By Ally McLaren
The truth is, I’m a true crime girlie. I will watch any and every true crime documentary, and if I’m not
listening to Taylor Swift I’ve got a true crime podcast blasting. It sounds awful, like I revel in these
horrible things happening, but that’s not the case at all. It got me thinking, why am I so obsessed
with true crime?
I’m not alone, it’s no secret that true crime is a hugely popular topic of fascination, with a heavily
involved community of armchair detectives discussing the latest theories and outcomes of cases.
Netflix have released a trove of true crime documentaries that are set to reach the Top 10 lists the
day they come out, and the podcast Serial, with its first season reaching number 1 on the iTunes
chart, became the fastest podcast ever to reach 5m downloads (1). Podcasts which regularly feature
on the Spotify charts are My Favorite Murder and True Crime with Kendall Rae. Love Island hosting
couple Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling have even recently launched their own true crime podcast,
‘Partners in Crime’.
Interestingly, a huge percentage of women make up both the creators and viewers of true crime
content, despite proportionally being the victims of the sexual and violent crimes that are depicted.
There are countless YouTube channels where women tell harrowing stories while doing their daily
makeup routine, and the hashtag #truecrime has 13.2 billion views on TikTok. One of these women
is Bailey Sarian, a YouTuber who also hosts the podcast Murder, Mystery & Makeup, whose 6.5
million subscribers watch her apply makeup while talking about crime cases. She states that most of
her audience is women, with the highest demographics being 25-35 and 18–25 year olds (2). A 2010
study (3) found that women overwhelmingly opted to read true crime stories, about the death and
dismemberment of victims like themselves, rather than men (4).
These figures can seem shocking when you consider how often women are the victims of crime.
According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), between April 2020 and
March 2021, 177 women were murdered in England and Wales, and where the suspect was known,
92% of these women were killed by men (5).
So why is it that women are so interested in hearing these stories of victims just like themselves? Is it
a morbid fascination, or a survival guide?
Morbid fascination
Morbid fascination is a basic impulse that we can’t control, and we can’t help but watch, or want to
know more about it, even when we won’t like what we see. Just like driving past the scene of an
accident, you can’t look away even if you want to.
Victim empathy
As the victims of crime are so often women, many of us can see ourselves in the victims and are able
to relate to them. As women tend to be more empathetic than men anyway, this is only heightened
when you realise that you could be a victim yourself.
Easing anxiety from afar
One of the reasons that anxious people enjoy watching horror films (myself included!) is because it’s
a way to cope with anxiety by watching something that scares you while you are in a safe
environment. This way you can help control your feelings around the fear, and this can be helpful for
women who feel extremely helpless in a society which is dangerous for them.
Taking control of the narrative
This is a way to gain back a sense of control in a situation that makes us feel helpless, by telling the
stories of these women respectfully, without glorifying the perpetrator or violence, to raise
awareness and educate.
A survival guide
Consuming this content is actually a way for many women to prepare for the possibility that this
could happen to them. Learning the psychology of why people do what they do, why they target
victims, and which situations could be potentially dangerous, is a way to try and avoid being another
victim.
Not that anyone who is a victim of a crime could have been more prepared or done anything about
it, but for peace of mind it can help us feel like we have done everything we can to look out for signs
of danger. As women, we have been taught our whole lives to look out for strange men, to carry our
keys between our fingers, and to text our friends as soon as we get home to let them know that
we’re safe. This feels like an extension of that, as knowledge is power.
The recent wave of reports of violence against women in the UK has been overwhelming. The stories
of women who were murdered simply as they walked home – Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa, Ashling
Murphy, and Zara Aleena – is chilling and acts as a warning to us all.
We have to constantly wonder, will it be my face that’s being shared on social media next, because I
dared to walk home from the office or the shop one day? Or, how will I get home safely when
meeting friends in town, even if it’s just a 10 minute walk home? Would I rather risk walking, or
getting into a taxi with a strange man? It’s being aware of a man walking behind you, or a car
slowing down, and then feeling silly because the car was just stopping to turn, or that man just
happened to be walking that way and wasn’t following you at all.
But the fear is always so real, as just because nothing happened when you were walking home that
day, it doesn’t mean that it won’t the next. The stories of true crime may be scary, but they act as a
way for many of us to prepare and ultimately feel safer.
As the hosts of podcast My Favorite Murder say, ‘Stay sexy and don’t get murdered’.
References
(1)Serial podcast breaks iTunes records as it passes 5m downloads and streams | iTunes | The Guardian