Why are we fascinated with True Crime?

Throughout my childhood, horror films preoccupied my mind, they were how me and my father would bond, he would tell me about one he watched in excruciating detail and I would repeat it to my friends only hours later. Horror films were a quintessential part of our relationship. We liked talking about the horror of human nature and of the paranormal. The horror of haunted homes and haunted and possessed people. The gore of the human mind.

I feel that this preoccupation must have been my training wheels for my love of True Crime.

Love is a stretched perception; obsession is something I do not want to admit to. Fascination? It’s as fascinating as a car crash that you can’t help but look at it even though you want to look away.

Traffic jams aren’t caused by car accidents, they are caused by rubber necking, which is an interesting analogy for True Crime.

We as a collective are currently inundated with true crime stories, whether TV documentaries about Jeffrey Epstein, the Golden State Killer, the disappearance of Madeline McCann or podcasts such as My Favourite Murder or And That’s Why We Drink.

There’s a huge market for these real-life crime stories around the world.

What drives this consumption? This fascination? What grips us and haunts our thoughts for days to come and what sends us down a multitude of internet rabbit holes that you can’t see the end of?

Is it anxiety? Do we want to feel prepared for the future? Is that why we make sure all windows and shut before going to sleep before someone could crawl in and hurt our families? Is it because we like to be scared in a controlled way? We can listen to a podcast or research something in the comfort of our bed and as soon as something gets too much, we can turn it off and continue with our lives?

Why do we love to devour stories about the darkest of human behaviours? For psychologist Dr Meg Arroll, the darkness of the subject matter is what makes true-crime stories so compelling. “As humans we want to understand the darker side of our nature,” she says. “True crime stories allow us to explore that in a safe way, from a safe distance.”

Is it because of the experience of incredulity at the justice system and its workings? Is it because there are binaries of good and evil, rich and poor, powerful and powerless? I will let you come to your own conclusions.