I might as well come out and admit that I’m among the women fascinated by true crime content. I’ve washed dishes while listening to Caroline Fraser’s “Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers” (it’s a 16-hour audiobook, so that’s a lot of dishes) and spent more than a few lazy Sundays watching whatever new true crime docuseries Netflix has released.
But if you’re a true crime fan like me, sooner or later you have to ask yourself some uncomfortable questions. How is this affecting my mental health? Is there a sort of complicity in watching this type of content ― real stories involving people being stalked, assaulted and murdered ― as a warped way to unwind at the end of a long work day?
On the latter point, some forensic psychologists argue that for women, true crime is a way to inoculate themselves from being the victim of such crimes: By consuming stories about the patterns of abusive partners, the behavioral red flags to watch for in strangers, and learning to trust your instincts, women are better equipped to protect themselves from gender-based violence.
As Sharon Packer, an assistant clinical Professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, told Decider in 2016, consuming true crime is a bit “like a dress rehearsal” for women who know they could end up in these situations themselves.
