Horror and Criminology: Why scary stories matter
Horror is everywhere!
Horror is everywhere in contemporary culture. From streaming services packed with slashers and possession tales to the endless production of podcasts, novels, and video games, the horror genre continues to thrive.
Despite its enormous popularity, horror has rarely been examined closely by criminology or criminal justice scholars. This gap is puzzling. Most horror films revolve around acts of crime such as murder, sexual assault, home invasion, or stalking, so why wouldn’t this be an area of research?
Not to worry—that’s where I’m trying to integrate my criminology/criminal justice background with my love of horror!
Horror operates as a cultural record of fear and morality. It gives audiences a space to explore violence, justice, and survival through story. Each scream, chase, and jump scare reflects the way societies imagine deviance and danger.
Horror as Criminological Text
If criminology wants to understand crime, justice, and social control, then horror offers a unique stage for exploring all three. Horror stories unfold in every kind of environment: rural communities, suburban homes, dense cities, institutions, and online spaces.
Each setting raises familiar criminological questions. What happens when safety is violated in the spaces people consider private? How do gender, race, class, and geography shape the way characters are portrayed as victims or villains? What forms of justice emerge by the time the credits roll?
Horror gives criminologists a visual and emotional entry point for examining fear, punishment, and transgression. Using popular criminology to examine horror allows us to also examine the personal and emotional realities of crime, something that research articles and policy briefs don’t tap into.
Crime, Victims, and Villains on Screen
Horror films are filled with depictions of crime and they can also influence audiences how to interpret it. They create recognizable archetypes: the killer, the innocent victim, and the survivor.
These portrayals often differ from real-world patterns of offending and victimization. Horror magnifies and distorts reality, shaping the way viewers imagine who commits violence and who deserves empathy or survival.
Killers are frequently presented as outsiders or as embodiments of social anxiety. Victims, often women or marginalized characters, carry symbolic meaning about innocence, guilt, or strength. Justice, when it appears, tends to be moral rather than legal.
Through repetition, these portrayals become cultural myths about fear and punishment. A criminological perspective helps reveal what those myths say about collective values and cultural blind spots.
Beyond the Screen: Horror Across Media
Although a lot of the discussions in this blog will likely focus on film, horror extends far beyond the screen. Literature, comics, video games, streaming series, and even interactive digital spaces all explore themes of violence, order, and morality.
Each medium approaches fear differently. A Gothic novel might dwell on repression and guilt. A survival horror game forces players to make choices about ethics and self-preservation. A podcast or streaming series may blur the boundaries between horror and true crime. All of these invite criminological interpretation—and that’s what I live for!
Why Horror Matters
Horror endures because it gives audiences a way to face the forbidden. It invites reflection on what society defines as deviant or dangerous, and it allows people to process those ideas through imagination and emotion.
Viewing horror through a criminological lens deepens our understanding of both the genre and the discipline. Horror reminds us that fear is not random; it is produced by history, inequality, and the social rules we live by.
By examining horror, criminology expands beyond the courtroom or the crime report to include the stories and images that shape how people feel about crime itself.
Horror and Criminology Class
As an aside, I’m teaching a Horror and Criminology undergraduate class during the Spring 2026 semester. I will keep you updated as to how the class is going and how the students are receiving and interacting with the material. I’d also welcome any suggestions for films/short stories/novels/video games that you think might be appropriate for my students to explore in this class! Leave your suggestions in the comments.
