It’s movie night and you’re watching a woman on-screen making a choice that you can already tell will end her life. We all know the drill; you have a blanket clenched in one fist and your mouth covered by the palm of your other hand. You sit hunched over on the edge of your sofa, waiting for the moment that it happens. It’s the classic horror movie experience. You watch the scene play out while holding your breath. Maybe you even yell out to her, “Don’t go in there!” and respond with a little, “I told you so” once she’s realized her mistake. Except this is not a horror film, and her death is not mere fiction. This is true crime.
Part of true crime’s appeal stems from its assertion that it’s based on real-life events. The genre’s basis in reality inevitably draws viewers for several reasons: it satisfies our morbid curiosity, gives us an adrenaline rush under safe circumstances, helps us understand parts of the justice system, and finally, involves us with the process of ‘solving’ a crime. Yet, these reasons provide little explanation for the genre’s disproportionate female viewership.
Almost every true crime article and major essay in the field seems to bring up this peculiar trend. Psychologist Amanda Vicary first observed this phenomenon in her 2010 study of Amazon book reviews and found that women were more drawn to true crime than men. In 2018, the true crime podcast Wine and Crime similarly attested to these claims in the genre, stating that roughly, “85% of their audience is female.” Given the difference in media, the genre’s delivery hardly influences these statistics. It’s something in the subject matter that causes many women to turn time and time again to this genre—and the answer may be what you’re already thinking.
According to Vicary, true crime served as a how-to guide on surviving and preventing crime. Either consciously or subconsciously, the fear of crime plays into this desire to know how to avoid or escape from it. Furthermore, in this same article, Dr. John Mayer felt that this exposure to violence and crime could help women feel more prepared by building a tolerance of this fear.
As a passive viewer of this genre, I can attest to these sensations of consuming true crime and taking notes. A few years back, I watched the 2002 film, Ted Bundy. I remember one scene that showed survivor Carol DaRonch fighting and finally escaping from Bundy and thinking to myself, “Never enter the car of a stranger” and “If my life is on the line, I’d need to fight like that to survive.” At the time, it gave me comfort to gather these tips that could one day be useful and potentially save my life.
That all said and done, these potential explanations for women’s enjoyment of true crime give a devastating representation of both the genre and the crimes inflicted upon women. As long as women are subjected to violence, the genre will continue to flourish along with its female viewership. While true crime will provide for plentiful content to watch in the safety of our homes, viewers will continue to take notes for the moments when they must actually step outside.
