to not understand the "entertainment value" of true crime

[Nimbostratus100]

I understand the enjoyment of murder mysteries, excitement, interesting characters, mystery aspect etc.

I dont understand the "enjoyment" of "true crime" where real people have suffered and died and been bereaved. The thread about Jonbenet for example, why are people enjoying "documentaries" and feeling they can speak authoritvly about the death a poor little girl, thousands of miles away about which they in reality know nothing, but feel like they can slag of members of her family anyway?

Ive just gone onto itv player to find something to while away a few hours, and find myself being offer a whole plethera of "true crime" stuff. No thanks, what on earth is fun or relaxing being a spectator to other people's grief, pain and misery?

I just dont understand what sort of person enjoys that. I hope you will enjoy it just as much if you are ever the subject of one of these dramas.

I'm not even slightly interested in the Raoul Moat thing or the
Jeffry Dahmer one but I will,watch a recording of the back of someone's house to see what lights they switched,on during the night.

I am fascinated by true crime and agree with the others answers.
I guess I always wonder how it must feel to be a victim or close to a victim of crime and so it is like a morbid curiosity too.

Depends how it’s done. Some are sensitive and factual, some (American) ones with ‘sensational’ interviews from ex colleagues and vague acquaintances along with ‘suspenseful’ music are just disrespectful.

I have an interest in the politics of the Middle East, and started watching ‘war on terror’ on Netflix last week. To my horror 10 minutes in it was showing graphic footage of people dangling out of the twin towers on 9/11 gasping for air, and people falling from the top floors. DH was appalled and we fast forwarded it. He said it’s so easy for us to forget these are real people, whose final moments are being filmed for the ‘entertainment’ of others. It’s sick.

I like true crime it’s one of the only things i watch, i even fall asleep listening to true crime podcasts.
I’m not interested in fictional tv shows, soaps, dramas etc i’m interested in things that have actually happened and what the outcome of the court case was. I don’t really get affected by things happening to humans though I just can’t listen or watch anything that has animal cruelty in it.

I've been pretty depressed on and off for my whole life and I do find that the occasional miserable story of a life cut short when I'm feeling a bit mopey gives me the kick up the arse I need to get on with enjoying my life.

Life is short, any day could be your last, etc.

Anything with kids just makes me curl into a ball and cry though... I don't want to listen to those.

That was Colin pitchfork wasn’t it (almost like a made up last name) there was a good dramatisation with John Simm about that case.

The Netflix documentary making a murder was SO interesting to watch & also educational. It's the shock that these things can happen. Its the same reason people watch the news.

@MuddlingMackem I’m fascinated with the Cold Case ones as well. They keep evidence from years ago and i think it is so heroic of the law enforcement to reopen the cases and get justice. There is a good series on Sky / now about how they managed to identify a few of the John Does from the John Wayne Gacy Murders. the lead detective was so dedicated to helping the families

As annoying as the expression is, this!

Another true crime lover here. The best series is Forensics: the real CSI on iplayer. I just find the work they do absolutely incredible and I fantasise about retraining as a fingerprint analyst.
The irony is that I stopped watching horror films years ago as I get so scared and I hate being home alone in the dark. DH thinks I’m mad!
I get your point though OP, as I’ve started to come across those awful sensationalist ones and won’t watch them.

@TwoMonthsOff, one of the ones I've seen, the main policeman who worked on the cold case was from the town where it happened and was only 10 years old when the crime was committed, sowas determined to solve it for the sake of the family.

I broadly agree with you, but with caveats-

I also dislike glamorised fictional crime and real life tragedies. Titanic- a film about people drowning for 2.5 hours.

The series about the Stephen port case was well dramatised- it brought to life a community, culture and era I was unfamiliar with. Without that drama I wouldn't have really grasped the institutional homophobia that allowed him to operate so recently.

I once went through a phase of watching a lot of true crime documentaries and I feel scarred by them. Some of the awful things people do.

For me, I think the fascination was trying to make sense of it - why do some people do terrible things? I hoped there would be an answer that made sense. It turns out it rarely makes sense.

I think the Dahmer dramatisation on Netflix completely crossed the line. The first episode I thought was worth watching, then after that it was excusing and glamourising him and I stopped watching. So irresponsible.

@LowFlyingDucks, I have avoided the dramatisation, but I recently saw a documentary which I thought was very good and respectful of the victims and their families. I thought that was on Netflix, but perhaps not.

I’m surprised so many people think the Dahmer series glamourised him. I didn’t think that at all. To me it was no different to Des (starring David Tennant) or Appropriate Adult (Dominic West)- both similarly done true crime things. Yes it focused on Dahmers story but it showed how awful he was, it focused on the terror the victims must have felt. Evan Peters absolutely made my skin crawl which was the point. I thought it was really good and very interesting. My dd actually had to write a whole essay about it as part of her degree.

I disagree. The Des thing was brilliant. All of the ITV real life crime dramatisations are sensitively done.

@Xrays the acting was absolutely 5* and he did give me shivers.
I also don't think it glamorised him. Again, lots of people had no idea how close he was to being caught and how he was getting away with it. I think this is a benefit of the dramatised series on popular stream. It got people talking about the surrounding issues which are far from being just in past. People around me were discussing it certainly. Coupled with current issues within police, covering mates etc it lead to some interesting discussions like if this could happen today purely because of police homophobia/sexism/racism. Sadly many of us concluded it could.

in addition to a lot of what has already been shared, having an interest in something doesn’t equate to finding it entertaining as such. I have an interest in true crime as in I like to hear about cases, often they make me sad, desperately so. More often than not they make me angry. I am not enjoying a podcast about a missing person the same way I enjoy a cocktail out on a Friday night with friends, but it is of interest to me. These are true stories about people like you and me. these things happened, they need telling.

Something to remember is that often these stories go untold. without true crime docs and podcasts (and books of course).
I am not talking about the MMs and JonBennets but the many thousands of cases which don’t get the publicity or don’t get talked about. Many cold cases don’t see the light of day without publicity, many names would never be spoken and their story not told without true crime.
I agree that some people look to exploit the genre but most do not. Most look to tell the victims story, whether it has a conclusion or it is still open ended.

I have learned so much about life through true crime podcasts, I have learned about the justice system, the corruption, the police (and their massive corruption issues), I have learned about charities and organisations and I have shed many a tear for victims and families, people I don’t know from Adam but am touched by their stories.

True crime isn’t all gruesome speculation by armchair detectives on line.

Some of the programs have led me on to read some really interesting books by the professionals involved either in the cases or generally in the program, especially in the UK ones.

Dr Jane Monckton Smith and Nazir Afzal being two in particular. Nazir Afzal's book The Prosecutor covers a lot of the work he did in regard to VAWG. He was (is) an amazing man.

That pretty much sums up how I feel.

I agree with the majority of posts here. I enjoy true crime for many of the reasons listed, the psychology involved in the crime being committed and the workings of the legal system (either because justice has absolutely not been done or because I enjoy watching investigators piece everything together and bring justice for someone). I don't enjoy some of the newer series I've come across recently, so thinking about Netflix I can think of at least two series where I've watched the actual documentary about the case rather than the dramatised versions of it.
I also had to turn off a true crime series on Netflix recently because the content in it consisted of lots of victims just repeating explicit details of the crime over and over, to the point where it actually became quite disturbing and I began to wonder about the motives of the film maker seeing as there didn't seem to be any actual content beyond this. I watch (and read) loads of true crime but that series turned my stomach, there was just something off about how it was being done.

I enjoy true crime. I listen to podcasts regularly. I lump them in with things like Soft White Underbelly or Louise Theroux documentaries, or maybe a documentary such as the Bird on a Wire or survival stories like Alive.
For me it's an exploration of character but you need details to relate properly. If example you were reading Romeo and Juliet is critical that you understand how they felt about one another. It's no good saying they were in love. Likewise knowing someone murdered 10 women isn't enough. I want to know how and what he did withbtbe corpse and how he joined his neighbour for ThanksGiving meal.

I don't find think that makes me sick or twisted. I have worked in psychiatry, with offenders, and addicts. I like to hear their stories. They very rarely have a happy childhood.

I’m very interested in true crime and watch and read a lot of it. For me it’s to do with a fascination with mortality and human anatomy.

I do have some pieces related to true crime in my collection - some Dahmer and Nielsen, BTK.

What do you recommend?

I would watch a real documentary ie showing the police roles and how they found clues, followed their enquiries etc because thats not sensationalising.
The dramas based on true crimes such as the current Raoul Moat one, I think can be in bad taste especially as its still in very recent and there are families who are still living with that nightmare . I always feel uneasy when these sort come out. They don't have all the facts and parts will be based conjecture ie guessibg/made up etc