America’s obsession with serial killers, true crime is alarming

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It’s no surprise that the Golden Globes on Jan. 10 had a fair share of controversy. Drama goes hand-in-hand with Hollywood’s award season, after all. But among the regular hoopla stemming from snubs, speeches and slander, the show also made headlines when Evan Peters took home the Golden Globe for “Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture for TV” for his performance in Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

The same criticisms that arose when the show first aired — none of which had anything to do with Peters’ acting skills — resurfaced when he earned his first Golden Globe. The group of viewers that questioned the ethics of Dahmer continued to do so following the show’s win.

Even one of the mothers of a Dahmer victim spoke out against the negative impact of Peters’ win. “People winning acting roles from playing killers keeps the obsession going, and this makes sick people thrive on fame,” the mother said, according to Entertainment Weekly.

But rather than expecting a Hollywood award show to have a stronger moral compass, I think we need to realize that the popularity of true crime media falls on us as viewers. Only two shows — Stranger Things 4 and Wednesday — racked up more hours viewed in their first month on Netflix than Dahmer, which sits at 856,220,000 hours of total viewership. So producers won’t stop churning out similar content even if viewers believe it’s inherently wrong. The entertainment industry is a heartless game of supply and demand and our fascination with serial killers has made murderous content a hot commodity.

True crime TV, movies, books, podcasts and more have swept the nation for a while now and the trend is much more related to the desires of the consumer than it is the creativity of media outlets. A 2021 report from Parrot Analytics highlighted how true crime is in five-times higher demand than other documentary genres.

But America’s obsessive relationship with serial murders spans beyond pop culture. It seems as if these types of cases are almost viewed differently compared to other violent crimes. Take the recent Idaho murders: countless people have tried to dissect the mind of murderer Bryan Kohlberger, map out the events of that night and theorize any rationales.

Subreddits, Tiktoks or various other social media groups have turned a tragic killing into some sort of real life game of Clue. The families of four young adults were left to grieve while the internet focused more on speculation than sympathy. This situation in Idaho is a grim reminder of how the general public would rather “solve” deaths related to serial killers than let the slain rest.

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How is it that tragedies like the Uvalde shooting of 2022 or any similar tragedies can be treated with grace and respect while everyone suddenly became detectives when talking about the Idaho murders? Both events resulted in a premature loss of lives but the tone of public perception couldn’t feel more different.

There should be no spectrum of tragedy when it comes to violent slaughters, yet it’s almost as if society deems serial killings to be “less serious” because there is so much mystery involved. These events have continued to garner different attitudes than other types of murder and seem less taboo because most can’t empathize with the situation.

Going back to the Golden Globes controversy, it’s easy to blame money-hungry entertainment corporations for the glamorizing of figures like Jeffery Dahmer. However, it would be more effective to hold one another accountable for the culture we’ve created surrounding serial killers. The casualness in which we treat these grisly cases has made it easy for series like Dahmer to exist and profit. So if there’s any hope of avoiding this style of traumatic content, it starts by reshaping the narrative around serial murders on the ground-level. There’s a limitless amount of media to consume that is just as interesting and much less problematic.

Jonah Weintraub is a sophomore broadcast and digital journalism major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at jsweintr@syr.edu.