Why do We Love True Crime?

True Crime has its fingerprints across our imaginations. Michael Boudet, host of podcast Sword and Scales said that 70% of listeners are women between the ages of 25-54. The audience of the All Killa No Filla podcast about serial killers is 80-85 per cent female. A 2010 study also found that women enjoy true crime books more than men.

Why are real-life crime stories such a successful part of popular culture? Why are women so drawn to histories of violence? Is it an ethical means of entertainment? Could it be good for society, and us, to be drawn into the darkness of murder? Authors Kate Summerscale and Hallie Rubenhold discuss the hold that narratives of crime and murder have over us, their work and views on true crime culture.

Historian Hallie Rubenhold is the author of The Five; The Untold Lives of The Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, the first full length biography of the Ripper’s victims. Her debut book, The Covent Garden Ladies, brought to public attention the history of the Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies, an infamous 18th century guidebook to sex workers. She discusses her latest work, Story of a Murder: The Wives, the Mistress and Dr Crippen, is a meticulously researched and multi-layered book, offering the reader an electrifying snapshot of Britain and America at the dawn of the modern era.

Kate Summerscale left her job as literary editor of the Daily Telegraph to write the multi award-winning The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which led to three fictional ITV dramas about Jack Whicher’s investigations. She is also author of Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace, The Wicked Boy, winner of the 2017 Mystery Writers of America Edgar award for Best Fact Crime, The Haunting of Alma Fielding and The Book of Phobias & Manias. Her newest book, The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place, examines the 1950s crimes of the serial killer and former policeman Reg Christie.