Hearing about the crimes that people commit can be triggering for some but cathartic for others.
Murder, theft, and assault are part of the darkest themes of human societies and these topics are often locked away and hidden like their enactors. However, the genre of true crime explores such topics and exposes the twisted tales of human monsters.
True crime media can help ordinary people comprehend the psyche of those who commit heinous crimes and provide a safe space for us to grapple with the question of whether evil is inherent to human minds or is created by the pressures of living a cruel existence.
Good true crime content creators–including documentary podcasters, writers, reporters, and filmmakers–reveal the humanity that connects the ordinary and the extraordinary.
Done well, true crime shows are a force for good, though some may not be ready or willing to tune in.
In some cases, true crime shows can even help those who were wronged by the justice system.
For example, following the airing of the documentary Who Killed Malcolm X?, a 2020 Netflix miniseries directed by Rachel Dretzin and Phil Bertelsen, the case was reopened. Attorneys discovered new evidence and two of the three men convicted of Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965 were released.
But even when true crime shows don’t rise to the level of righting injustices or finding evidence that solves crimes, they are still beneficial, in particular for women who a YouGov survey found are particularly interested in the genre. In fact, although half of Americans tune into true crime content, 71% of women cited it as their favorite genre, compared just 29% of men.
In an article by CBSNews, co-host of true crime podcast “Wine and Crime” Lucy Fitzgerald posits a theory for why women are particularly interested in true crime.
“We think that it’s because women are so often portrayed as victims in the media. And women in particular like to think about something and understand it in order to overcome anxieties based around that,” Fitzgerald said.
Rotten Mango, hosted by content creator Stephanie Soo, compiles the stories of perpetrators and victims impartially, using her well-developed team of researchers.
In episode 11 of the podcast, listeners learn about serial killer Edmund Kemper. Kemper, nicknamed the “Co-Ed Killer,” slaughtered his grandparents when he was just fifteen years old, and went on to murder six young women in Santa Cruz, California in the 1960s.
Soo explains that he then murdered his mom and her friend, and used his mom’s detached head as a dartboard, claiming, “That seemed appropriate, as much as she’d bitched and screamed and yelled at me for so many years.”
From Soo’s retelling, we learn that Kemper had an abusive relationship with his alcoholic mother and had dark fantasies of murder from a very young age. Although incomprehensible, learning of the mindframe of people like Kemper could possibly help prevent someone else from going in that destructive direction of aggression and violence, and could help prevent people from becoming victims as well.
But not all crime shows are created equal and many fear that the stories of the victims get drowned out in the name of sensationalism.
According to an article by Insider, 30 year-old Sara Freuler was offended by the coverage of the story involving her school, in which one of her classmates died from medical neglect. In a podcast called “Popcorn Murder Stories,” the hosts told inaccurate facts and made inappropriate jokes about Freuler.
In the interview, Freuler says “It’s very upsetting to just hear a mangled fictionalized account of your whole life by complete strangers.”
Done properly, this doesn’t happen. Good true crime reporting highlights victims’ stories and makes sure to only tell the verified facts and to clarify when they are offering opinions. The best shows are respectful and reliable.
Humanizing the killers as well as the victims has taught me that no one can control the circumstances they are born into and which can greatly affect their morality or immorality. What we do control is how we respond to the world and its ills, either by adding scars to society or helping to heal them.
