Why Do Women Like True Crime Books?

Ever since Truman Capote wrote "In Cold Blood," in 1966 about the gruesome murders of a Kansas farm family, nonfiction books based on real crimes have become very popular, many times dominating the best-seller's lists. Surprisingly, researchers find, women are more drawn to these true crime books than men.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign conducted a series of studies to try to determine if women were more attracted to true crime books and why. Their research found that given a choice between books about true crime and a war or gang book, a greater percentage of women would pick the true crime book, compared to men.

Women Drawn to True Crime Stories

The presumption was that men, being more aggressive by nature, would be more likely to find such gory topics as rape and murder more interesting than women. But their two-study research show that women overwhelmingly chose true crime books give the same choices as men.

The researchers then conducted three more studies to try to determine just why this was true. Their conclusion was that women are drawn to true crime books out of their own fears of becoming a victim of violent crime.

Although women are much less likely to become a victim of a violent crime, compared to men, they have a heightened fear of crime.

Interest in Crime Driven by Fear?

According to the researchers, women are drawn to true crime books for these reasons:

• To learn how to prevent becoming a victim.
  
• To learn how to survive being a victim.
• To learn warning signs to watch for.
  
• To learn escape tips, survival strategies.

In other words, women read true crime books out of their fear of becoming a crime victim so that they can learn how to prevent of survive such a crime, according to the researchers.

In their published study, the authors explain:

Learning Survival Skills

"For example, by understanding why an individual decides to kill, a woman can learn the warning signs to watch for in a jealous lover or stranger. By learning escape tips, women learn survival strategies they can use if actually kidnapped or held captive," wrote Amanda M. Vicary.

Ironically, reading true crime books might actually increase the fear that prompts women to read those very books in the first place, the authors suggest.

"Despite the fact that women may enjoy reading these books because they learn survival tips and strategies, it is possible that reading these books may actually increase the very fear that drives women toward them in the first place," Vicary wrote.

A Vicious Fear Cycle?

"In other words, a vicious cycle may be occurring: A woman fears becoming the victim of a crime, so, consciously or unconsciously, she turns to true crime books in a possible effort to learn strategies and techniques to prevent becoming murdered. However, with each true crime book she reads, this woman learns about another murderer and his victims, thereby increasing her awareness and fear of crime." The researchers concluded that it was not possible to determine from their study if such a vicious cycle does in fact occur.

^{Source: Amanda M. Vicary and R. Chris Fraley. "Captured by True Crime: Why Are Women Drawn to Tales of Rape, Murder, and Serial Killers?" Social Psychological and Personality Science. Accessed Jan. 2010.}