From Netflix to lecture halls, the question remains the same: why do people commit horrific crimes? David Wilson unpacks our obsession with the unknowable and the uncomfortable truths behind it.

At the end of a 21 day national tour to accompany the publication of my latest book, I think that I’m in a good position to judge the state of “true crime” and especially what it is that motivates people’s interest in this often maligned and looked down upon genre.

The motivation question is easy to answer. Whether it was in Aberdeen, Bo’Ness, Cambridge, Dundee, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Stirling, Manchester, Cardiff or London – and various places in between – people continually asked the same, basic question: “Why?” Specifically, why do people commit crime, quickly followed by that staple of forensic psychology and criminology – “is it in someone’s nature, or how they’ve been nurtured that makes them behave in this way?” Sometimes this would take a slightly different form, such as “do we have free will?” which, of course, if there’s a positive answer to that question allows the legal process to hold someone responsible for their actions.

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In other words, what was driving people’s interest was a desire to understand and explain........

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