The first murder on record dates to about 400,000 years ago.
In 2015, in a cave in the Atapuerca Mountains in Spain, archaeologists unearthed a hominin skull bearing signs of inflicted blunt-force trauma. They called it Cranium 17.
Even with a killing from that long ago, the first thoughts that come to mind remain universal: Who killed this person? Why did they do it? Were they ever caught?
This mix of curiosity, fear and a desire to see justice done (largely from the deep-seated sense of “This could have been me”) have shaped how we view the murder mystery.
From the safe distance of a work of fiction, we are able to examine the mind of a killer, the thoughts of a dying victim, the society that brought two humans to this point.
Often, it’s women tuning in. Studies conducted by organisations ranging from Spotify to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation have shown that women drive the popular true-crime podcast genre.
Research has shown that men and women tend to read differently too. According to a Harris Poll report from 2010, men are more likely to pick books in genres such as science-fiction (32%), history (40%), politics (25%) and business (16%). Women lean towards mysteries, thrillers and crime novels (57%), romances (37%) and works relating to religion (30%).
A series of five studies conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and published in 2010 threw up similar results. In one, the researchers asked 1,866 respondents to pick one of two books, based on their summaries.
Of the women, 77% picked Violence in Paradise: A Christmas in Hawaii Turns to Tragedy (based on the real-life murders of two women), while 51% of men chose this book. The alternative, incidentally, was either a book about two women soldiers in wartime or two women members of an LA gang.
“Additionally, women expected to enjoy (the true-crime) book more than did men… whereas men expected to enjoy books on war or gang violence more so than did women who selected those books,” states the study report, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Study after study has also shown that women read more than men do. A 17-country report by global market analyst GfK, published in 2017, found this to be true, as did a Deloitte Insights report from 2021, titled The Gender Gap in Reading. A 2000 study by Steven J Tepper of Princeton University’s Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies additionally found that women are 2.3 times more likely to read a work of fiction.
This disparity can be traced to the gender-based approach to leisure that evolved in the post-Renaissance and Industrialisation West of the 18th and 19th centuries. Amid a boom in both publishing and entertainment, manliness became associated with trips to the variety houses, minstrel shows, museums, gentlemen’s clubs and sports events. Women took up private amusements best pursued at home, such as learning to play a musical instrument, and reading.
“Fiction reading — along with other passive, private and non-competitive activities — might be understood as a gender appropriate activity for girls (while boys might be encouraged to be aggressive, competitive and outwardly expressive),” Tepper states, in the paper published in the journal Poetics.
So why crime fiction? Studies indicate links with the sense of vulnerability, fear, alertness, and justice or the lack of it, that many women grow up with. Books, podcasts, series and films on violent crime and murder, then, become something that women can identify with, and can engage with cathartically, in safety.
In their series of studies, the University of Illinois researchers found that women are especially drawn to stories that contain information on how a survivor made an escape. Faced with a choice between two murder mysteries, 71% of the women polled chose the plot that involved a woman who escaped using tips she remembered reading on the internet.
“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,” states the paper, titled Captured by True Crime: Why Are Women Drawn to Tales of Rape, Murder, and Serial Killers?
Of course, it’s unlikely to actually help. Not because the women reading aren’t at risk. But because, statistically (and come on, we know this), most killers are already inside the house.
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