Psychos, True Crime, and "You."

I was recently quoted in this article about the Netflix show "You," revolving around a serial killer. The show is currently enjoying smash-hit success on the streaming service and has become the latest buzzy pop culture phenomenon. 

As the article explains, while there are many people who are big fans of the show, there are just as many who are worried about the possible dangerous societal impact of serial killer films, TV shows, and true-crime entertainment. As it also discusses with my quotes, true-crime entertainment and the obsession with the macabre is certainly nothing new. In the 1800s, after all, we already had the forerunner of true-crime entertainment in the form of the National Police Gazette magazine and people would turned out with their entire families to watch the public hangings of wild west desperadoes ranging from murderers to cattle rustlers and horse thieves.

Then, in the twentieth century, the news media would once again satiate a public appetite for knowledge about real criminals like Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floy, Machine Gun Kelly, and underworld kingpins like Al Capone. Among the most popular films at the time were the gangster films that made superstars out of actors like Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson playing underworld thugs and tough guys.  But even before frontier justice or stories of organized crime in the United States were turned into public entertainment, we had millennia of people all over the world turning out to see the brutal public flogging, skinning, burning, disembowelment, decapitation, and dismemberment of people who had defied the law. It is remarkable to behold the incredible level of mathematical and architectural accomplishment of the ancient Romans thousands of years ago, and then to consider the fact that they applied such advanced knowledge to the construction of the Colosseum, an immense amphitheater dedicated to displays of violence and brutality. For the ancient Romans, watching marathon sessions of gladiatorial combat where people from criminals to slaves, prisoners of war in the empire’s foreign campaigns, and all sorts of imprisoned undesirables being forced to fight each other to the death was as entertaining as watching football or baseball is to us. 

 

So, taking in such a history of violence, we have to recognize that the twenty first century’s violent entertainment, like movies or documentaries discussing true crimes, pales in comparison to the blood lust of our ancestors. We merely hear about serial killings or see actors recreating crimes in TV shows or movies. We no longer watch people torn limb from limb in front of us or watch see them get crucified, scourged, or burned at the stake.  

 

The point is that we need to realize that a fascination for all manner of information about or depictions of violence is a part of human nature. There are areas of science that have long sought to understand this. Perhaps there was an evolutionary advantage to constantly thinking about possible threats, possible sources of violence. An imagination of threats kept our ancestors on the lookout for dangerous predators. This fixation on the violent and morbid, in turn, kept them alive long enough to reproduce and pass those traits on to descendants who merely enjoy a TV show like "You" about a murderous stalker. Today’s threats we need to be on the lookout for, the new unseen danger that haunts the imaginations of modern humans, is not a wild animal hiding in the bushes but the serial killer who might be living among us. It is the friendly person who lives down the street or a boyish coworker we talk to every day who might be a twisted, blood-thirsty psychopath. Our fascination with true crime then is merely our evolutionary programming at work. Films, TV shows, and documentaries dramatize this programming. 

 

But, ultimately, is a violent show like “You,” or any number of serial killer films, slasher horror films, or true-crime podcasts dangerous to society? No, it is not. Research has long sought to find a causal connection between watching violence and violent behavior and could not. What we have instead are correlations between the enjoyment of violent entertainment by some people who also happen to have committed crimes. But a correlation is not a causality. Perhaps people with a propensity for violence mere just enjoy watching violence as well. True crime shows or serial killer movies do not make real life killers and criminals.