INSIDER Autumn 2019 | Page 18

Insider Society Why are we obsessed with true crime? In today’s society, we have become addicted to true crime documentaries and personal interviews with prolific serial kill- ers. The real question is– Why? Amy Cannon True crime has ex- ploded in recent years and can now be found on televi- sion, Netflix and even podcasts. We are desperate to know the psychol- ogy of twisted seri- al killers and hear the details of their horrific crimes, but is that a reflection on ourselves? Thankfully enough, my research has told me that psy- chologists tend to say that we are very normal for finding true crime fascinating, as it is so different from the everyday lives we lead. It is not unusual to be in- terested in some- thing that we struggle to com- prehend, and many of these documentaries deal with the very core of crime- evil. We are captivated by the idea of evil because 99% of us find the notion of committing abhor- rent crimes com- pletely unbelievable. Psychologists say that even as children we are focused on the concept good versus bad, and true crime documentaries could be seen as an extreme version of bad. Alternatively, some “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile was al- ways des- tined for controver- sy.” Review of the film by the Inde- pendent (Clarisse Loughrey) say that we want to get as much information as possible about crime in order to avoid it and pro- tect ourselves and our family. This could explain why programmes that delve into the motives of the criminal tend to be extremely popular, as we think it gives us tools on how to The College magazine online: sixthformmag.blogspot.co.uk