Why Crime?

We love watching fiction stories of it on TV. We love watching documentaries of it in real life. We love sympathizing with a rogue person settling a score against a corporation.

We love cheering on the criminal, if the victim is untrustworthy. Or sometimes even if they’re not.

Don’t pretend… sometimes the victim being rich and out of touch is enough.

Where does that come from? Should it be the case? Well, maybe it’s because we see ourselves in the criminal. If we see ourselves, we have to believe it’s for a good cause.

Maybe we even hope to be like the criminal. Like that “free spirit” is doing something we can’t. That even though it’s dangerous, perhaps reckless, we still suspect in the back of our minds that this figure is making a better impact on the world than we could ever hope to.

Of course, that sympathy doesn’t apply if the crime is murder. Then we almost always side with the victim and their loved ones.

Almost always, because a lot of times serial killers are valorized too. That should be a condemnation on the rest of us.

But, even if not, we’re still wrapped up in a story we hope will never happen to us or anyone else. It’s a strange human behavior, and we’re probably just beginning to understand it.