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If you notice your streaming queues filling up with unsolved murder documentaries, your podcast feed clogged with mysterious forensics analysis, and your Kindle recommendations skewing dark, you’re not alone.
True crime has exploded into one of the most popular genres across all forms of media over the past decade. This mainstream fascination with the sinister and disturbing details of cases involving homicide, assault, disappearance and more signifies our collective gravitation toward the darker underbelly of human nature.
What is behind this urge to immerse ourselves so frequently in tales packed with grief, cruelty, deception, evil and tragedy?
On one level, as social creatures hardwired to assess potential danger, learning about crimes and those who commit them equips our brains with patterns to recognize harmful situations. By understanding criminology and the slippery slope ordinary people can descend into destructive violence, we feel a sense of control over chaos.
Additionally, picking apart the emotional motivations and sequence of events leading up to attacks or unlawful acts helps us make sense of the senseless. It offers a twisted type of…
