Within our daily scrolling sessions, the names of certain individuals stay ingrained in our minds, even when having no direct relation to us: Gabby Petito, the Menendez Brothers, Jeffrey Dahmer, Gypsy-Rose Blanchard, and so on.
Do they sound familiar?
Well, this is frankly, due to the fact that they are the individuals involved in violent crimes. What began as a criminal case soon gained mass attention, sparking a dark obsession with something a victim would only hope to run far away from.
From multimillion-dollar productions of documentaries, TV shows, and movies to the 60-second TikTok videos, true crime infiltrates our lives as a crucial component of newsworthy pop culture.
True crime encompasses any form of media that narrates real-life violent crimes (often life-threatening or fatal) that specifically follow the key factors leading up to the crime. These are typically composed of exploring the life of the perpetrator before the crime, specifically any biological, social, or psychological features which may have contributed to such actions. These details often include familial dynamics and interactions between the perpetrator and their classmates, friends or significant others. They also analyze behaviours and any abuse they were subjected to themselves.
These factors leading up to the crime suggest that the formation of identity and mindset is heavily reliant on early-age pressures and social environments, allowing true crime fans to get a glimpse into the mind of a criminal. The framework of true crime storytelling then often follows a description of the relationship between the criminal and the victims, the specific details of the crime, and, later, the work done by detectives to find the culprit and properly secure justice for the indirectly impacted victims, such as the family.
This format has been transferred across many platforms—from TV shows, movies, and documentaries to video essays and attention-grabbing TikToks and Instagram reels.
The history of the true crime genre doesn’t begin as of recently, but instead, is centuries old and has amassed a multi-billion dollar industry now reliant on the capitalization of stories instead of true interest.
True crime is attributed to Henry Goodcole, a British prison clergyman, providing religious guidance to criminals, from Catholic mass, confessions, and an ear ready to listen to these convicts detail their crimes.
Years later, Goodcole, accumulating a plethora of murder stories, saw a business venture in it all: to entertain the now-literate population of 1600s Britain. This caused him to print the crime stories of murderers onto pamphlets—cheap but convenient and attention-grabbing.
From this business endeavour, politicians used these criminals’ stories and punishments as a means of preventive action to future crimes; however, it became rather an imaginative world of perceived ‘storytelling.’
This major trend in true-crime broadcasting saw a resurgence during the pandemic. Between staying at home and battling bouts of boredom, true crime became a viral topic due to Netflix’s series, Tiger King, following the feud between two big cat enthusiasts and owners. This feud turned into a true crime due to Joe Exotic’s murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin.
This docuseries, with its refreshing take on true crime, led to a rise in YouTube and TikTok video analyses, inspiring viewers to explore more stories.
So why are we so obsessed with such dark and grim topics?
An article published by the University of North Carolina (UNC) titled “Why are we fascinated with true crime?” highlights how true crime continues to be a thriving industry due to the human nature of curiosity.
Specifically, audiences of this content are filled with a desire to understand the legal justice system, as well as its functions and faults. Incarcerated criminals are treated as outliers, with audiences trying to understand their motivations and mentality to make such choices, further pointing out the faults of the legal system when it comes to childhood abuse of these criminals leading to such actions.
Dr. Scott A. Bons adds in Psychology Today that love of true crime further boils down this interest to a spike in adrenaline, causing an addictive obsession with this content.
This essentially gives the brain the same effect as going on a rollercoaster—it’s fearful and dangerous, but thrilling, and therefore addictive.
Despite our addiction to this thrill and fear, ethical concerns are brought to light about the exploitation of these victims’ stories, and whether the industry is truly concerned with the true story, or is solely money hungry.
Creators and audiences alike desire to play the role of detectives while engaging with this content, becoming desensitized to the case’s traumatic aspects and instead viewing the evidence as an objective checklist. Michigan State University’s (MSU) criminal justice professor, Dr. Karen Holt, describes the unintended effect of this obsession as a “pyschic numbing,” which further causes thrill in such grim events.
The ‘psychic numbing’ effect is a phenomenon that applies to violent crime cases, where individuals familiar with the story are unable to identify who the victims are, when shown pictures, yet knowing the image of the killer.
This phenomenon is due to the fact that the brain desensitizes to crime or the trauma of those impacted by violence, since there are too many victims of violence in the world, but not as many killers or criminals in the world.
By taking a criminal-centred approach, audiences have more interest in the killer’s motivations, as doing such extreme actions is unimaginable and almost ‘story-like’ to people. These victims are then diminished to solely statistics, and the discussion of their traumatic experiences significantly impacts mental health.
To the families of victims or survivors of these events, hearing retellings of such horrific memories is traumatizing, especially when many are trying to regain peace and solace. To ensure ethical standards in the public discussion of people and true crime, a victim-centred approach must be prioritized, as it is the only way to pay respect to victims.
Oftentimes, creators and viewers must be reminded that these true crime cases are real and affect the victim’s life—they are still people, not a number.
It’s important to remember that these victims are somebody’s child, sibling, friend, significant other and are way more than just a crime case.