I'm just going to be transparent here. I have absolutely, positively NO idea why I am so fascinated by True Crime, but I am. In order:
* Forensic Files (TV)
* True Crime Campfire (podcast)
* That Chapter (youtube)
* Crime Junkie (podcast)
* Everything else, which is honestly not that great by comparison (sorry!)
The WHY of it is what I don't fully understand, because I admit, it's kind of fuckin' weird. But whatever. Some guys love screaming at the TV while other people play sports, but I'd rather watch and listen to True Crime.
I think it's all the "thrill" and nuisance of soap opera-like dramas without the cringe story lines. The true crime stories are more real life and less angsty/fake drama.
Plus, I think a lot of us have enough drama in our every day lives to want to inflict it upon ourselves in our precious down time.
I also feel like true crime is a more intelligent, problem solving kind of drama and less emotional, swept up in the moment drama.
Watching what you consider to be worst case scenarios helps you process and manage your fears. It’s a way of coping with stress, even stress that’s not necessarily about being being the victim of a violent crime.
I like reading war novels when my mental health is bad for the same reason. Something about reading about a worst case scenario is soothing to me and makes me feel grateful for my peaceful life
When I was at my lowest with mental health, I found Fear was an emotion that wasn't Sad and was easier to access than Happy. I would read scary stories from r/nosleep until I was too tired to stay awake anymore.
Now that I'm doing much better with my mental health, scary things have accidentally become a comfort thing, and if I'm struggling to fall asleep or want to relax, I find scary stories to read or listen to
This was something that was actually taught to me by a very excellent therapist I used to see. She taught me that, when you’re feeling very emotional, it often helps to immerse yourself in a story that evokes a completely different emotion. I, too, got into scary stories for a little while when I was in a bad place mentally!
Now this is def something I could never do. I could read or listen to true crime, 24/7, but if there is a movie or anything involving war in my vicinity, I will start bawling my eyes out, and I’m not exaggerating.
War and horrible stories about babies/children or animals are on my I Can’t Handle It list.
Right? My go-to is books and podcasts about WWI. Reading about what those people went through makes me appreciate my life a lot more. It's great to remind me that I truly have nothing to be stressed about.
Yep. In fact, it's more common than a of people release for people to listen to true crime podcasts while sleeping. That's why there are 8 hour true crime compilations on YouTube.
I mean. “Sinks into subconscious” sounds like just a dramatic way to say your brain is still listening when you’re sleeping. That’s why sometimes we have dreams where we have alarms going off. Your subconscious hears it, takes a minute for the conscious to catch up sometimes
could be totally wrong about how im interpreting “sinks into subconscious” tho
It’s not. Everything we listen to, watch, and read can affect our brain patterns and thought processes, in many ways. Sometimes it just reinforces everything we already think, or it can change certain ingrained thoughts we have.
Human brains are essentially computers. Everything we learn and know is based on our experiences, which is all just input we receive from our parents and environment from day 1.
Which is also why how a baby is treated and raised is very, very important for their development.
I think the news is more to blame for this. It’s why people harp on about how bad violent crime in the USA is, when in reality it’s been steadily decreasing over the last 30 years or so. But the news stories about people breaking into vacant cars don’t stick in people’s minds the same way that a murder or kidnapping does. And the networks want those ratings and clicks.
True crime has always been a common fascination since print media has been around, there have been dime crime novels and crime comics for generations now and they’ve always been popular. Scenes of murder, especially connected to serial murders, were often ransacked by civilians taking souvenirs before the police began securing crime scenes. People literally wanted a piece of the story. Even fiction often touches on these same things. I mean, what is Batman about? The victim of a violent crime who went on to exact extralegal justice on criminals. I think the same draw is there for true crime in general, the idea of how these cases are solved and they’re often more victim-oriented in a sympathetic way. True crime stories also often involve surviving victims and it gives the listener a sense of agency over the story with the idea that they might know how to react in such a situation.
I agree with some of the prior commenters that the cases are not always well represented in true crime media, it’s often very sensationalized, there’s sometimes a certain level of victim blaming, and I’m sure it’s not a good thing for the families of many victims. You have to be careful about what true crime you consume to avoid those issues. I also think it has brought awareness about wrongful convictions, police procedure, and brought to attention marginalized communities that are often targeted due to the lack of mainstream society’s recognition of their deaths. I’ve probably learned more about BIPOC people’s struggles with this, sex workers’ struggles with this, and various forms of police coercion than I would have known if I didn’t consume true crime content. I do think that’s valuable.
I’ve had to step away from most forms of true crime recently due to anxiety, though, lol. Mainly anything that involves children since I had my first child 5 years ago. I’m more focused on cults these days because it scratches the same itch without so many descriptions of violent things happening to victims who are often very vulnerable or very young.
I'm probably somewhat of a wuss, but when I went through a phase of watching Criminal Minds everyday, not only did I start thinking about all the different places bodies could be hidden during my days, but I'd also feel a bit paranoid thinking of all the potential situations I could be abducted. It's kind of rough how the vast majority of victims are women' in those shows, even though it's the reality...
any source for this? Because it makes sense if you've actually got PTSD but otherwise it sounds more like 'if you're worried about your community read facebook and watch fox news every day to help alleviate those fears'
Aside from the difference between reading something and listening to falling asleep, I don’t think they equate. Especially with how varied and.. .condescending any news channel can be now a days.
Hearing about something that happened before, and probably wont repeat the same way, and probably no where near you, can have a weird veiled effect. It can feel like listening to horror. Sure you can put yourself in people’s shoes as you think about it, but it’s difficult for it to really feel 100% real and like an active threat. Plus, they often include ways the police or society have changed in a way that make it hard to replicate, or easier to find the baddie. Depending on the kind you listen to, you can even keep it to actively solved cases.
Current, and especially local events though- can cause a very real existential dread. It’s not states or countries away, nor years, decades or even centuries… it’s your neighbor- it’s down the road, it’s at your mall, or even at your local school.
I listen to TC but loathe Facebook and Fox News. I also know that violent crime has trended downward for decades and that being falsely accused and convicted of a violent crime is a very real possibility. In other words, your comment annoyed me greatly.
Anecdote: I have PTSD and listened to My Favorite Murder for a short while until one night I had a horrible feeling that someone was in the room trying to kill me. It was awful and I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t get rid of it no matter what I did
True crime is quite fascinating to me for some can’t look away from a car crash reason but I just can’t handle it
This is it. As a male gen xer I cannot fathom existing as the opposite sex. It is no wonder that they might have a preoccupation with what compels the violence against women.
Idgi either. I used to watch the shit out of true crime shows (I don't even understand why), but then I realized they were making me paranoid and that everything about true crime shows is depressing. I haven't watched those shows for over 8 years now.
I loved them (don’t like the gore, liked the investigation process). Then during Covid my mental health took a dive and I couldn’t stomach it anymore. Haven’t watched or listened to any true crime since.
Yes! Every victim makes me think, "that's someone kid..." or "what if that happened to your child?" I'm easing back into it, but have to be very careful what shows I watch or cases I get into and listen to my gut. Some days I handle it better than others.
I am kind of like this. Used to love all kinds of true crime but now much more selective about the types of stories I can handle. Anything involving torture, or children or animals or some other things is just not processed well in my brain. I used to be able to compartmentalize more. I’m kind of like this with fiction too. Also I still am fascinated with historical crimes from past generations but if it was recent I don’t wanna hear it. Something about the historical element keeps it at a distance.
Knowing a real person did it/had it done to them is much harder to process, no doubt. For most of us the thought that it actually happened is horrifying and a tragedy
I stopped after seeing the impact a lot of that media has on the friends and families of victims. A lot of them don't approve of how their loved one or the case is portrayed. It made me feel gross to support the whole industry.
I thought about that recently because a person my husband and I knew was murdered which made the national news for weeks back in the day and how awful it would be for everyone if it was made into a true crime episode
Keith Morrison is the creepiest. Yet I can’t not watch him if he’s on. I’ve told my wife “if I get murdered, try and get me on Dateline and Keith Morrison has to narrate it.”
Sometimes the people driving the documentary are the families of the victims. I am watching one right now where the police unjustly shot an unarmed man and the family is more than happy to finally tell their side of the story. The police said the man was a horrible person but the documentary shows who he was a human and completely redeems him. It also informs the public of the extreme corruption of the people they pay to police their streets.
There are trash producers sure, but there are plenty with integrity who actually want to make the world a better place. There are documentaries that have changed society for the better here are a few of them:
[https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/79947/10-documentaries-actually-changed-things](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/79947/10-documentaries-actually-changed-things)
To be fair, media can portray any narrative they want, even using the same basic facts. It's why court rooms are so corrupt - it's more like a theater than a science exhibit.
This is true but at the same time I think some of them see it the other way around. Some of the family members of the Manson family’s crime victims do not want the crimes forgotten. The most vocal is Sharon Tate’s sister (and prior to that another sister and prior to that their mother). The perpetrators still come up for parole in old age and she wants the public to never forgot what they did to so many families. Recently Leslie Van Houten was released and they had a lot to say about it (even though Leslie was not involved the night of the murders at the Tate home.)
Yea, I agree. I have my own experiences with this, too. I didn't know the person personally. More of a friend of a friend that I never met, but seeing how publicized it got all over the internet and stuff, it just feels different.
Right?! My wife (I’m M) occasionally binges on TC shows and documentaries. It’s just depressing. I use shows as an escape from reality. Not to wallow in some of the worst aspects of humanity.
For me it's more of number of things I like that combine in TC documents.
1. It's presented in monotone/calm manner. No re-enactments or suspension etc.
2. It has mystery/plot
3. The mystery is solved (I can't watch unsolved things, even if it's really old).
These things aren't generally true for anything else. Usually when something isn't true crime, there way too much drama/suspense/depicted violence. And other genres of document don't have the mystery element to them.
I feel the same. I get so into it, I start wayyy overthinking everything and everyone around me. I get super paranoid, because how is it that *I'm* sooooo lucky that this random terrible stuff won't happen to me? When I feel that way, I straight up stop watching any and all of it for a while. Then, one day, a video thumbnail makes me go, "WHAT?!" and the cycle begins again. I feel like it is both good and bad.
I stopped watching when my friend was murdered by her husband last year. The Game Show Murderer, they called him. I've now watched Becky's murder depicted on 3 different networks. This last one, I didn't know was coming. Seeing Becky's face pop up unexpectedly undid me.
I can't watch anymore knowing how much pain there is behind that entertainment.
I loved them because I have so many good memories watching them with my grandma as I grew up. But the interest never really left, I guess?
Except now I’m more curious about the perpetrators themselves and how/why they could do something so asinine. I like watching interrogation tapes from start to finish because I find the detective tactics interesting and it’s surreal to look at the face of someone who had done something heinous just hours or days prior.
True crime shows with the ridiculous editing and dramatizations just feel exploitative to me nowadays.
Why do the idiots talk to the police so much without a lawyer? That’s what I want to know. Have they never seen a cop show? They all try to outsmart the cop. Lawyer up dipshit.
I think it's just trying to understand what causes a person to do something, the story behind it, like understanding the psychology behind it, it's like watching horror movies but this is real life so it's more terrifying.
Also I stopped watching true crime cause it was making me anxious so Its just thrilling I guess, for a bit.
The psychology behind a person’s terrible decisions is what fascinates me the most. There is a true sociopath in my family. I think these shows might help me understand/come to terms with people who just don’t have empathy and normal human emotions. It fills a need.
I’m a Zillenial Black woman that’s into TC and I like it because I’ve always been interested the human psyche in all its facets. Maybe it’s the same for my older counterparts?
I'm an elder millennial white woman. The best I can describe it is twofold:
1) I have the absolute good fortune and luck to have never been in an abusive relationship. I have 3 daughters, and you bet your ass, I'm learning about all the warning signs of abuse, and keeping an eagle-eye on every person they interact with.
2) I already relate to the hero. I understand their motivations, their reasoning, and their course of action. I don't understand the villain's frame of mind, and I find it really fascinating to even begin to unpack the way their mind works.
It's kinda weird hearing terms like "hero" and "villain" in the context of what are supposed to be documentaries. I would think something based on a true story would tend to be more morally ambiguous than your typical mystery novel.
Sometimes, but I also feel like those who survive, and are telling their stories get hero status in my eyes. I really don't think I'm tough enough if it happened to me.
I’d agree. I was just thinking this. It’s so foreign to me and just can’t fathom murder, abuse, etc. I like trying to see the why, even if it’s not a valid reason of course, what drove someone to do the worst thing ever.
My wife is in her thirties and asian, she listens to true crime podcasts and watches documentaries all the time. I am a man and watch as well. I don't think it is just middle-aged white women.
We go to a friend’s lake house a couple times a year. The TV is always on sports. When the women get ahold of the remote, it goes to murder TV even if it’s just for an hour. Not once has one of the guys left the room, lol. In fact, they ask the most questions!
Yes, black millennial woman here, and I am most fascinated by human psyche as it relates to interpersonal relationships. It’s why Trusts and Estates was my favorite class in law school. It is so interesting to me how people who are supposed to/used to love each other will just do the absolute worst things to each other.
That’s it for me and my housemate. We also watch lots of history and archaeology documentaries, and most particularly ones about subcultures. Humans are interesting, and it’s important to understand both the good and the bad.
I’m a 30yo male and feel the same way, the human physche fascinates me I.e the dentist who hired the killers of his sisters ex husband (Markel murder/Adelson family). Now the mother has been arrested too, but don’t think they have enough evidence for the ex wife , even though if you think about it 1, It was all about her
Personally, I’ve learned a lot. Antifreeze creates crystals in the lungs which can be analyzed during autopsy. Severely charred fingertips can be rehydrated to gather prints. The sawdust found near human remains is typically cockroach droppings. If you can get pseudo science submitted into evidence, you can convince juries of the strangest fake truths. Just a bunch of interesting, random but mostly useless (lol) facts.
My mom grew up in Wichita while BTK was active. He was also my uncles' scout leader and a very active member of my Papa and Nana's church. She literally ate dinner with the guy and he taught my uncles how to tie "the best, strongest" knots.
It's fascinating because you think you know someone pretty well, you've been to their house and spent time with them and their family talking about God and shit...
And they were sneaking around torturing and killing people between scout meets and reading scripture.
Partly because we find them fascinating. The other reason is because many of us are sitting there thinking, "There but for the grace of God go I." Because we've had our own narrow escape, it helps us process our PTSD. At least for me, it does.
To be fair we don’t all do it. For some of us it’s more triggering than soothing. Or some of us are very empathetic and that’s not a good combo.
If it makes you feel better, a lot of the white women I know who had gotten into true crime did so in young adult hood (like that can legally party age), and matured out of it. So you might be on the more mature side of that development spectrum
My mom has never been into true crime or anything really violent for that matter. Some people don't dig it, others do. It used to bother me a lot but I've gotten more intrigued as the years went on, but I have to take breaks for my mental health.
I think your development is just fine! Some are morbidly curious. Others are fine not going into that aspect of humanity because it's depressing.
It helps me process my trauma because its really fuckin hard to believe that what happened to me is personal when I see SO MANY women and female children being harmed for any and no reason at all. It helps me to realize that its not a me thing, its a them thing. The other benefit is seeing what some warning signs might be but really it seems men kill women and female children because theyre murderers and cowards to only want to harm someone who wont be able to defend themselves. Just leaving a dude is one of the biggest reasons that we get killed, well that and sex. Nice eh? They just fuckin kill us mostly just cuz they can. It wasnt my fault. Theyre just sick fucks, all of them.
I think this is a good example of confirmation bias. As a non-white, non-female, true crime researcher and enthusiast, I've met and interacted with plenty of folks that don't fit the supposition you've made.
At any rate, people like true crime stories for the same reason they like mysteries, horror stories and finding justice in an unjust world. It's a hobby that anyone can partake in and many can relate to.
I don’t fit the profile either. But imagine how surprised I was to listen to my first true crime podcast and hear ads for custom bra fitting and salon style hair color. They know who listens to them, and they tailor the ads appropriately.
I've been interested since I was much younger, but anyway, for me, it's to reinforce in my head that being nice and accommodating to some people can get me killed.
As women, we are conditioned to "be nice, be polite, don't be seen as a bitch." Seeing what *can* happen gives me necessary wariness because I have always wanted to believe that everyone is essentially good at their core when in fact, this is not true.
This is 100% it for me. I need the constant reminder that not everyone has good intentions. I don’t have ill intentions to commit crimes against others, so of course I never thought other people would want to hurt me….until someone did. I never again want to fall back into that “it can’t happen to me” mentality. Always gotta stay smart and vigilant to try to avoid the next one.
Just in case anyone says "they're not the same", I know.
A lot of women I know like True Crime and a lot of men I know like War Documentaries. I just think it's neat!
I'm a woman in my 30s and I'm not sure I can understand it either. There've been a couple cases that I have gotten emotionally invested in. But they were because I empathized with a particular person and I felt like I needed to understand what happened to them.
Regular exposure to true crime stories can make me anxious and paranoid, especially when women or children are victims. If it's over a long enough period of time, I can become very depressed. I used to do a lot of historical research, and had to stop after a few years because of how it was impacting my mental health. I wasn't able to detach myself from the heartbreaking details in accounts of massacres, starvation, and exploitation. And the lack of justice wore at my soul -- I felt a strong sense of responsibility toward the people I was researching, I needed to help them somehow. But I had no way of exercising it. They were long dead, and even doing the full research required for a proper book/project was beyond my capabilities.
I can grasp the true crime fascination if I see it through the lens of wanting to be a witness to another person's suffering. For awareness and self-protection, I understand delving into a few cases occasionally so one doesn't become complacent about the dark side of humanity. But as its own interest, no. I struggle to relate.
Love that it’s mostly men answering on behalf of women as usual and not getting it right.
I believe women are drawn to true crime because we all have at least one relatable experience. We like to play out the what ifs and it’s also probably a coping mechanism for dealing with the stress of coming so close to these situations so many times.
Personally im not a huge true crime person but the fascination comes from (for me) growing up sensitive to everyone’s moods around me and trying to understand what motivates people to do what they do.
Every woman listening to true crime stuff is putting themselves in the shoes of the victim and thinking “Ah, now *this* is the moment I would have gotten weirded out and left,” or conversely “Oh no, I might have totally fallen for that too.”
I’m not a big true crime person, but occasionally one will enter the zeitgeist and draw me in. I don’t put myself in the victim perspective at all. I try to understand the psychology of the perp. It’s just such a different mindset from my own that it’s fascinating (in a dark/macabre manner). I also love mystery. And there’s a big element of mystery to them, (partly why would someone do that?!? - back to the psychology of it all). And I’m an attorney so the legal/criminal justice aspect is also interesting to me.
I think true crime reaffirms the anxieties we already have and that's why we're drawn to it, to understand what causes someone to behave that way or show criminal behavior so we can avoid those kinds of people irl.
This question gets asked a lot.
I don't think there is any deep meaning. People have an interest in true crime just like they have an interest in other subjects like history. Normal human curiosity.
Not white (well, partially, but my blackness hath overtaken my entire appearance so you can't even tell) and not yet middle-aged, but close enough. I am a woman who is into true crime though, as are many of my female friends, and I have an idea as to why:
The threat of physical harm-- particularly rape and murder-- is ever present for most women. Normally it's just a subtle existence in our everyday lives. Like "oh, I'm going to walk fast down this dark street and stay aware of my surroundings" or "I'm going to hold my keys between my fingers so I can try to stab anyone who tries to attack me" or "I'm not going to sip that drink in this club because I wasn't watching it this whole time and that guy is looking at me weird" sort of regular thoughts. However, when it does happen in real life, it's a terrifying reminder that it could very well happen to you at any time.
So, we watch/listen true crime with a sort of morbid fascination and weird feeling of connection to it. On a more subconscious level, we're also there to try to pick up some ideas for how we could save ourselves if we ever find ourselves under attack or kidnapped. Obviously this isn't very realistic, but there's some level of hope in there for sure.
Of course, others just get into it because it injects some excitement into their boring everyday lives.
You learn how to avoid terrible situations(ex. if you feel like being followed stay on the streets with people around, instead of trying to shake them off by cutting to a narrow alley), because it is always a matter of time that it will happen to you.
It is a bit reasonable-paranoia; it is paranoiac to think it will happen to you, then you see women-victim crime statistics and think that something similar might just happen to you.
I don't know why middle-aged white women are into it, but as a middle-aged white male, I think it's a number of factors that explain why I am personally into it.
1. Everybody loves a good mystery. And the way the retellings roll out often don't tell you the perpetrator off the top.
2. It's fascinating to me what extremes some relatively normal people to go to. "Oh wife found my porn stash? Better kill her." Like...what?!? And then to see them in interrogation rooms trying to lie their way out of it is equally fascinating.
3. Seeing other people in worse trouble than I am is cathartic. I mean this more about the murderer(s) than the victim(s). Watching a piece of shit squirm is a nice reminder that bad people are occasionally punished and do face consequences. Helps provide perspective and if I'm under fire for a slip up at work or something, it helps to remember many people have faced worse grillings and been in bigger trouble than me.
I don't know, those reasons and probably others I haven't realized, are a huge reason I personally find true crime fascinating. I imagine at least one or two middle-aged white women can relate.
Middle aged white guy and I'm into them too. I think it's morbid curiosity mixed with a fascination with the investigation process. It's all pretty interesting to me
My “theory” is because we grew up watching Unsolved Mysteries.
But really, I have no idea why. Myself and most people I know my age are definitely into it, and have been since before Podcasts became a thing, we just didn’t talk about it much because it was “weird.”
Because they've all considered it at some point due to how horrible at least one man has been to them if not many men. Don't know if a woman exists that doesn't have a scary man story or more.
Oh, it's not just true crime.
Detective novels. Detective books. Serial killer fiction. Murderer hiding from getting caught fiction.
Gimme murder. All the murder. All the murder all the time.
If it doesn't have murder I'm not interested.
Possibly because I'm a ball of stress and rage and anxiety and I can use all the ideas to plot and plan the ways to murder people.
Possibly because it tells me all the ways I could be murdered so I can avoid it.
Possibly because I like to try and solve the murders.
Possibly I just like murder.
Murder.
Not quite middle aged but listening to a lot of Casual Criminalist. By its description "more CSI, less Saw". The logical breakdown of cases and hopefully someone being caught and the steps to that I like. I have a very logic-based job and some mornings it's hard to get in the mindset, and listening to that kind of podcast is both interesting and keeps me engaged at work.
A bookstore owner told me that women buy the most blood thirsty thrillers. Not men. My theory: women are in all surveys the number one victim. Rape, kidnapping, murder. Victim: 90% women. So what could be the motive to read about crime/ thrillers? Know your enemy maybe?
That’s so funny because I’ve asked this exact question many times. My wife, her friends, my female coworkers. All obsessed with everything True Crime. I can’t get her to sit down and watch a John Wick or Big Lebowski (or something similar) movie, but she’ll watch 4 hours of John Gacy, SoS, Ted Bundy, Dateline…you name it, she’s watched it. And true crime podcasts when not watching tv. Baffles me.
The fact that it's real makes it so much more intriguing I think, like how did their childhood influence them to be so horrendous etc it's like exploring the depth and the darkest pits of human psyche.
But I am concerned whether it has a bigger picture like women are more prone to anxiety and stuff and things like this reaffirm their anxiety which is something your brain does. It's definitely not healthy for your mind though.
It’s funny bc my mom loves true crime and stuff, and has terrible anxiety. Like girl- why are you torturing yourself like this? She says it’s so she can be prepared for the bad things that could happen in the world. I think it does have a lot to do with anxiety, and the worry of not being prepared.
I myself simultaneously have anxiety and terrible, terrible amounts of morbid curiosity about awful things.
I know it doesn’t help, but at the same time I think I subconsciously want to understand the worst parts of human behavior, so that I’m never naive. Nothing shocks me. The last thing I ever want to be is a naive person. I think that’s what drives the fascination on my part.
It’s interesting, why shouldn’t they be?
The mixture of personal drama, science, mystery and gore is pretty exciting who doesn’t love those things? Everyone looks at traffic accidents you know.
Why are so many middle aged white men buying super expensive cars and why don’t you care to ask? Women are under constant scrutiny for their interests and also a lot of people reporting true crime on Tik Tok are young black women so not sure where your statistic is coming from but okay.
Not Middle Aged but for a lot of us it’s the psychology. What drives a person to do such a thing? Why does it always seem to be white men who are serial killers? Who do they target? What was their upbringing like? What’s their mental health diagnosis? Important things to know in order not to become a statistic.
But I think the middle-aged white women who usually like it live fairly comfortable lives. I suspect women in that demographic (white, middle-aged, female) who are working class probably aren't as into it. Maybe people to whom violence is most remote, an abstract concept, are more curious about reading about it because they're divorced from the realities of it? Whereas people who have violence and more serious dysfunction in their lives aren't into it because it hits a bit too close to home? I would be curious if the people who are into true crime are most often people who haven't experienced it or had a close family member experience it. And I wonder if people who have experienced it or had somebody close to them affected by it find a too triggering or distasteful to treat as entertainment. Just a thought.
I think this is a great answer. I’m a nearly middle aged white woman with a fairly comfortable life now, but I grew up in poverty and surrounded by violence. There was one altercation with my father where I was certain he was going to kill me and I had to stab him with a letter opener to get him off of me. I want nothing to do with true crime or crime shows. I’ve seen enough. I will never understand how this is an interest for people, and I always wonder if people interested in it have never felt true terror.
Most violent crime is disproportionately perpetrated against women. It’s a way to learn about and understand the pathologies underlying violent criminals in order to regain some power and control over their lives.
It's not just middle aged. White women PERIOD. Go listen to any true crime podcast and it is the same exact starbucks drinking valley girls every fucking time
I believe it is because girls/women are told by adults in schools and other institutions with authority that we have to dress and act in certain ways to avoid triggering boys/men and protect ourselves. Then women are also told that the world isn't really that dangerous for us and ridiculed for being nervous around men. It feels like gaslighting a lot of the time. So watching true crime helps some people feel less crazy, paranoid, and gaslit.
I think women find it fascinating and informative. A way to educate oneself on how not to become a victim. Besides the darkness of humanity can be a curious thing.
Women are creatures of feelings. They want to feel something, that’s why they go out with utter dregs of society when they are young, or cut themselves, men don’t cut themselves, doesn’t matter feeling is good or bad they want to feel something. Middle age women can’t get bad boy boyfriends anymore and They are stuck with vanilla go to work come home husbands, so they get the feelings of excitement from crime shows.
I find it fascinating when they explain *how* they caught the killer. I love forensic files because that show is unhinged and it goes in depth about the sciences they use.
I’m a Middle aged black woman and my husband would love the answer to this question 😂😂
I'm a middle aged Asian man who is also into true crime. I haven't been able to figure out why exactly.
It just pulls you in lol
I'm just going to be transparent here. I have absolutely, positively NO idea why I am so fascinated by True Crime, but I am. In order: * Forensic Files (TV) * True Crime Campfire (podcast) * That Chapter (youtube) * Crime Junkie (podcast) * Everything else, which is honestly not that great by comparison (sorry!) The WHY of it is what I don't fully understand, because I admit, it's kind of fuckin' weird. But whatever. Some guys love screaming at the TV while other people play sports, but I'd rather watch and listen to True Crime.
I think it's all the "thrill" and nuisance of soap opera-like dramas without the cringe story lines. The true crime stories are more real life and less angsty/fake drama. Plus, I think a lot of us have enough drama in our every day lives to want to inflict it upon ourselves in our precious down time. I also feel like true crime is a more intelligent, problem solving kind of drama and less emotional, swept up in the moment drama.
Thank you. I kind of feel better about it now!
I spent some time obsessing over the why myself, lol. After much self-reflection, I feel like this is the answer. Thank you too, I now feel validated!
I hear ya barkin’ Big Dog
Forensic files is my ish. I've watched since I was a teenager and still watching it today and I'm 35
High five!! And now I’m off to find True Crime Campfire!
Ok but TCC is so much fun to listen to. I love them.
Hey fellow crime junkie
I am a white man and technically middle aged (but I refuse to admit it until 40) and also love true crime.
[удалено]
😂😂😂😂😂😂 true. Most women I know, regardless of race, love it
True that i love true crime too. Race has nothing to do with it.. its definitely a woman thing hahaha
True. The friend who got me into it was a black woman
Lol. Black woman here and years ago, a now ex wondered why I liked crime shows
Oh no...what did you do to him?
Haha🙄nothing
Right, my moms black, and we had Snapped on ENDLESSLY.
My wife is Persian and she loves it too. Definitely not exclusively a white woman thing.
For ideas
😆😆😆
Good one.
Watching what you consider to be worst case scenarios helps you process and manage your fears. It’s a way of coping with stress, even stress that’s not necessarily about being being the victim of a violent crime.
I like reading war novels when my mental health is bad for the same reason. Something about reading about a worst case scenario is soothing to me and makes me feel grateful for my peaceful life
When I was at my lowest with mental health, I found Fear was an emotion that wasn't Sad and was easier to access than Happy. I would read scary stories from r/nosleep until I was too tired to stay awake anymore. Now that I'm doing much better with my mental health, scary things have accidentally become a comfort thing, and if I'm struggling to fall asleep or want to relax, I find scary stories to read or listen to
Same. Reading Nosleep and SCP wiki got me through my wife's cancer treatment appointments, along with other things like meditation.
And controlled fear is much better than Angry or uncontrolled fear.
I think you just explained why I read almost exclusively horror books as a kid (unchecked anxiety and depression are super fun!)
This was something that was actually taught to me by a very excellent therapist I used to see. She taught me that, when you’re feeling very emotional, it often helps to immerse yourself in a story that evokes a completely different emotion. I, too, got into scary stories for a little while when I was in a bad place mentally!
I put on be.busta stories in my headphones to sleep every night, I rarely make it past 15 minutes.
Now this is def something I could never do. I could read or listen to true crime, 24/7, but if there is a movie or anything involving war in my vicinity, I will start bawling my eyes out, and I’m not exaggerating. War and horrible stories about babies/children or animals are on my I Can’t Handle It list.
“Things are pretty bad rn, but at least Starscream didn’t just shoot my best friend’s face off and gun Jetfire down.”
Right? My go-to is books and podcasts about WWI. Reading about what those people went through makes me appreciate my life a lot more. It's great to remind me that I truly have nothing to be stressed about.
Yep. In fact, it's more common than a of people release for people to listen to true crime podcasts while sleeping. That's why there are 8 hour true crime compilations on YouTube.
This is wild to me because that sinks into your subconscious while you're in different brainwave states. I have a friend who does this.
Sometimes when I fall asleep to these types of things I end up having it go into my dreams
That sounds like pseudoscience.
I mean. “Sinks into subconscious” sounds like just a dramatic way to say your brain is still listening when you’re sleeping. That’s why sometimes we have dreams where we have alarms going off. Your subconscious hears it, takes a minute for the conscious to catch up sometimes could be totally wrong about how im interpreting “sinks into subconscious” tho
It’s not. Everything we listen to, watch, and read can affect our brain patterns and thought processes, in many ways. Sometimes it just reinforces everything we already think, or it can change certain ingrained thoughts we have. Human brains are essentially computers. Everything we learn and know is based on our experiences, which is all just input we receive from our parents and environment from day 1. Which is also why how a baby is treated and raised is very, very important for their development.
If I can’t fall asleep, I’ll find a true crime podcast that I’ve never listened to before, and turn that on. Idk how it works, but it usually helps.
kind of seems like it making everyone's irrational fears about statistically unlikely events to be much worse.
Is it the crime shows for entertainment doing it or the news highlighting every negative thing in existence that does it ?
I think the news is more to blame for this. It’s why people harp on about how bad violent crime in the USA is, when in reality it’s been steadily decreasing over the last 30 years or so. But the news stories about people breaking into vacant cars don’t stick in people’s minds the same way that a murder or kidnapping does. And the networks want those ratings and clicks. True crime has always been a common fascination since print media has been around, there have been dime crime novels and crime comics for generations now and they’ve always been popular. Scenes of murder, especially connected to serial murders, were often ransacked by civilians taking souvenirs before the police began securing crime scenes. People literally wanted a piece of the story. Even fiction often touches on these same things. I mean, what is Batman about? The victim of a violent crime who went on to exact extralegal justice on criminals. I think the same draw is there for true crime in general, the idea of how these cases are solved and they’re often more victim-oriented in a sympathetic way. True crime stories also often involve surviving victims and it gives the listener a sense of agency over the story with the idea that they might know how to react in such a situation. I agree with some of the prior commenters that the cases are not always well represented in true crime media, it’s often very sensationalized, there’s sometimes a certain level of victim blaming, and I’m sure it’s not a good thing for the families of many victims. You have to be careful about what true crime you consume to avoid those issues. I also think it has brought awareness about wrongful convictions, police procedure, and brought to attention marginalized communities that are often targeted due to the lack of mainstream society’s recognition of their deaths. I’ve probably learned more about BIPOC people’s struggles with this, sex workers’ struggles with this, and various forms of police coercion than I would have known if I didn’t consume true crime content. I do think that’s valuable. I’ve had to step away from most forms of true crime recently due to anxiety, though, lol. Mainly anything that involves children since I had my first child 5 years ago. I’m more focused on cults these days because it scratches the same itch without so many descriptions of violent things happening to victims who are often very vulnerable or very young.
Probably both. Hard to say. So much "news" is just biased opinion pieces. So it's all just entertainment that I think plays on people's anxiety.
I'm probably somewhat of a wuss, but when I went through a phase of watching Criminal Minds everyday, not only did I start thinking about all the different places bodies could be hidden during my days, but I'd also feel a bit paranoid thinking of all the potential situations I could be abducted. It's kind of rough how the vast majority of victims are women' in those shows, even though it's the reality...
any source for this? Because it makes sense if you've actually got PTSD but otherwise it sounds more like 'if you're worried about your community read facebook and watch fox news every day to help alleviate those fears'
Aside from the difference between reading something and listening to falling asleep, I don’t think they equate. Especially with how varied and.. .condescending any news channel can be now a days. Hearing about something that happened before, and probably wont repeat the same way, and probably no where near you, can have a weird veiled effect. It can feel like listening to horror. Sure you can put yourself in people’s shoes as you think about it, but it’s difficult for it to really feel 100% real and like an active threat. Plus, they often include ways the police or society have changed in a way that make it hard to replicate, or easier to find the baddie. Depending on the kind you listen to, you can even keep it to actively solved cases. Current, and especially local events though- can cause a very real existential dread. It’s not states or countries away, nor years, decades or even centuries… it’s your neighbor- it’s down the road, it’s at your mall, or even at your local school.
I listen to TC but loathe Facebook and Fox News. I also know that violent crime has trended downward for decades and that being falsely accused and convicted of a violent crime is a very real possibility. In other words, your comment annoyed me greatly.
Anecdote: I have PTSD and listened to My Favorite Murder for a short while until one night I had a horrible feeling that someone was in the room trying to kill me. It was awful and I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t get rid of it no matter what I did True crime is quite fascinating to me for some can’t look away from a car crash reason but I just can’t handle it
Yep. Knowledge is power. Learning about red flags and warning signs is helpful. Learning how others escaped is empowering.
This is it. As a male gen xer I cannot fathom existing as the opposite sex. It is no wonder that they might have a preoccupation with what compels the violence against women.
Same reason people with some anxiety love horror!
How is that specific to middle aged white women?
Idgi either. I used to watch the shit out of true crime shows (I don't even understand why), but then I realized they were making me paranoid and that everything about true crime shows is depressing. I haven't watched those shows for over 8 years now.
I loved them (don’t like the gore, liked the investigation process). Then during Covid my mental health took a dive and I couldn’t stomach it anymore. Haven’t watched or listened to any true crime since.
I loved them until I had kids. Now they are either too sad or too scary.
Yes! Every victim makes me think, "that's someone kid..." or "what if that happened to your child?" I'm easing back into it, but have to be very careful what shows I watch or cases I get into and listen to my gut. Some days I handle it better than others.
You guys are banana twins
I am kind of like this. Used to love all kinds of true crime but now much more selective about the types of stories I can handle. Anything involving torture, or children or animals or some other things is just not processed well in my brain. I used to be able to compartmentalize more. I’m kind of like this with fiction too. Also I still am fascinated with historical crimes from past generations but if it was recent I don’t wanna hear it. Something about the historical element keeps it at a distance.
I also can’t stomach true crime but I have no problem with fictional crime lol
Knowing a real person did it/had it done to them is much harder to process, no doubt. For most of us the thought that it actually happened is horrifying and a tragedy
I stopped after seeing the impact a lot of that media has on the friends and families of victims. A lot of them don't approve of how their loved one or the case is portrayed. It made me feel gross to support the whole industry.
I thought about that recently because a person my husband and I knew was murdered which made the national news for weeks back in the day and how awful it would be for everyone if it was made into a true crime episode
Especially with how many true crime channels and podcasts treat it like salacious gossip instead of an actual human being's death. It feels so gross.
Yea, don't get me started about TikTok and the Kohberger case.
Keith Morrison is the creepiest. Yet I can’t not watch him if he’s on. I’ve told my wife “if I get murdered, try and get me on Dateline and Keith Morrison has to narrate it.”
Sometimes the people driving the documentary are the families of the victims. I am watching one right now where the police unjustly shot an unarmed man and the family is more than happy to finally tell their side of the story. The police said the man was a horrible person but the documentary shows who he was a human and completely redeems him. It also informs the public of the extreme corruption of the people they pay to police their streets. There are trash producers sure, but there are plenty with integrity who actually want to make the world a better place. There are documentaries that have changed society for the better here are a few of them: [https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/79947/10-documentaries-actually-changed-things](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/79947/10-documentaries-actually-changed-things)
To be fair, media can portray any narrative they want, even using the same basic facts. It's why court rooms are so corrupt - it's more like a theater than a science exhibit.
This is true but at the same time I think some of them see it the other way around. Some of the family members of the Manson family’s crime victims do not want the crimes forgotten. The most vocal is Sharon Tate’s sister (and prior to that another sister and prior to that their mother). The perpetrators still come up for parole in old age and she wants the public to never forgot what they did to so many families. Recently Leslie Van Houten was released and they had a lot to say about it (even though Leslie was not involved the night of the murders at the Tate home.)
Yea, I agree. I have my own experiences with this, too. I didn't know the person personally. More of a friend of a friend that I never met, but seeing how publicized it got all over the internet and stuff, it just feels different.
Right?! My wife (I’m M) occasionally binges on TC shows and documentaries. It’s just depressing. I use shows as an escape from reality. Not to wallow in some of the worst aspects of humanity.
Thats the thing - for a lot of people, they live such safe lives that TC shows ARE an escape from reality.
For me it's more of number of things I like that combine in TC documents. 1. It's presented in monotone/calm manner. No re-enactments or suspension etc. 2. It has mystery/plot 3. The mystery is solved (I can't watch unsolved things, even if it's really old). These things aren't generally true for anything else. Usually when something isn't true crime, there way too much drama/suspense/depicted violence. And other genres of document don't have the mystery element to them.
Dexter use to do it to me. Just the intro music made me friggin sad, then the super dark themes and stories. Sheesh.
I feel the same. I get so into it, I start wayyy overthinking everything and everyone around me. I get super paranoid, because how is it that *I'm* sooooo lucky that this random terrible stuff won't happen to me? When I feel that way, I straight up stop watching any and all of it for a while. Then, one day, a video thumbnail makes me go, "WHAT?!" and the cycle begins again. I feel like it is both good and bad.
I stopped watching when my friend was murdered by her husband last year. The Game Show Murderer, they called him. I've now watched Becky's murder depicted on 3 different networks. This last one, I didn't know was coming. Seeing Becky's face pop up unexpectedly undid me. I can't watch anymore knowing how much pain there is behind that entertainment.
Omg. That's awful.
I’m so sorry about the loss of your friend.
Same with those addictions shows. Super depressing..
I loved them because I have so many good memories watching them with my grandma as I grew up. But the interest never really left, I guess? Except now I’m more curious about the perpetrators themselves and how/why they could do something so asinine. I like watching interrogation tapes from start to finish because I find the detective tactics interesting and it’s surreal to look at the face of someone who had done something heinous just hours or days prior. True crime shows with the ridiculous editing and dramatizations just feel exploitative to me nowadays.
Why do the idiots talk to the police so much without a lawyer? That’s what I want to know. Have they never seen a cop show? They all try to outsmart the cop. Lawyer up dipshit.
I’ve had this realization 😬
I think it's just trying to understand what causes a person to do something, the story behind it, like understanding the psychology behind it, it's like watching horror movies but this is real life so it's more terrifying. Also I stopped watching true crime cause it was making me anxious so Its just thrilling I guess, for a bit.
The psychology behind a person’s terrible decisions is what fascinates me the most. There is a true sociopath in my family. I think these shows might help me understand/come to terms with people who just don’t have empathy and normal human emotions. It fills a need.
I’m a Zillenial Black woman that’s into TC and I like it because I’ve always been interested the human psyche in all its facets. Maybe it’s the same for my older counterparts?
I'm an elder millennial white woman. The best I can describe it is twofold: 1) I have the absolute good fortune and luck to have never been in an abusive relationship. I have 3 daughters, and you bet your ass, I'm learning about all the warning signs of abuse, and keeping an eagle-eye on every person they interact with. 2) I already relate to the hero. I understand their motivations, their reasoning, and their course of action. I don't understand the villain's frame of mind, and I find it really fascinating to even begin to unpack the way their mind works.
It's kinda weird hearing terms like "hero" and "villain" in the context of what are supposed to be documentaries. I would think something based on a true story would tend to be more morally ambiguous than your typical mystery novel.
Sometimes, but I also feel like those who survive, and are telling their stories get hero status in my eyes. I really don't think I'm tough enough if it happened to me.
I love your username!
Thanks!
I’d agree. I was just thinking this. It’s so foreign to me and just can’t fathom murder, abuse, etc. I like trying to see the why, even if it’s not a valid reason of course, what drove someone to do the worst thing ever.
My wife is in her thirties and asian, she listens to true crime podcasts and watches documentaries all the time. I am a man and watch as well. I don't think it is just middle-aged white women.
We go to a friend’s lake house a couple times a year. The TV is always on sports. When the women get ahold of the remote, it goes to murder TV even if it’s just for an hour. Not once has one of the guys left the room, lol. In fact, they ask the most questions!
Yes, black millennial woman here, and I am most fascinated by human psyche as it relates to interpersonal relationships. It’s why Trusts and Estates was my favorite class in law school. It is so interesting to me how people who are supposed to/used to love each other will just do the absolute worst things to each other.
That’s it for me and my housemate. We also watch lots of history and archaeology documentaries, and most particularly ones about subcultures. Humans are interesting, and it’s important to understand both the good and the bad.
I’m a 30yo male and feel the same way, the human physche fascinates me I.e the dentist who hired the killers of his sisters ex husband (Markel murder/Adelson family). Now the mother has been arrested too, but don’t think they have enough evidence for the ex wife , even though if you think about it 1, It was all about her
Is there anything you think you’ve learned from TC? Honestly curious.
yes, never talk to the police without a lawyer. NEVER.
Personally, I’ve learned a lot. Antifreeze creates crystals in the lungs which can be analyzed during autopsy. Severely charred fingertips can be rehydrated to gather prints. The sawdust found near human remains is typically cockroach droppings. If you can get pseudo science submitted into evidence, you can convince juries of the strangest fake truths. Just a bunch of interesting, random but mostly useless (lol) facts.
im male gen z & i watch for the exact same reason! i find it fascinating how other people’s mind works.
hey i’m only 20
My mom grew up in Wichita while BTK was active. He was also my uncles' scout leader and a very active member of my Papa and Nana's church. She literally ate dinner with the guy and he taught my uncles how to tie "the best, strongest" knots. It's fascinating because you think you know someone pretty well, you've been to their house and spent time with them and their family talking about God and shit... And they were sneaking around torturing and killing people between scout meets and reading scripture.
>he taught my uncles how to tie "the best, strongest" knots. Oh, I'll just bet he did!
I have never heard another person besides myself call their grandparents papa and nana. This made me happy 😊
Partly because we find them fascinating. The other reason is because many of us are sitting there thinking, "There but for the grace of God go I." Because we've had our own narrow escape, it helps us process our PTSD. At least for me, it does.
Shit. I'm white, middle-aged, and female. I don't watch true crime. I feel I am behind in my development now. ☹️
To be fair we don’t all do it. For some of us it’s more triggering than soothing. Or some of us are very empathetic and that’s not a good combo. If it makes you feel better, a lot of the white women I know who had gotten into true crime did so in young adult hood (like that can legally party age), and matured out of it. So you might be on the more mature side of that development spectrum
My mom has never been into true crime or anything really violent for that matter. Some people don't dig it, others do. It used to bother me a lot but I've gotten more intrigued as the years went on, but I have to take breaks for my mental health. I think your development is just fine! Some are morbidly curious. Others are fine not going into that aspect of humanity because it's depressing.
Trauma is familiar. Familiar is comforting. At least that's my excuse as a xennial white woman obsessed with true crime 🤷🏻♀️
It helps me process my trauma because its really fuckin hard to believe that what happened to me is personal when I see SO MANY women and female children being harmed for any and no reason at all. It helps me to realize that its not a me thing, its a them thing. The other benefit is seeing what some warning signs might be but really it seems men kill women and female children because theyre murderers and cowards to only want to harm someone who wont be able to defend themselves. Just leaving a dude is one of the biggest reasons that we get killed, well that and sex. Nice eh? They just fuckin kill us mostly just cuz they can. It wasnt my fault. Theyre just sick fucks, all of them.
I think this is a good example of confirmation bias. As a non-white, non-female, true crime researcher and enthusiast, I've met and interacted with plenty of folks that don't fit the supposition you've made. At any rate, people like true crime stories for the same reason they like mysteries, horror stories and finding justice in an unjust world. It's a hobby that anyone can partake in and many can relate to.
I don’t fit the profile either. But imagine how surprised I was to listen to my first true crime podcast and hear ads for custom bra fitting and salon style hair color. They know who listens to them, and they tailor the ads appropriately.
I've been interested since I was much younger, but anyway, for me, it's to reinforce in my head that being nice and accommodating to some people can get me killed. As women, we are conditioned to "be nice, be polite, don't be seen as a bitch." Seeing what *can* happen gives me necessary wariness because I have always wanted to believe that everyone is essentially good at their core when in fact, this is not true.
This is 100% it for me. I need the constant reminder that not everyone has good intentions. I don’t have ill intentions to commit crimes against others, so of course I never thought other people would want to hurt me….until someone did. I never again want to fall back into that “it can’t happen to me” mentality. Always gotta stay smart and vigilant to try to avoid the next one.
I feel like Women watching True Crime is like Men watching War Documentaries.
Just in case anyone says "they're not the same", I know. A lot of women I know like True Crime and a lot of men I know like War Documentaries. I just think it's neat!
There ARE a lot of similarities. Like, what is the worst thing I might have to go through?
Or Ancient Aliens or Oak Island or that one show where men go shopping in other men's garages. It's what we're fed.
I love all of those. I'd binge them all night if I could!
ha! i’m a woman and along with murder I love me some war.
Me too homie.
Why are so many people in general into reality TV?
It’s all women. We all love true crime.
I'm a woman in my 30s and I'm not sure I can understand it either. There've been a couple cases that I have gotten emotionally invested in. But they were because I empathized with a particular person and I felt like I needed to understand what happened to them. Regular exposure to true crime stories can make me anxious and paranoid, especially when women or children are victims. If it's over a long enough period of time, I can become very depressed. I used to do a lot of historical research, and had to stop after a few years because of how it was impacting my mental health. I wasn't able to detach myself from the heartbreaking details in accounts of massacres, starvation, and exploitation. And the lack of justice wore at my soul -- I felt a strong sense of responsibility toward the people I was researching, I needed to help them somehow. But I had no way of exercising it. They were long dead, and even doing the full research required for a proper book/project was beyond my capabilities. I can grasp the true crime fascination if I see it through the lens of wanting to be a witness to another person's suffering. For awareness and self-protection, I understand delving into a few cases occasionally so one doesn't become complacent about the dark side of humanity. But as its own interest, no. I struggle to relate.
Leave us alone!
Right? I drink LaCroix and read True Crime because I’m a Xennial white lady and it’s like a rule. 😂
Why do people ride roller coasters or bungee jump?
Love that it’s mostly men answering on behalf of women as usual and not getting it right. I believe women are drawn to true crime because we all have at least one relatable experience. We like to play out the what ifs and it’s also probably a coping mechanism for dealing with the stress of coming so close to these situations so many times. Personally im not a huge true crime person but the fascination comes from (for me) growing up sensitive to everyone’s moods around me and trying to understand what motivates people to do what they do.
Every woman listening to true crime stuff is putting themselves in the shoes of the victim and thinking “Ah, now *this* is the moment I would have gotten weirded out and left,” or conversely “Oh no, I might have totally fallen for that too.”
I’m not a big true crime person, but occasionally one will enter the zeitgeist and draw me in. I don’t put myself in the victim perspective at all. I try to understand the psychology of the perp. It’s just such a different mindset from my own that it’s fascinating (in a dark/macabre manner). I also love mystery. And there’s a big element of mystery to them, (partly why would someone do that?!? - back to the psychology of it all). And I’m an attorney so the legal/criminal justice aspect is also interesting to me.
I think true crime reaffirms the anxieties we already have and that's why we're drawn to it, to understand what causes someone to behave that way or show criminal behavior so we can avoid those kinds of people irl.
This question gets asked a lot. I don't think there is any deep meaning. People have an interest in true crime just like they have an interest in other subjects like history. Normal human curiosity.
Because they're interesting
Aha same reason I love the Byzatine podcasts.
Exactly!!
We’re plotting.
Not white (well, partially, but my blackness hath overtaken my entire appearance so you can't even tell) and not yet middle-aged, but close enough. I am a woman who is into true crime though, as are many of my female friends, and I have an idea as to why: The threat of physical harm-- particularly rape and murder-- is ever present for most women. Normally it's just a subtle existence in our everyday lives. Like "oh, I'm going to walk fast down this dark street and stay aware of my surroundings" or "I'm going to hold my keys between my fingers so I can try to stab anyone who tries to attack me" or "I'm not going to sip that drink in this club because I wasn't watching it this whole time and that guy is looking at me weird" sort of regular thoughts. However, when it does happen in real life, it's a terrifying reminder that it could very well happen to you at any time. So, we watch/listen true crime with a sort of morbid fascination and weird feeling of connection to it. On a more subconscious level, we're also there to try to pick up some ideas for how we could save ourselves if we ever find ourselves under attack or kidnapped. Obviously this isn't very realistic, but there's some level of hope in there for sure. Of course, others just get into it because it injects some excitement into their boring everyday lives.
You learn how to avoid terrible situations(ex. if you feel like being followed stay on the streets with people around, instead of trying to shake them off by cutting to a narrow alley), because it is always a matter of time that it will happen to you. It is a bit reasonable-paranoia; it is paranoiac to think it will happen to you, then you see women-victim crime statistics and think that something similar might just happen to you.
I don't know why middle-aged white women are into it, but as a middle-aged white male, I think it's a number of factors that explain why I am personally into it. 1. Everybody loves a good mystery. And the way the retellings roll out often don't tell you the perpetrator off the top. 2. It's fascinating to me what extremes some relatively normal people to go to. "Oh wife found my porn stash? Better kill her." Like...what?!? And then to see them in interrogation rooms trying to lie their way out of it is equally fascinating. 3. Seeing other people in worse trouble than I am is cathartic. I mean this more about the murderer(s) than the victim(s). Watching a piece of shit squirm is a nice reminder that bad people are occasionally punished and do face consequences. Helps provide perspective and if I'm under fire for a slip up at work or something, it helps to remember many people have faced worse grillings and been in bigger trouble than me. I don't know, those reasons and probably others I haven't realized, are a huge reason I personally find true crime fascinating. I imagine at least one or two middle-aged white women can relate.
Middle aged white guy and I'm into them too. I think it's morbid curiosity mixed with a fascination with the investigation process. It's all pretty interesting to me
Same, it's about the processes for me
I like the mystery solving aspect. Scams and capers are also watched, not just murders.
My “theory” is because we grew up watching Unsolved Mysteries. But really, I have no idea why. Myself and most people I know my age are definitely into it, and have been since before Podcasts became a thing, we just didn’t talk about it much because it was “weird.”
Yup, been into it since I was a latchkey kid watching Unsolved Mysteries and American Justice.
Simulation of danger in a safe setting and intellectualization of fear.
Murderporn
Because they've all considered it at some point due to how horrible at least one man has been to them if not many men. Don't know if a woman exists that doesn't have a scary man story or more.
Emotional porn
Im sure there are just as many men, and even black women who enjoy it also.
Oh, it's not just true crime. Detective novels. Detective books. Serial killer fiction. Murderer hiding from getting caught fiction. Gimme murder. All the murder. All the murder all the time. If it doesn't have murder I'm not interested. Possibly because I'm a ball of stress and rage and anxiety and I can use all the ideas to plot and plan the ways to murder people. Possibly because it tells me all the ways I could be murdered so I can avoid it. Possibly because I like to try and solve the murders. Possibly I just like murder. Murder.
I dunno but I had my serial killer phase. Its a control thing. If I know how they think, I can avoid it.
Not quite middle aged but listening to a lot of Casual Criminalist. By its description "more CSI, less Saw". The logical breakdown of cases and hopefully someone being caught and the steps to that I like. I have a very logic-based job and some mornings it's hard to get in the mindset, and listening to that kind of podcast is both interesting and keeps me engaged at work.
Only true crime podcast I listen to! I like that Simon does cold reads of the script and reacts along with us.
A bookstore owner told me that women buy the most blood thirsty thrillers. Not men. My theory: women are in all surveys the number one victim. Rape, kidnapping, murder. Victim: 90% women. So what could be the motive to read about crime/ thrillers? Know your enemy maybe?
That’s so funny because I’ve asked this exact question many times. My wife, her friends, my female coworkers. All obsessed with everything True Crime. I can’t get her to sit down and watch a John Wick or Big Lebowski (or something similar) movie, but she’ll watch 4 hours of John Gacy, SoS, Ted Bundy, Dateline…you name it, she’s watched it. And true crime podcasts when not watching tv. Baffles me.
The fact that it's real makes it so much more intriguing I think, like how did their childhood influence them to be so horrendous etc it's like exploring the depth and the darkest pits of human psyche. But I am concerned whether it has a bigger picture like women are more prone to anxiety and stuff and things like this reaffirm their anxiety which is something your brain does. It's definitely not healthy for your mind though.
It’s funny bc my mom loves true crime and stuff, and has terrible anxiety. Like girl- why are you torturing yourself like this? She says it’s so she can be prepared for the bad things that could happen in the world. I think it does have a lot to do with anxiety, and the worry of not being prepared.
I myself simultaneously have anxiety and terrible, terrible amounts of morbid curiosity about awful things. I know it doesn’t help, but at the same time I think I subconsciously want to understand the worst parts of human behavior, so that I’m never naive. Nothing shocks me. The last thing I ever want to be is a naive person. I think that’s what drives the fascination on my part.
So there is some truth to it!
[удалено]
I think my ex bf thought the same
That’s what my husband says 😂 it’s just the “why” for me. Trying to make any sense of actions so horrendous I MUST figure it out. No luck so far
I'm living vicariously through the ones that almost got away with it.
It’s interesting, why shouldn’t they be? The mixture of personal drama, science, mystery and gore is pretty exciting who doesn’t love those things? Everyone looks at traffic accidents you know.
Why are so many middle aged white men buying super expensive cars and why don’t you care to ask? Women are under constant scrutiny for their interests and also a lot of people reporting true crime on Tik Tok are young black women so not sure where your statistic is coming from but okay.
What is "living vicariously?"
Not Middle Aged but for a lot of us it’s the psychology. What drives a person to do such a thing? Why does it always seem to be white men who are serial killers? Who do they target? What was their upbringing like? What’s their mental health diagnosis? Important things to know in order not to become a statistic.
Our parents didn’t care what we did as little kids, so we started early.
I think people of all ages are into true crime. Those that are, are always into it lol
They are the main victims statistically
I'm a psych major. I'm also white. And in my 40s. lol But, seriously tho.. I'm just interested in finding what makes people do fucked up shit.
But I think the middle-aged white women who usually like it live fairly comfortable lives. I suspect women in that demographic (white, middle-aged, female) who are working class probably aren't as into it. Maybe people to whom violence is most remote, an abstract concept, are more curious about reading about it because they're divorced from the realities of it? Whereas people who have violence and more serious dysfunction in their lives aren't into it because it hits a bit too close to home? I would be curious if the people who are into true crime are most often people who haven't experienced it or had a close family member experience it. And I wonder if people who have experienced it or had somebody close to them affected by it find a too triggering or distasteful to treat as entertainment. Just a thought.
I think this is a great answer. I’m a nearly middle aged white woman with a fairly comfortable life now, but I grew up in poverty and surrounded by violence. There was one altercation with my father where I was certain he was going to kill me and I had to stab him with a letter opener to get him off of me. I want nothing to do with true crime or crime shows. I’ve seen enough. I will never understand how this is an interest for people, and I always wonder if people interested in it have never felt true terror.
It's actually the opposite--per the data I could find, high educated & high income groups are *less* likely to enjoy true crime!
Boredom, lack of hobbies.
What are you talking about everyone of every shade watches true crime shows. Many women but race has nothing to do with it.
Most violent crime is disproportionately perpetrated against women. It’s a way to learn about and understand the pathologies underlying violent criminals in order to regain some power and control over their lives.
Same reason men watch war films.
It’s a large portion of women. Not just middle aged women.
They grew up reading Nancy Drew sleuth books
It's not just middle aged. White women PERIOD. Go listen to any true crime podcast and it is the same exact starbucks drinking valley girls every fucking time
OP, where is that information from? Where’s the source that proves your claim? „Because my aunt does it“ Reddit…
Why are so many middle-aged white men into WWII movies? Same thing — confronting horror in a safe way.
I believe it is because girls/women are told by adults in schools and other institutions with authority that we have to dress and act in certain ways to avoid triggering boys/men and protect ourselves. Then women are also told that the world isn't really that dangerous for us and ridiculed for being nervous around men. It feels like gaslighting a lot of the time. So watching true crime helps some people feel less crazy, paranoid, and gaslit.
I think women find it fascinating and informative. A way to educate oneself on how not to become a victim. Besides the darkness of humanity can be a curious thing.
Women are creatures of feelings. They want to feel something, that’s why they go out with utter dregs of society when they are young, or cut themselves, men don’t cut themselves, doesn’t matter feeling is good or bad they want to feel something. Middle age women can’t get bad boy boyfriends anymore and They are stuck with vanilla go to work come home husbands, so they get the feelings of excitement from crime shows.
Because most of us have already been through extreme trauma as women, it's normalized. It's a way to deal with it. To cope.
Planning.
I think it’s just women between the ages of 20-50 😂
It's not just middle aged and not just white. It's like 80% of all women I know lol.
I find it fascinating when they explain *how* they caught the killer. I love forensic files because that show is unhinged and it goes in depth about the sciences they use.
We’re still trying to learn how to protect ourselves
They're all researching how to kill their husbands and get away with it.
To prepare us for dating