True crime has become a cultural phenomenon in recent years, with millions hooked on media based on real-life criminal cases. Whether it’s serial killers or unsolved mysteries, true crime taps into our fascination with the darker side of human behavior. Fans’ obsessions and awareness, however, may lead to anxiety and paranoia. Further, romanticizing criminals in the media can make light of serious cases.
At its heart, true crime satisfies our curiosity about human psychology and the unknown, exploring what might drive someone to commit such horrendous acts. “I started getting into true crime with this family tradition of mine—every time we go to a hotel, my family and I watch Forensic Files,” senior Antonia Mille said. “I like to try to understand what goes through people’s minds when they commit a crime and what contributes to their actions.”
Senior Shayla Carniero expressed her fascination with the fact-based nature of the genre. “One thing that I like about true crime is that it’s different from fiction stories because there’s no suspense. In true crime, you already know that something did happen, and you just get to enjoy the process of investigators figuring out what happened,” she said.
Carneiro also highlighted how true crime touches on the psychological causes behind criminal behavior: “It’s also interesting for me to learn about what caused it, like childhood trauma,” she said.
The interest in true crime is not just driven by entertainment value but also by a desire for preparedness. “It’s a good way of informing yourself about the sorts of people you would come across because it is scary how many bad people are in the world,” Mille said.
However, this increased focus can boost anxiety. “We become hypervigilant,” Chivonna Childs, a psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, said. “We’re scanning the entire environment for the bad person. We think every white van is a murder van.”
True crime has grown its popularity through the expanding podcast industry. “You can listen to a true crime podcast on your way to work or school,” Carneiro explained.
One controversial aspect of true crime is the romanticization of criminals, particularly when attractive and charismatic actors play these roles. Zac Efron’s portrayal of serial killer Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile caused debates about why viewers felt drawn to the character despite Bundy’s horrific real-life crimes.
Platforms like TikTok have popularized true crime content, with the hashtag #truecrime collecting over 1.2 million posts. This true crime craze is presented in a quick, digestible form, where creators share case details, speculate conspiracies, and make edits of movie scenes. Making true crime so accessible encourages engagement and raises questions about turning real-life trauma into entertainment.
“I don’t watch true crime, but I wish I watched more because I feel like I see a lot of stuff about it on TikTok. I just get too lazy and don’t have time, or I don’t have the proper subscriptions for all of the movies, so I can’t follow through with what I see on TikTok,” junior Gabby Rothstein said. The use of dramatic music and narratives can also impact the gravity of the cases, causing viewers to focus on the romanticization of the true crime story.
This trend highlights the blurred lines between fiction and reality, where individuals who have committed crimes may be glamorized or misunderstood. Hashtags like #menendezbrothers have over 138,000 posts, and #freemenendezbrothers has more than 16,000 posts, showing an unexpected level of support and fascination from empathetic fans. Similarly, edits of Nicholas Alexander Chavez playing Lyle Menendez in Monsters have accumulated 66 million views.
These short-form videos often lack the depth needed to convey the full context of the case, and, consequently, further glamorize the actors playing criminals. Despite the positive intentions of TikTok videos, the Menendez brothers’ fame on TikTok is a broader reflection of how dramatized portrayals can risk distorting viewers’ perceptions of guilt and accountability.
True crime reveals the extremes of human behavior, sparking our curiosity and challenging our understanding of empathy and morality. Whether it’s a podcast episode analyzing a cold case or a gritty on-screen portrayal of a notorious figure, true crime engages viewers in a universal search to understand the mysteries of the human psyche, a search that, for many, can be captivating and unsettling.
