Why are we fascinated by serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer?

When it comes to the most popular Netflix shows, only the latest season of “Stranger Things” can claim to be more widely watched than “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” which racked up more than 701 million hours watched since its initial release Sept. 21.

Producer Ryan Murphy’s docu-drama about the Milwaukee serial killer has tapped a strong interest among American audiences — and has come under criticism from the families of Dahmer’s real-life victims.

On Oct. 17, entertainment news outlet TMZ reported that eBay officials made the decision to pull hundreds of pieces of Halloween costume merchandise meant to emulate Dahmer’s visage, including a shirt, glasses and blonde wig listed as “JEFFREY DAHMER RETRO Horror Halloween Costume OUTFIT COSPLAY TOUPEE GLASSES TOP.” Officials from eBay said the merchandise violated their violence policy.

But what is it that fascinates us when it comes to criminals like Dahmer?

According to Dr. John Rozel, medical director for Resolve Crisis Services at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, the public’s fascination is complicated.

“One is that it exploits the morbid curiosity that is quite common among adults in the U.S.,” Rozel said. “That’s not an uncommon trait.”

Rozel said the well-worn aphorism “if it bleeds, it leads” does not just apply to crime journalism but to society at large, and there’s a lot of debate among scholars as to why.

“One school of thought is that it’s a survival trait,” Rozel said. “We should pay attention to threats in the environment, and if there’s something or someone out there we know is dangerous, there’s a tendency to want to pay attention to that topic.”

Another school of thought is that people are simply titillated by the taboo.

“We live in a relatively safe society, and what’s been very consistently shown is that whether it’s a true-crime podcast, a violent movie or horror film, it’s engaging, and it’s almost an extension of telling ghost stories around the campfire.”

Katherine Ramsland, an author, forensic psychology professor at DeSales University and longtime adviser/instructor at Duquesne University’s Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law, said people enjoy being able to “get close to danger” in a safe way.

“When you take a narrative like Dahmer’s life, where you have the entire story arc that ends with his death, people feel like they can safely get close with something dangerous like that,” Ramsland said.

Serial killers are perceived as larger-than-life in some respects, she said.

“They do things that aren’t allowed, and it’s fascinating to consider: How did this person get this way?” she said.

Rozel said that while a strictly documentary series like Netflix’s “Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes” provide a rare, in-person glimpse into the mind of a serial killer through actual interviews, things get a little more thorny when a series wades into the “docu-drama” waters. Facts begin to be set aside in favor of entertaining the audience.

“There’s also the issue of, for the sake of entertainment, we’re discussing in lurid detail these truly heartbreaking violent crimes that have deeply affected people involved with them,” Rozel said. “As these types of shows work their way through the media system, they have an impact.”

Rozel said he was once an avid viewer of the CBS drama “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

“But I remember an episode that did one of those ‘ripped-from-the-headlines’ episodes, and it was based on a case that I’d worked on,” he said. “And that was the last time I watched the show.”

Ramsland agreed the 2022 docu-drama “isn’t necessarily about solving the riddle of Jeffrey Dahmer, even though that appears to be the aim.”

Ramsland referenced the “Dahmer Tapes” documentary as a better window into the types of questions many people have about violent criminals.

“I think the (Ryan Murphy) series didn’t get into the psychologist and psychiatrist who interacted with him, and I think they provided more just by discussing their experiences, rather than a docu-drama series that looks back at his childhood through the lens of Dahmer’s father, who wasn’t there much of the time,” she said.

Rozel said, ultimately, the people whose opinions matter most when it comes to the Netflix series are those impacted by Dahmer’s crimes.

“We don’t want to approach victims, survivors and responders to serious crimes with anything other than sympathy and respect,” he said.