Why Are True Crime Podcasts So Popular

 What was the first podcast to truly achieve a tipping point in popularity and brand recognition?

If you answered Serial, you would be a witness to not only the maturation of podcasts as a mass medium format but also listeners’ ongoing fascination with true crime narratives.

When Serial released its first season in 2014 (investigating the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old student from Baltimore) it only took six months for the podcast’s first season to be downloaded more than 68 million times.

Fast forward to 2020 and the third quarter Podtrac podcast rankings unveil a strong theme. True crime podcasts attract a lot of listeners. Loyal listeners. Engaged listeners who also link to the podcast through social media and email newsletters.

Here’s just an appetizer of the true crime podcasts that rank high – The Dating Game Killer (Wondery), Missing in Alaska (iHeartRadio), The Piketon Massacre (iHeartRadio), Motive For Murder (NBC News / Wondery), and Billionaire Boys Club (Wondery).

According to Scott Bonn, professor of criminology at Drew University and author of the book, Why We Love Serial Killers, true crime “triggers the most basic and powerful emotion in all of us—fear.” This is the primary driver of the popularity of true crime novels, television shows, and podcasts. 

A new true-crime podcast "The Murder Sheet" investigates the unsolved murder of four employees outside Indianapolis at a Burger Chef fast food restaurant in 1978.

 In effect, true-crime podcasts often listeners an avenue to confront their fears but without being immersed in the actual violence that punctuates true crime podcasts.

Media consultant Ken Grayson notes that, “TV networks like ID Channel and the long-running Forensic Files are immensely popular with the viewing audience and true-crime podcasts are simply extending that fascination to time spent away from the TV at tasks as mundane as cleaning the house, cutting the lawn, walking the dog and slogging through the daily commute.”

“Podcasts have just enabled true crime to become more mobile and easier to access,” Grayson adds.

True-crime podcast fans identify with victims of the crime and often use the podcast as a catharsis to help them deal with their fears. In fact, there is evidence that listening to true-crime stories can actually soothe listeners’ fears of being harmed.

A study conducted by social psychologist Amanda Vicary revealed that women prefer true crime topics more than men. In her research, Vicary found that women tend to be attracted to the psychological content of true crime stories. Vicary also noted that since women are victims of crime more often than men, they are driven to understand the reason for the crime and ways for them to prevent such an act.

Clinical psychologist Dr. John Mayer, who studies violence and media, indicated that people, and women, in particular, use true crime stories as a way to purposefully expose themselves to violence as a way to “build up [their] tolerance to something scary and seemingly inevitable.”

​Ken Grayson also notes that there is a voyeuristic quality to true-crime podcasts.

“Many people are morbidly drawn to the violence of serial killers because they cannot rationally comprehend why they would commit such heinous and senseless acts,” says Grayson. “True-crime podcast devoted listeners want desperately to understand the nature of this violence.”

What differentiates the true-crime podcasts from fictional horror podcasts is the feeling of relief that comes with knowing that although a real crime was committed by a real person and perpetrated on real people, it did not happen to them.

“There’s this sense of relief that it wasn’t you who did it,” explains Grayson.

Grayson adds, “Typically, we think that true crime listeners get some psychological relief knowing that they are not the victim. However, there is a darker element to this relief valve mentality. More than often than people would admit, there are relieved that they had enough control not to act on the same impulses as the perpetrator to commit violent acts.”

The other factor related to true-crime podcast popularity is that attraction to disaster and misfortune – like rubbernecking at the scene of a serious auto accident. The public’s fascination with them can be seen as a manifestation of its more general fixation on violence and calamity. In other words, the actions of a serial killer may be horrible to behold but much of the public simply cannot look away due to the spectacle.

Finally, one recent trend in true-crime podcast popularity is the sense of fairness and justice that humans inherently seem to possess. Unfairness roils us to the core and someone getting away with a violent act is as disruptive to our sense of fairness as an innocent person being punished for something they did not do.

Podcasts like Serial seed the concept of inequity in the American justice system.

“Baby boomers and to some extent Gen Xers grew up with the concept that the police and the DA always get the right person,” Ken Grayson notes. “Many true-crime podcasts cast doubt on the ability of the police to always arrest the right person. Indeed, a recurring theme in these podcasts is that the police sometimes identify a likely perpetrator and then fit the evidence to match their identification of the guilty party.”

Grayson notes that Americans as a society have very low levels of trust in many institutions like government, and these true-crime podcasts can damage the public’s perception of the legal process in the country.

“True-crime podcasts are in the business of attracting listeners,” Grayson declares, “and that need to get “ears” can sometimes sensationalize and overdramatize these true-crime stories to the point that the facts of the case become a servant to the dramatic narrative.”

True-crime podcasts did see an initial download dip during the spring COVID lockdown months, but downloads bounced back in the summer and are trending up again. According to Podtrac, true crime was the most popular category among the new shows released during the first three quarters of 2020. Moreover, of the top 25 new podcasts for far in 2020, Podtrac says nearly half – 12 shows – are true crime series. That includes eight of the top ten.

Since podcast networks are not inherently different from TV networks, they follow the viewer trends and the download numbers. Clearly sensing that crime, criminals, justice, and injustice attract listeners in large numbers, Wondery and iHeartRadio contributed the most top 25 new shows with each putting five true-crime podcasts into the Podtrac rankings with nine Wondery-created shows on the list and eight coming from iHeart.

Of course, no one is sure if true-crime podcasts have “legs” and can sustain this dominance in podcast ratings. After all, politics podcasts were a small blip on the ratings radar before 2017 and now they collectively attract millions of loyal – and often hyperpartisan – listeners. Audible has attracted attention with its home-grown fictional dramas, and there is even some nostalgic yearning for old-time radio-type dramas.

A final note about true crime podcasts concerns the journalists that research and cover these stories. There is no doubt that in some cases, these true-crime podcasts have attracted top-notch journalistic talent to investigate and report these true-crime tales.

Just recently, for example, a new podcast The Murder Sheet began with a miniseries about the unsolved murder of four Burger Chef employees in 1978 in an Indianapolis suburb. Researching and reporting on the story are Áine Cain, a senior reporter for Business Insider, and Kevin Greenlee, a prominent attorney from Indianapolis, who began extensively researching the Burger Chef case in 2016, and represents the family of victim Ruth Shelton.

Other true-crime podcasts have struck gold with similar veins of talent, and these researchers and on-air talent often elevate the discourse beyond a sense of voyeurism into a more thoughtful discussion of societal fissures and the relationship between wealth and justice.