Women Obsessed Crime: Weird or Worthwhile?
When you open Netflix, what is the first thing you see? Several sections of well curated movies and TV shows Netflix has made for you based on what you have previously watched, right? Well, for me, these section are filled with true crime programs such as, I Am Killer, where interviews are conducted with prisoners on death row; Mindhunter, where they follow the start and development of the Behavioral Analysis Unit; or my personal favorite, Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting An Internet Killer, where a group of internet savvy people help hunt and catch a cat-murderer-turned-real-life killer. Something about these shows, I just can’t get enough of and luckily for me, Netflix has made hundreds of them. I have an endless supply of true crime shows to keep me occupied.
Netflix isn’t the only service providing us with these shows. Investigation Discovery, launched in 2008, is an entire platform dedicated to true crime series. This network has reached 54 million homes as of 2009. What do the viewer demographics and I have in common? We are both women. Majority of ID channel’s viewers are women between the ages of 25 to 54 according to Nielsen data. When the president of Investigation Discovery, Henry Schleiff, was asked why women are obsessed with true-crime television he had mentioned a focus group where women stated, “I want to use my free time in a useful way.”
Jokingly, he added, “I don’t know if they are learning how to kill their husbands or not.”
Although Schleiff was joking, some women do lust over the murderers and crimes of these stories. Women can go as far as romanticizing murderers. Take Ted Bundy, for example. Last year, Netflix released two series about him within the span of a couple of months. Within the same year, ID Channel released Ted Bundy: Mind of A Murderer. This displays interviews with the victims loved ones and exclusive audio of Bundy. The infatuation with Ted Bundy prompted Netflix to set people straight. However, the fondness of murderers is not what this article is about.
A study conducted by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that 87,000 women were intentionally killed in 2017. Of those 87,000 women, 58% were killed by an intimate partner. This means that 138 women across the world are killed by a member of their own family every day.
Amanda Vicary, a lead author on a study conducted as to why women are drawn to true crime, states, “by learning about murders – who is more likely to be murdered, how do these crimes happen, who are the victims, etc. – people are also learning about ways to prevent becoming a victim themselves.”
Let’s be clear: men do make up the majority of homicides—in fact, they are four times more likely than women to be victims of homicides. However, when you’re constantly watching Netflix series’ where the main victim is typically an older woman who can barely defend herself, or a young girl who was helpless in the moment, the fear can certainly build. On social media, I did a small poll to discover if people watch these types of shows or not, and why. Out of the 17 answers I received, 16 were from women. Of the people that took the poll, 32% answered no, and it was mainly because it scares them. User @sienastern stated, “They make me paranoid.”
This is a logical mindset to have towards true crime shows. Too much of it can definitely make you fear your own shadow. However, 68% said they do watch crime shows—mainly because they find them interesting. Furthermore, because they enjoy figuring out the “why” behind these crimes.
User @afrosensai responded, “To see why the killers did what they did.” They like to be inside of a criminal’s mind because the more you know, the more you can keep yourself safe.
Women can learn to protect themselves because of true crime shows. It teaches us the ins-and-outs of crime and what to look for. It teaches us how to not become victims. More importantly, it teaches us empathy. Being obsessed with crime can seem slightly odd to some, but it’s not about the murderer. It’s not even fully about the crime. It’s about the stranger and their story, so we never forget them.
Katy Kelleher, a writer for Observer, interviewed women who are self-proclaimed “murderinos.” Hayley, a 26-year-old social worker, summed it up perfectly, “it’s about making sure you know what to look out for so you don’t become, a victim, and to make sure people never forget what a piece of crap these murderers are.”