CREATORS
July 8, 2025
Recently, I was scrolling through some news articles and
came across this headline, "Nearly 2 in 3 Americans Are Fans of Serial
Killer Content." My first thought was, "Is that healthy?"
We'll get to the health impact of true crime, if any, in a
moment, but true crime sure is lucrative. If you search the top podcasts, you
will find that at least three of the top 10 podcasts are focused on true crime.
America has always had a fascination with crime and
criminals. Real-life criminals like John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty
Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson were turned into folk heroes by the yellow
journalists of the 1920s and 1930s.
Across the pond, there was Sir Author Conan Doyle's Sherlock
Holmes and Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. Crime dramas were a Hollywood
staple. Cinematic jewels like "Anatomy of a Murder" or "12 Angry
Men" or television's "Perry Mason", the original "Hawaii
5-0" and" Law and Order" always fascinated viewers.
True crime is different. This phenomenon is not literature,
or drama or the making of a myth — true crime is an obsession. According to a
2022 YouGov Poll, half of Americans reported they enjoy true crime content, and
one in three say they consume it at least once a week.
According to experts from the University of North Carolina
schools of law and journalism, the fascination with true crime stems from
several causes. First, "people are drawn to these sensational stories by
curiosity about the motivations of the criminals," as well as
"concerns about justice and the legal system and the thrill of solving a
real-life whodunnit."
For purposes of full disclosure, I occasionally offer an
opinion on live trials for Court TV or the Law & Crime Network.
However, if you want to understand the true crime
phenomenon, you have to attend CrimeCon, the annual gathering of true crime
enthusiasts. Thousands of true crime fans under one roof hanging on every word
from the likes of Dateline's Josh Mankiewicz, Court TV's Vinnie Politan and
Crime Online's Nancy Grace, among other notable purveyors of true crime.
True crime enthralls millions of people. Two recent trials,
one televised every day and the other followed closely, revealed the extent to
which true crime has captured the hearts and minds of many across America and
abroad.
The first, the trial of Karen Read in Massachusetts. Read
was accused of hitting her police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, with her car
and leaving him to die in the snow.
The Read trial was a spectacle. Every day, she walked to the
courthouse like it was the red carpet at the Oscars. Her fans — some extreme
like the so-called "Turtleboy" who got charged with intimidating a
witness — were enamored with Karen Read. No doubt the relentless support of her
admirers had an impact — some jurors said as much after the trial. She was
acquitted of all charges except operating while impaired.
Sean "Diddy" Combs' trial was also unique. He was
charged federally with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation for
prostitution. The testimony about sex, drugs and violence was salacious. The
Combs trial wasn't even televised, but the interest was extraordinary. Combs
also beat the most serious charges filed by the government.
Binging on true crime has its drawbacks. The long-term
effects of true crime consumption on mental health have not been fully studied.
As we've recently observed, this growing genre of media is clearly having an
impact on society and the legal system.
Some experts argue, too much true crime can be harmful.
Chivonna Childs, PhD, a psychologist with the Cleveland Clinic, recently
suggested, "It (true crime) can increase our anxiety because we become
hypervigilant. We're always looking for the bad person. Every white van becomes
the van of a killer or murderer."
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett,
Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner's Toll, 2010 was released by
McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him
on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.
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