Why do adults enjoy watching Crime Drama?

Crime Drama’s are a very popular genre of TV programmes. It is aimed at mostly at adults; this is because young children are normally interested in ‘children’s channels’ or something more suitable to their age group. There are many reasons why adults enjoy TV drama. The uses and gratifications theory suggests some reasons for it.

Firstly, many adults watch crime drama for the excitement and thrill. After an episode of a crime drama, there may have been suspense at the end, causing the audience to want to wait until the next episode to see what happens. They do this so it keeps the audience attracted and interested in what might happen, and leave it up to them to try and work it out. This comes under the ‘personal identity’ purpose on the ‘Uses and gratifications theory’ because it’s about finding out yourself whether you can uncover the mystery or crime, and also you learn about people’s behaviour. 

Another reason why adults watch crime dramas is because it may relate to something that is happening in their own personal life, and they want to see how the characters on TV deal with it. It gives the audiences idea’s to try out in life, and because its only regularly, it always attracts the attention for them to watch another week longer. This would be from the ‘personal relationship’ purpose in the ‘uses and gratification theory’ because it uses the media for help or other interaction.

Also, adults may watch crime drama for comfort. If they see a programme such as ‘The Bill’ where there are people in that community who are causing trouble, (just like crime in our area’s) and then there are police who stop the crime and get them arrested, it might make the give the audience comfort that crime is being dealt with. Although its only a TV show, crime still happens in real life, behind the scenes of the TV, which is why it would give adults comfort knowing that crime can be dealt with.

On the other hand, watching crime dramas could put people off and scare them more. Seeing crime happening on TV, could make adults think more about crime that could be happening around them. Also it might teach adults about more crime that they didn’t originally know about. It has a big psychological impact on the audience than we would admit and it might change the way you see crime after you realize how easy it can be to commit one.

Overall, adults mostly watch crime drama because of the excitement they get by watching the thrill and suspense side of it. This is what causes them to continue watching it week after week and what keeps them interested. The uses and gratification theory plays a part in why adults watch crime drama, because it covers all the purposes why adults decide to tune into programmes such as ‘The Bill’ , ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Good Cop’, every time its on.