Why so many women
like me are addicted to true crime serials: As figures show 80% of fans of
grisly podcasts are female, novelist and self-confessed devotee JANE GREEN
reveals the gripping psychological reasons
PUBLISHED: 23:05,
31 May 2022 | UPDATED: 02:38,
1 June 2022
Should you see me walking my dog, staring out of a
train window or driving up the motorway, you will notice I have earphones in.
You might assume I'm listening to some great music or chatting to my nearest
and dearest, but you would be wrong.
The truth is far darker.
I have become obsessed with true crime.
If I'm not reading about it or watching it on television, I am listening to
every podcast I can find. The darker and more twisted the story, the more
gruesome the details, the more I crave it.
I was slightly worried there was something wrong
with me until I spotted on Instagram that, just before giving birth, the pop
star Rihanna settled
down to what she described as 'some serious self-care: a nice face mask, belly
covered in moisturiser, relaxing in front of serial killer documentaries'.
If there's something wrong with Rihanna and me,
then there's something wrong with practically every woman I know. My female
friends may look as if butter wouldn't melt in their mouths but they are all
obsessed with a good true crime story.
As for celebrities, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lady Gaga,
Chrissy Teigen and Gigi Hadid are just some of those who have revealed their
fascination with true crime. Gigi even studied criminal psychology at college.
And it's not just adult women. I had never in my
life known a forensic psychologist but now I know three 18-year-olds — all
girls — who are going to university to study the subject. It turns out that 78
per cent of forensic scientists in the U.S. are now female.
A quick survey of my male friends resulted in blank
looks. They have never heard of Dirty John — the evil fraudster whose
terrorisation of multiple women inspired a hit Netflix film. My female friends
devoured the series. So what is it about women and our obsession with true
crime?
Young women make up an astonishing 80 per cent of
true crime podcast listeners and according to Dr Julia Shaw, a criminal
psychologist and co-host of the true crime and science podcast Bad People, on
BBC Sounds, there is a reason for this.
'Women seem particularly interested in the
intricacies of the criminal mind,' she says. 'There is a real drive to
understand the 'why', not just the 'how' of the crime.'
As young girls, we are trained to keep an eye open
for something strange, suspicious or dangerous. That man staring a little too
hard in the train compartment; the man in the supermarket we hardly know being
over-friendly; the man walking too close behind us down a quiet street.
Which woman doesn't know the feeling of dread, the
quick crossing of the road, the getting away and the relief that nothing bad
happened. Between 1985 and 2010, 70 per cent of serial killers' victims were
female.
There is no escaping the fact that we are more
vulnerable.
Claire Bord, publisher at Bookouture, which
publishes crime thrillers including those written by Gregg Olsen, explains:
'These kind of storylines tap into dark themes that resonate with readers
because we can see ourselves in these everyday scenarios and then imagine what
could happen.
'I also think there are aspects of the dark themes
explored in psychological thrillers, and indeed true crime, that can speak
deeply to readers who have experienced difficult times in their own lives.'
However strong we may feel, however strong we may
be, most of us have had an encounter that has made us uncomfortable at the very
least, and with that discomfort comes the recognition of our own vulnerability;
that we are no match for a man bigger and stronger than us.
If we can't compete physically, then perhaps we can
outsmart men — and in order to outsmart them, we have to understand them.
Indeed, the more we know about true crime, the more
likely we are to think we would be able to get out of a sticky situation.
Because I listen to true crime, I know about things
such as 'roofies' (Rohypnol pills, aka 'the date rape drug') being slipped into
drinks at a bar or club when women go to the loo. I would never have thought
twice about leaving a drink unattended before. Now that drink is either being
brought with me or will be downed in one before I even think about trotting off
to the loo.
Dr Shaw believes that if true crime is done well,
it should foster an understanding of the triggers and consequences of crime.
'It encourages us to engage with the realities of
victim experiences, understand the pathways to crime and come to understand how
we can prevent it from happening.'
As a novelist, I may be a professional storyteller
but I like to think we are all storytellers — and who among us doesn't like to
play out their own narrative?
I'll see a couple arguing in a café and watch them
carefully, trying to eavesdrop, attempting to determine what they are fighting
about. In the old days, I might have wondered if the woman had just found out
the man was having an affair.
Now I'm far more likely to wonder whether he is
considering ways to kill her. If he's clever, perhaps he will order arsenic
online — but not from his computer because that's how they always get caught.
Maybe she'll hire a hitman, but I hope it's not an undercover police officer.
Does he look like the sort of man who owns a gun?
Does she look like the sort of woman who would organise a hike for a romantic
trip, only for her husband to 'accidentally fall off a cliff'? How might they
do it? How might I do it?
Answer, I wouldn't. And if I did, I definitely
wouldn't write about it first, unlike the romance novelist Nancy Crampton
Brophy, who has just been found guilty of murdering her husband, having once
written an essay entitled How To Murder Your Husband.
Then there are the women who are just plain crazy
murderous, such as those featured in the 561 episodes of the podcast series
Snapped: Women Who Murder. Given that women are usually the victims rather than
the perpetrators, this is an extraordinary roll call of women visiting terrible
crimes on their husbands, lovers, best friends and even children. That women,
who are supposed to be the nurturers, can act in such ways never fails to hold
me rapt.
'Compared with men, women are more often expected
to understand and empathise with people,' says Dr Shaw — so part of our
fascination in such cases lies in the struggle to understand how a mother can
murder (for instance) her own children.
Dr Shaw adds: 'True crime can act as a mirror that
forces us to deconstruct our own dark side, while making it clear that
criminals are ultimately just humans rather than unknowable monsters. That's an
important lesson that many people can benefit from.'
Well-produced shows allow us to follow the
developments step by step without being spoon-fed. Attempting to work out the
who and the why, and the satisfaction of piecing it all together, rather like
slotting in the last piece of a complicated jigsaw puzzle, is enormously
satisfying.
We get an adrenaline rush as the dreadful pieces
start to fit together, much like the adrenaline rush we used to get listening
to scary stories when we were children —particularly when the storyline centres
on a family we can relate to.
We women, with our intuition and natural empathy,
may entertain dark thoughts when our buttons are pushed but few of us would
ever follow through. We are fascinated by dark stories but our moral codes
would — hopefully — prevent us carrying anything out.
I remember talking to the CNN anchor Alisyn
Camerota about her time spent working on the U.S. TV show America's Most
Wanted, where she met murderer after murderer. What was it like, I asked
breathlessly, expecting her to say that their evil was palpable. But no. What
struck her most was how ordinary they were, how their crime was so often a
moment in which self-control was lost.
Which means it could be any one of us. Going
through a stressful time, add in financial strain, a husband who doesn't lift a
finger, the dog peeing on the rug because no one let him out, coming home to a
sink overflowing with dirty dishes and a huge amount of laundry that no one
else has touched, and the mildest of us would want to scream.
And if there was a large life insurance policy on
hand (there is always a large life insurance policy on hand), it's not such a
stretch to imagine us snapping and doing the unthinkable.
We like to think we have the mechanisms to stop
ourselves before we go too far. But the woman who drove through a red light and
almost ploughed into you, ending in a screaming match through open car windows?
How much would it take for that woman to get out and stab you?
So now I have finally curbed my road rage, my true
crime addiction having made me far more aware of the tipping point. In the old
days, I might have wound the window down and screamed in rage at that woman.
Today, I'm far more likely to mutter quietly to myself and ignore her bad
behaviour.
If anything happens to me, it's unlikely to be a
random driver and far more likely to be my husband. But by now I'm pretty sure
I know enough to foil any dastardly plans, should he be foolish enough to try.
JANE'S TOP 10 PODCAST PICKS
These are my favourite true crime podcasts, all
accessible through Apple or Google's podcast apps.
1 Bad People (62 episodes)
The science and psychology behind true crime, hosted by
Dr Julia Shaw.
2 Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and
the Black Dahlia (eight episodes)
A series dedicated to the famous 1947 Black Dahlia murder
in Los Angeles.
3 Morbid: A True Crime Podcast (320 episodes)
A hairstylist and an autopsy technician talk about all
things spooky.
4 And That's Why We Drink (276 episodes)
A lighthearted romp through the places where murder and
the paranormal meet.
5 Over My Dead Body (21 episodes)
One terrifying story covered per seven-episode season.
6 Dateline: The Thing About Pam (six episodes)
Truth is truly stranger than fiction in this tale of a
smalltown murder.
7 Dateline: The Thing About Helen & Olga (six
episodes)
A chilling tale about two little old ladies and homeless
men in Los Angeles.
8 Dateline: Killer Role (six episodes)
A story even Hollywood couldn't have imagined.
9 Crime Junkie Podcast (630 episodes)
Missing. Murdered. Wanted. Serial killer. They're all
here, weekly, since 2017.
10 Snapped: Women Who Murder (561 episodes)
So many murderous females . . . based on a long-running
U.S. TV show.
... AND HER 10 BEST TRUE CRIME SERIES ON TV
1 The Staircase (2022) Sky/Now TV
The newest addition to the stable, based on a 2001 case
of a woman's death 'falling down the stairs'.
2 Making a Murderer (2015) Netflix
This show, about a murder in Wisconsin, started the
craze. Did he or didn't he do it?
3 The Jinx: The Life And Deaths Of Robert Durst (2015)
Netflix
About New York real estate heir Robert Durst. Watch
it just for the live confession.
4 Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer (2003) Amazon
Prime
A documentary just as compelling almost 20 years on as
when it first aired.
5 American Murder: The Family Next Door (2020) Netflix
Told entirely using raw, first-hand footage, this
series feels that touch too close to home.
6 Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders (2017)
Apple TV/Amazon Prime)
Two parents dead, their sons in the dock — the gold
standard in true-crime telly.
7 The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime
Story (2018) Amazon Prime
A celebrity-studded, glamorous yet complex tale of tragic
death.
8 When They See Us (2019) Netflix
The story of a brutal murder and the framing of five
teenagers.
9 Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer (2019)
Netflix
A favourite for those who enjoy a bit of online sleuthing
— animal lovers track down a sick cat killer.
10 Under the Banner of Heaven (out in July) Disney+
Investigating the murder of a woman and her baby girl.
