WHY ARE WOMEN (STILL) OBSESSED WITH TRUE CRIME?

Studies say women of all ages are becoming obsessed with the true crime genre. Whether it’s a craving for the truth, a hunger for justice, or, as our favourite Bloody Mabel says in Only Murders In The Building; you watch true crime to find out how not to end up on true crime, the stats show that we’re twice as likely to love it as men… 

A couple of years ago our editor Laura wrote about this phenomenon for The Nag, and, to coincide with our latest product drop, we’ve done some more highly scientific research (read: asking the Spark team) and come up with a few more thoughts on why we love true crime so bloody much: 

1. Awareness - Stats are great and all, but there’s nothing like a ‘Top 10 This Week’ positioning on Netflix to make the average Joe pay attention to an issue they’d never even thought about before. True crime can put a giant spotlight on gender-based violence and systemic misogyny.
   
   
2. Empowerment - True crime stories can involve strong women that you’ll be rooting for with every fibre of your being. Survivors of course, but also lawyers, scientists, and often the documentary makers themselves.
   
   
3. Social change - Plenty of true crime podcasts and docos uncover major flaws in the criminal justice system. Anything from police forces doing a rubbish job of investigating a crime, to lawyers doing a rubbish job of putting together their defence for someone who’s innocent. We crave bringing injustices to light, and love it when it happens in front of a massive audience.
   
   
4. Psychology - True crime series always explore the psychology of criminals in some way, shape or form. How they tick, why they do the horrific things they do, and how they go about doing them. Can we get some comfort in knowing how these psychopaths and murderers think, because knowledge is power and we’ll be better able to spot the signs to look out for? 
   
   
5. Community - An obvious one. Like a book club, but way more intense, true crime fandoms provide a sense of community and discussion about real cases and people, and sometimes even in real time, as the story unfolds in front of us on the news and on social media. Shared experiences with like-minded people are always something we crave, even if the subject matter is a bloody murder…