From true-crime documentaries to prison love letters, our fascination with murderers is complicated—and surprisingly human.
There is something deeply uncomfortable about the popularity of serial killers.
We know what they did. We know the suffering behind the headlines. And yet millions of people willingly watch documentaries about them, listen to podcasts about their crimes, read books about their lives and discuss their psychology late into the night.
Some people even develop crushes on them.
So what exactly are we attracted to?
The answer is rarely as simple as “people secretly love murderers.”
Our fascination with notorious killers sits at the intersection of fear, curiosity, psychology, celebrity culture and our instinctive desire to understand things that frighten us.
Fear, But From a Safe Distance
Humans are naturally drawn to threats.
Understanding danger can have evolutionary value. Learning what makes someone dangerous—or recognising warning signs—can theoretically help us protect ourselves.
True crime allows us to investigate that danger without necessarily experiencing it.
We can sit on a sofa with a cup of tea and explore the darkest corners of human behaviour while remaining physically safe.
It's fear with an off switch.
And that distance matters.
A documentary can take something terrifying and turn it into a narrative with a beginning, middle and end. Real life is chaotic. A true-crime story gives us clues, suspects, motives and eventually an explanation.
That sense of structure can be psychologically satisfying.
We Want to Know “Why?”
Perhaps the most persistent question surrounding violent criminals is also the simplest:
Why?
How does an apparently ordinary person become capable of extraordinary violence?
Was there a traumatic childhood? A particular personality disorder? A desire for control? Something neurological? Or was the person simply making choices?
There is an enormous temptation to believe that if we can understand the killer, we can understand the crime.
Psychology can offer useful frameworks, but there is no single “serial killer personality.” People who commit serial murder are not a homogeneous group, and mental illness by itself does not explain or predict violent behaviour.
That complexity can actually make the subject more fascinating.
There isn't one neat answer.
The Dark Side of Curiosity
Humans have a tendency to investigate taboo subjects.
Death is perhaps the ultimate taboo.
Most of us rarely encounter murder directly. We don't routinely see its aftermath or hear the details of an investigation. True crime creates a controlled window into a world that ordinary life keeps distant.
That doesn't necessarily mean viewers are celebrating violence.
For many, curiosity is directed toward the investigation rather than the perpetrator: How was the person caught? What evidence mattered? How did investigators reconstruct what happened?
The danger comes when curiosity gradually turns into celebrity.
When Murderers Become Celebrities
This is where things become more uncomfortable.
Some notorious killers acquire recognisable faces, personal mythology and dedicated online communities. Their photographs circulate as though they were images of actors or musicians.
The transformation is striking.
A person responsible for real suffering becomes a character.
Social media can accelerate this process. A photograph can become a meme. A courtroom appearance can become a viral clip. A documentary can give a killer a carefully edited narrative arc.
The more aesthetically packaged the story becomes, the easier it is to forget that the original events involved real people.
The “Hybristophilia” Question
You may have encountered the term hybristophilia, often described online as sexual or romantic attraction to people who have committed crimes.
The concept is frequently invoked whenever people develop relationships with imprisoned criminals.
But internet discussions sometimes present it as though it were a straightforward diagnosis explaining anyone attracted to a notorious offender.
Human attraction is more complicated than that.
Some relationships involve fantasies about danger or power. Some people become emotionally attached to a person through correspondence. Some are attracted to notoriety or celebrity. Others may believe they can understand, reform or “save” someone.
And some cases are probably better understood through ordinary psychological and social mechanisms rather than a dramatic.
Written by VavaViolet Magazine’s Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Sophie Blackman
No comments
Post a Comment