Why Do People Enjoy True Crime? A Forensic Psychology Podcast Episode.

In a 2024 survey, Ainvest found that the global true crime podcast audience is worth over 3 billion US dollars and the podcast genre has experienced a major weekly increase of 20% since 2020. In addition, it's a common trope of the mystery genre to feature true crime fans, armchair detectives amongst other non-professionals involved in a crime story because they love true crime. This never would have happened a decade ago. Therefore, in this forensic psychology podcast episode, you'll learn why do people enjoy true crime, how does personality impact true crime consumption and more. If you enjoy learning about criminal psychology, the true crime phenomenon and social psychology, then you'll love today's episode. 

Today's psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Criminal Profiling: A Forensic and Criminal Psychology Guide To FBI and Statistical Profiling. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.

Why Are People Obsessed with True Crime?

In addition to the 2024 survey where Ainvest found that the global true crime podcast audience is worth over 3 billion US dollars and the podcast genre has experienced a major weekly increase of 20% since 2020. True crime podcasting is the largest genre across a wide range of platforms as well as it is a very popular book genre with multiple true crime books being international bestsellers. 

Personally, I don't enjoy true crime, if you enjoy reading or listening about murder, sexual violence and other types of crimes in your free time then more power to you. And I want to take a moment to remind all of us that it's okay that we all have different hobbies and interests. I love anime, listening to writing podcasts and watching writing videos in my spare time as well as psychology podcasts and more. Some of you won't have the same interests as me and that's okay. 

If you enjoy true crime podcasts then I'm happy for you. 

Personally, the reason why I don't enjoy them is because I prefer fictional crimes compared to knowing exactly how dark people can be in the real world, and I have seen and experienced enough darkness, trauma and abuse over the years. I don't need to be reminded of the real world. I want to escape into fictional worlds, even when they are crime dramas. 

Yet there are plenty of people that love the true crime genre. Originally, this seems counterintuitive because we have a basic instinct to survive, protect ourselves and protect our relatives. Although, learning about murder, kidnappings and other crimes might increase our anxiety, our positive view of the world and possibly our communities. You might think it's a good idea to actively avoid true crime entertainment. 

Nonetheless, as I always say psychology is not common sense. Therefore, in the rest of this psychology podcast episode, we'll learn why people enjoy true crime based on the five reasons uncovered in a survey by Perchtold-Stefan et al. (2025).

Why is True Crime a Coping Mechanism?

At first, I thought the idea of people using true crime podcasts and media as a coping mechanism was strange, but I realised that people just want to cope, survive and protect their mental health at the end of the day. This can be seen across a wide range of mental health conditions, so whilst there is no relationship between true crime consumption and mental health conditions. It is a useful reminder that as aspiring or qualified psychologists that we shouldn’t judge others because of their coping mechanisms. Then again, we must ensure that our personal coping mechanisms are healthy, adaptive and they have a lot more benefits than negatives.

Therefore, some people decide to engage in true crime entertainment because they want to learn how to engage in cognitive reframing of a bad situation. For example, getting kidnapped, robbed or mugged. Since true crime allows us to learn from the experience of other people.

In addition, these people are more likely to acknowledge the emotions that true crime brings up without judgment, engage in problem-solving behaviour, accurately label their distressing emotions as well as practice mindful behaviours. For instance, staying present in an unpleasant emotional state.

In my experience, this reminds me of something I did during the seven months after my rape when my own mental health was very severe. I occasionally engaged in rape-related content so I could learn from others and it was helpful to some extent to see how others dealt with their emotions, their PTSD and other negative mental health outcomes.

How Does True Crime Lower Anxiety?

This is definitely something I didn’t think would be a benefit of engaging with true crime. This is another example of psychology not being common sense. I firmly believed that true crime media would increase our anxiety but it can actually lower it.

As a result of, similar to how you get less anxious the more you practise for a driving test, a job interview or subsequent dates with the same person, exposing yourself to true crime can help you feel “ready” for an important event. Since this sense of preparedness that true crime media provides people is called “defensive vigilance”. This means that a person aims to remain prepared, calm as well as responsive to the potential threat of others around them.

Again, at first you might think that this “defensive vigilance” would make people feel constantly on edge, tense and unsafe going about their normal life because they “know” what other people are capable of because of true crime content. Yet in reality, there is evidence that suggests true crime consumption can actually reduce a person’s anxiety about possible fears of the outside world. Due to true crime consumption gives a person the illusion of being more prepared for the threat of a real-life attack.

Of course, we don’t know if true crime consumption actually makes a person better prepared to defend themselves from the threat of a possible crime, but the ability to stay calm in a frightening situation is highly recommended.

In my opinion, I would add that crime drama consumption at the very least (I understand this is different to true crime consumption but I think there are parallels) does not prepare you for crimes as much as you might believe. For example, whilst sexual violence isn’t a very common topic on crime dramas (yes, I’m ignoring Law and Order: Special Victims Unit), the crime is still covered on different crime dramas from time to time. The survivor’s stories are told, their actions and the investigation around the crime reveal more details. I watched them, I enjoyed the programmes and yet it did not prepare me in the slightest for my own rape in 2024.

Just my two-pence.

How Does True Crime Consumption Distort Our Worldview?

On the other hand, for other people, engaging in true crime content leads them to think that there’s an increased risk of them becoming victims of crimes. Since the more afraid you are of something, the more likely you are to believe that this will actually happen to you.

For example, let’s say that you recently watched a true crime podcast episode on a mugging that ended in a homicide, and you believe because of various factors, like your neighbourhood, that you or your partner are likely to be mugged. Whether this is based on rational thinking doesn’t matter at the moment. You’re likely to be afraid that you’re partner and yourself are likely to be mugged so you’re also going to engage in various safety behaviours to “protect” yourself. When in reality, all these safety behaviours are doing is reinforcing your fear and anxiety about being mugged.

Ultimately, often our fears create our beliefs of the facts.

How is True Crime Consumption Linked To Aggression and Disagreeableness?

Interestingly, if we step into personality psychology for a moment, it turns out that people who consume true crime media are more likely to score higher on measures of disagreeableness as well as aggression. Since disagreeable people tend to reflect lower levels of empathy and higher levels of hostility towards others. Therefore, disagreeable people are more confrontational and they can appear less concerned with the well-being of others. As well as aggressive people tend to view all situations through a lens of violence or anger so they tend to be more interested in confrontational or violent content.

Furthermore, I’ll build upon this in more depth in a moment, but when I researched the above paragraph, my mind immediately went towards the realisation that people high in empathy would struggle to watch true crime content. I imagine myself as a person with an average level of empathy but honestly, I hate the idea knowing that real people had to experience these horrible, foul and twisted crimes. I think it’s outrageous that offenders inflicted these sort of illegal behaviours on others. Therefore, if a person had a higher level of empathy, I hate to imagine the sort of emotional pain they would experience watching true crime content.

As a result, when it comes to engaging in true crime content, it’s healthy and recommended to maintain a healthy amount of denial and distancing. This is why a person’s own levels of aggressive impulses and hostility can help or harm their mental health when engaging in this acquired taste of media.

How Is True Crime Consumption Impacted By Gender?

There is a very clear gender split when it comes to true crime consumption because women make up the vast majority of the audience. This is even more true when it comes to consuming true crime podcasts. This is because women tend to engage more in true crime because it helps them to regulate their emotions as well as it makes them feel safe in an unpredictable world.

My nan was a brilliant example of a woman who loved true crime. She used to watch all the murder, kidnapping and all sorts of other true crime programmes on TV. I remember going to her house as a child and we were looking through her recordings once and she had pages upon pages of true crime programmes. To say she was obsessed, I think would actually be fair. She didn’t go to a club, talk to anyone about true crime and she didn’t read lots of true crime books but she did love her programmes.

Furthermore, the very fact that women are using true crime to regulate their emotions and provide a feeling of safety is even more tragic and heartbreaking when we consider that women are likely than men to be victimised and in the past few years, there has been great awareness raised about violence against women. You only need to look at sexual violence to see that the vast, vast majority of survivors are women. Therefore, it could be argued that true crime consumption could be a training exercise for women so if they are ever the victim of a crime, they know how to react.

It's heart-breaking that in the 21^st century this is even needed, and this is why it is important that we raise awareness, educate everyone and we do not tolerate violence or crimes against anyone at all.

Nonetheless, just because women make up the majority of the true crime audience, it doesn’t mean that men do not engage in the genre at all. In fact, men who engage in true crime content tend to have a higher income bracket. This might be because these men have more disposable income, and in turn, time for leisure activities. Another reason for this might be because men in higher income brackets might have more access to available sources.

On the whole, the men and women who engage in true crime content tend to do better with unexpected disappointments in their life as well as they’re better at overcoming fears of the unknown in situations that appear dangerous.

Personally, I think this is a great benefit of true crime content because it teaches us that life is unexpected, things will sadly happen to you that you don’t expect and that’s okay. It will not feel great, okay or pleasant in the moment and it might take you weeks, months or years to recover, but you will be okay in the end. Being a victim of a crime can be traumatising and if all my trauma over the years has taught me anything, it is that if you take one day at a time, sometimes one minute at a time, and you keep moving forward with professional support to guide you. You can recover and you’ll survive, heal and thrive.

Engaging in true crime content might help us with that.

Forensic Psychology Conclusion

When I originally thought of doing a psychology podcast episode on true crime, I really didn’t know what to expect because the world of true crime is so alien to me. Yet I have really enjoyed today’s episode. We got to learn how true crime consumption lowers anxiety, distorts our worldview, provides people with a coping skill, has a gender divide and how it is impacted by aggression and disagreeableness.

It has been a lot of fun and I think this podcast episode is a reminder that it’s okay, it’s fun and it can be an absolute pleasure to explore topics that we would never ever normally engage in.

On the whole, some people might see true crime content as a great chance to explore a niche world that hopefully very few of us will ever get to actually experience in our own lives, because hopefully very few of us will ever become victims or survivors of crimes. Yet if you are a reader or listener who enjoys true crime books, podcasts or other forms of media then this might be a great thing.

And as I always say, you need to do what makes you happy, helps you to relax and helps you practice self-care.

If you enjoy true crime content, then more power to you, and whether you enjoy true crime or not, ask yourself a little question. Why do you enjoy it or not?

I really hope you enjoyed today’s forensic psychology podcast episode.

If you want to learn more, please check out:

FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET

Criminal Profiling: A Forensic and Criminal Psychology Guide To FBI and Statistical Profiling. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.

Patreon for exclusive access and rewards

Have a great day.

Forensic Psychology References and Further Reading

Higgins, M. (2023). The Impact of True Crime Consumption on Violent Crime Victim’s Mental Health (Doctoral dissertation).

Ingraham, J. (2022). The Relationship Between Gender Identity and True Crime Consumption (Bachelor's thesis, Ohio University).

Karnes, J. L. (2025). Guilty Pleasures: The Psychological Effects of True Crime Media Consumption.

Miller, K. (2022). The Effects Of True Crime Media Consumption On Jurors’ Criminal Justice Orientations.

Pennicott, M. (2024). True crime consumption predicts biological sex and culture’s wellbeing: interlinking defensive behaviour and perceived victimisation (Doctoral dissertation, Dublin Business School).

Perchtold‐Stefan, C., Rominger, C., Ceh, S., Sattler, K., Veit, S. V., & Fink, A. (2025). Out of the dark–Psychological perspectives on people's fascination with true crime. British Journal of Psychology.

Rush, M. O. (2022). True Crime Media Consumption and Generalized Anxiety

Disorder (Master's thesis, Purdue University Global).

I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page.

However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you.

Which I am going to say right now. Thank you!

Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.