Blood Lust Bedtime Tales

A look into what’s driving our dark consumption of true-crime

Another secret love affair out in the open. Trampling through televisions and mobile devices, a gruesome fascination for true-crime continues to consume the masses one episode at a time. Behind closed doors and under thick blankets, true-crime is the new bedtime story for adults, a pleasure often never discussed over a glass of wine or during the morning stroll. 

The voyeuristic pleasure in crimes has always been part of our society. Centuries back, people bought tickets to witness strangers being incinerated, electrocuted, or beheaded right before their eyes. Call us messed up, but the obsession for blood lust has always been there. 

The only difference between then and today is that now we can quantify these acts. Dr. Kelli Boling, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, says, “We can see how many people are downloading the podcast and how many people are watching the show. We now have hard numbers to associate with the desire to immerse ourselves into true-crime narratives. So it’s important to realize we don’t know that there’s been an increase. All we know is that we are now wanting to find it. And it feels like a lot of people are watching it because these numbers feel huge.”

More women than men consume true-crime because of the fear of being victimized. By gorging through the genre, women learn to be sensitive to cues, and how to protect themselves during and in the aftermath of an attack. 

Don’t our daily crime newscasts also offer it? Then why do people skirt away from them but don’t mind bingeing the latest true-crime drama on Netflix or tearing through the narrative on Spotify? 

Most true-crime podcasts and TV series don’t do the heavy lifting that newscasts do. Instead, they follow narratives that make for a “rich area for storytelling,” says Professor John Hall, a master lecturer in the Film and Television Studies Program at Boston University. 

Hence, crime junkies find themselves in a constant cycle of dread, psychologically referred to as availability heuristic, where they “go to war consciously trying to assuage their fears,” elucidated Professor Catherine Caldwell-Harris, an associate professor of Psychology at Boston University. 

Furthermore, the sensationalization, dramatization, tension, musical cues, and nail-biting cliffhangers in true-crime content like Dateline NBC, Dirty John, and Dexter leave people wanting more.

Next comes the visceral thrill of speculation and criticism of these stories. There are multiple threads on social platforms, where an army of armchair detectives takes pleasure in throwing around theories, hoping to solve the crimes. These websleuths contemplate the horrors of life and death from behind their screens. While internet sleuthing could hamper the direction of cases, there have been instances, such as the Gabby Petito case, where virality online solved the tragic crime, claimed Dr. Boling.

But that still fails to answer why true-crime today is a bedtime murder media.

At night, when you are tired after a long day of working through spreadsheets and cribbing clients, all you want is a relaxing dose of dead bodies and serial killers on the loose. As ironic as that sounds, it’s true because relaxation refers to the stimulation of the brain through non-work activities. 

Storytelling has always been a part of our culture. We enjoy listening to stories and the comfort they offer. “So the idea of relaxation might not be tied to the content so much as the medium that somebody is telling you a story audibly and that helps you turn your mind off,” contemplates Dr. Boling.

Professor Dorothy Clark, a master lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication at Boston University, sums it up as a whole package of intriguing murder mystery puzzles that are a “terrific entertainment and perfect escape,” from the real world. 

This raises another question. If this is a “perfect escape,” then why would people term true-crime as a guilty pleasure? Why does our society make us feel bad for liking and being interested in true-crime? Nobody feels guilty for reading Agatha Christie because that’s fiction. But if the same story had true-crime attached along with it, we shy away from accepting our likings. That’s how the world works. 

But true crime is not a guilty pleasure consumed behind closed doors. It’s a medium to educate and protect yourself and others from such heinous crimes. It’s a way to grapple with emotions and a stimulus to encourage more nuanced conversations about a gut-wrenching reality.

So if you are a crime junkie, it’s time you come out of the closet.