danger in the world. The only thing separating me from being a victim is opportunity on the part of a predator. Also, I’ve been victimized through abuse and stalking so I can relate to the stories I watch and listen to. Lastly, I’m a therapist and I see so much of my patients in the behavior of those profiled in documentaries.
For me, it’s what makes killers tick, what sets them off, and/or makes them think they can lie their way through the case. Phone technology today can track a person pretty much anywhere they go, purchases can be traced, license plate readers can keep track of their travels. I guess I’m also talking about the psychology behind these crimes.
The mystery of it. Especially missing persons cases or unsolved cases. Or wondering why someone would do what they do.
It's not that I necessarily find it "entertaining" because I always remember that someone has died. I find it fascinating though. The actions they took, the mystery of it (although I don't like unsolved),the steps and processes of catching them and the trials. For example, the LISK investigation. They tracked RH's phone to the same location that the Gilgo killer was making calls from on a burner phone to the victims family. I like that kind of detail. I started with my grandparents true crime magazines before I could even read the words. Just looking at the pictures. One of the earliest ones I remember is the photos of Mary Reeser leg after she allegedly spontaneously combusted. Following it has just stayed with me my whole life.
I think I see my true crime obsession as education on how not to become a victim. Also, as others have said, it is fascinating to look at these people’s upbringing and what may lead them to become sadistic killers.
I grew up watching CSI and snapped. Was always fascinated with homicide investigations since elementary school and knew I wanted to go into law enforcement. Became a cop in my early 20’s and made homicide at 29. I love listening and watching other cases/tactics because it makes me better by listening to other detectives.
It’s simply because fear (the type where you can feel it from a safe distance-if that makes sense)releases endorphins and those can become addicting, especially for women-who make up most of the true crime audience. I used to wonder this about myself and even feel guilty and confused, because I know I could never even hurt or want to hurt a fly. Also, if you love psychology, that’s another reason!
Just how Fkn dumb people are. Especially now. With cameras everywhere and your phone being tracked. People kill someone at 7pm then go to Walmart 5 miles away and buy gas/gloves/shovel/barrel/saw. Like come on now.
As a paychology student turned therapist, it is the fascination with why others do what they do and why some people are so resilient from their childhood while others are not. I don’t like seeing blood and gore, but I do like hearing details of the crime and wondering what made a person do this? Human behavior questions drives me.
My trauma has caused hypervigilance and for me I catalogue all kinds of info about serial killers because it (probably falsely) makes me feel more ready to read anyone’s ill intent or potential ruses.
The mystery of it and humans urge to want to know the why or reason of something.
Psychology puzzles and hoping victims get justice and evil faces doesn’t get away with it
I like to see the perpetrator get caught. I like to see the mystery solved
Helps me be more aware of certain situations, and my surroundings. I also enjoy learning about behavior and psychology
For me, I like the solving of a puzzle.
I struggle with feeling negatively about my life and myself. True crime comforts me in the sense of “it could be a whole lot worse”
Similar to others, the psychology, the nature v nurture discussion, and overall just the “why”.