The world of true crime has been a part of my life since I can remember. My parents watched “Law & Order” every night before bed, my grandparents would talk about the recent town crime at most dinners, and of course, I had unsupervised access to the internet. It’s grown to be part of my almost everyday life. The second I get home from an exhausting outing I do what most young adult women do after a long day: watch true crime.

The first thing I see when I open my YouTube app is a plethora of recommended videos ranging from body cam footage of a rescue operation to hour-long podcasts detailing missing person cases and even conspiracy theories about who notorious anonymous serial killers are. 

The love of true crime among women has been prevalent and something we all have become aware of as a society, with crime shows being on air for decades on end, the news being something we keep up with and threads regarding crime stories popping up all over our social media. 

Even before the uprising of video essays and online content centered around true crime, women particularly had more of an interest in the subject. In a study conducted in 2010, the University of Illinois found that women made up 70% of the reviews of true crime novels on Amazon. 

Saturday Night Live has even taken note of the shared experience regarding true crime fascination and aired a sketch in 2021 titled “Murder Show,” where multiple women have a night to themselves, and all choose to watch crime shows and documentaries. 

Criminology professor, author and public speaker, Scott A. Bonn also took note of the phenomenon of women invested in crime. After going on tour this past summer with his road show “The Psychology of Serial Killers and Why They Captivate Us,” Bonn noticed his audience was around 75% female. He wrote about his theory behind this observation in Psychology Today, stating “In particular, women empathize with the victims in true crime stories who, more often than not, comprise other women. Female fans identify with and can easily imagine themselves in the role of the victim in frightening true crime tales.”

For a woman, safety is always first and foremost on the brain. An Adidas study published in March 2023 showed that 92% of women are concerned for their safety when they go for a run. Furthermore, a 2021 study showed that one in two women felt unsafe walking alone after dark near their home, compared to one in seven men. 

We see these docuseries and listen to these podcasts and know subconsciously that we could potentially end up the subject of a matter like this. We hear the stories and try to notice things to look out for that could help if we were ever to be in a similar scenario.

 As previously mentioned, women often relate to and feel remorse for the victims. UN Women reports that globally, around 736 million women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence or both at least once in their lives. The Violence Policy Center also released data in 2020 showing that in the United States alone, three women are killed every day by an intimate partner. 

From a study last updated in April 2023, Everytown Research concluded that an average of 70 women are shot and killed every month in the United States. Aside from being victims of homicide, women are also fearing losing control of their lives and being kidnapped or trafficked. In 2022 alone, 206,371 females under the age of 21 were reported missing, alongside 64,956 females over 21 being missing according to Statista Research.

With so much relating to the background and story of victims in true crime series, it’s no wonder women are heavily invested in the lore. Aside from the “entertainment” aspect of watching a show, women also feel connected and intrigued to a degree men can’t understand.  

It’s no wonder shows like “Law & Order” and “The First 48” are continuously playing on certain channels and streaming services. 

Netflix originals such as “The Watcher”, a show about a couple receiving notes from a stalker and “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story”, a series following a midwestern serial killer are receiving praise on social media and are some of the most talked about shows of this time. “The Watcher” was reported as the most-watched series on Netflix in October 2022, totaling 273 million hours of watch time in its first two weeks, according to Deadline. Dahmer also joined the ranks upon its release in late 2022, amounting to 1 billion hours of watch time in its first 60 days on the service, Netflix stated. 

The popularity of series centered around true crime will most likely continue to increase. Crimes happen every day and we are sometimes blissfully unaware of what’s going on in the world around us. It is important to learn about them and bring attention to them. The coverage of stories is far greater than anything we’ve seen in the crime world thus far, with social media becoming a tool to gather more information and bring light to these cases.