A day after a horrific stabbing in the Midlands, a resident played me an audio recording that seemed to capture the fatal attack on two students. It was being circulated on WhatsApp, and I replayed it several times to describe it accurately. If it's a true recording, it's the worst thing I've ever heard.
We have an enduring fascination with fictional and true crime. As crime correspondent for Sky News, I see true crime everywhere: books, magazines, radio shows, podcasts. A YouGov poll found half of Americans enjoy true-crime content, and one in three consume it at least once a week. Why this fascination with the dark side of humanity?
My belief is that we project ourselves or our loved ones into crime scenarios because they usually occur in familiar circumstances. Madeleine McCann vanished from a holiday apartment on a trip millions have taken. The disappearance of Nicola Bulley attracted intense interest from armchair detectives who visited the scene, replicating her last walk and posting theories on social media.
David Wilson, a leading criminologist, believes our fascination with violent crime is a subconscious survival instinct: we study it to know how to avoid it. This applies even more to women, the main consumers of true crime, as they are more likely to be victims. Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes says women's fascination is greater because crime reporters focus on female victims, even though more men are attacked.
For 200 years, Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors cashed in on the public's appetite for grisly details. It closed in 2016 after complaints, but reopened last year by popular demand. Our addiction to true crime shows no sign of waning.
