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With the release of the Ted Bundy docu-series on Netflix, as well as the new movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile based on the same man, these releases made me ask the question: why is our society so obsessed with serial killers? As someone who has been a fan of true crime herself after growing up watching shows like Criminal Minds, I have always questioned my interest in serial killers and if it is wrong how the entertainment industry can sometimes portray these people. For me, the interest mainly comes from trying to understand the psychology behind people who do things that most of us could never imagine doing. Thinking critically, I feel like there are a few reasons why people become interested or “obsessed” with serial killers on different levels. Seemingly it is mainly to do with the way the media portrays these people and how public perception can be influenced by this.
It is estimated that serial murder makes up only about 1% of homicides in the US; however, it is one of the most highly publicized forms of homicide. It is not unknown that many serial killers are often portrayed in the news media and even popular culture like celebrities. By simply clicking through Netflix, you can find plenty of documentaries on different ‘infamous’ serial killers, and when you mention certain names like Jeffrey Dahmer, almost everyone will know who that is. With Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy for example, I think the biggest thing that interests people is the sheer magnitude and villainy of their crimes and how long they were able to avoid police detection before being caught. Popular culture has often made serial killers out to be these larger than life characters, but often they are just regular people who have regular jobs and families, and in some way, this makes them much more interesting to the average person. For most people, it can seem beyond belief that someone who appears so normal is able to commit some of the most heinous crimes with no sense of empathy. I also believe that people become really invested in news media portrayals of serial killers because we seek to understand why someone who looks so normal on the outside would do something so horrible. People want something to connect their actions to explanations such as mental illness, or that they were raised in a broken home because it can tend to give a sense of security in the idea that your next door neighbour couldn’t be someone like that.
From another perspective, the portrayal of serial killers in news media could also be seen as glamorization. At the end of the day, many news media outlets want people to read their work and therefore things can be blown slightly out of proportion. Pop culture representations and news media stories sometimes dive into the backgrounds of serial killers, and some of these backgrounds are extremely bleak. This portrayal could lead to sympathy for these people or even some trying to explain their horrific actions. On an even further scale, people may even romanticize those who have committed acts of serial murder. Since the story of a serial killer can be publicized for so long, these people can basically become icons, leading some to become invested in their stories, the same way one might get invested in a character on a TV show. Many of us grew up listening to stories about the “boogie man”; serial killers to some may just be the real-life portrayal of this kind of character we never thought would actually exist. People might look at them from a perspective that is more based around their looks or the sympathy one might feel for them rather than from a perspective that they are “monsters” so to speak.
In my opinion, I don’t think that being interested in true crime or serial killers for that matter is wrong or makes you a horrible person. I think that it is about the way that we personally digest both popular culture and the news media while understanding that often these can be glamorized versions of the truth and that the people who committed these crimes deserve to face justice for what they did. As a woman who is also interested in true crime, I found the Ted Bundy docu-series on Netflix to be insightful into the mind of one of America’s most notorious serial killers. I also understood the magnitude of his crimes and felt sympathy for the families of the women who were his victims, especially since most were around my age. Overall, it is important to understand why the media portrays serial killers in such a way, as well as our own intentions when consuming different forms of media on serial killers.