No, I am not talking about women driving the self help book industry. I am talking about the “True Crime” novels. Before I go any further I must say that I was surprised to see that women were the main purchasers of true crime novels. But the question is why? In the inaugural issue of Social Psychological and Personality Science (published by SAGE) they talked about this phenomenon. Apparently it is women’s fear of attack that leads them to want to understand it and therefore prevent it from happening to them. But instead it is causing some sort of reverse effect because women who read them are more afraid.

This doesn’t really surprise me. It is easier to just accept evil than to understand where it is rooted. Once you see its roots you see that it isn’t that rare. Hitler as a twisted person wasn’t a fluke and neither was Ted Bundy.

I have always had an interest in criminology and procedure but I blame that less on being a woman than having a mother who has a criminology degree and 2 step dads who were cops;). What do you think?

(HT: Science Daily)