Opinion – Sex X By Bruna Maia: Luigi Mangione: What explains the romantic and sexual interest in criminals?

A man in a brown coat pulled out a gun and killed the president of a health insurance company on a New York sidewalk. Shortly afterwards, an image of the suspect in a hostel was released. He was a man with thick eyebrows and a beautiful smile.

This was enough for social media users to start going wild, which only escalated when he was arrested and his identity and photos were released.

On networks like X, Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok and Reddit, people of all possible genders and sexualities comment on how handsome, fit and fit the boy is. Some have developed a real obsession with seeking information about him. It is far from the first time that a criminal has aroused passions and emotional and sexual interest in the public. What explains this?

Firstly, in this specific case, the political and social context plays a major role. The health insurance industry is one of the most hated by the American population. It is common for users to receive poor service and have their requests for exams and treatments denied.

The richest country in the world does not have a public health system like Brazil’s. The SUS often does not offer quick and express treatment, but it exists and provides free services to citizens who need it, regardless of social class.

There, people who need an ambulance and emergency surgery can accumulate unpayable debts even if they have insurance, as they often refuse to cover procedures.

This unfortunate scenario has caused many Americans to support crime, so that the criminal enjoys public sympathy – unlike his victim. The fact that he has standard beauty (he’s white, thin, has defined muscles) added to this.

However, many criminals who attract a legion of admirers do not have a scenario like this to “mitigate” their attitudes towards the public. See the cases of Charles Manson, leader of a sect who committed nine murders in 1969, including that of actress Sharon Tate, who was then pregnant; Ted Bundy, who confessed to raping and killing 30 girls and women in the 1970s; Francisco de Assis Pereira, the Park Maniac, who raped and killed at least seven women and tried to kill nine others in the late 90s.

They all received letters from admirers and even found wives among them.

As with everything in life, there is a word to pathologize (and individualize) the phenomenon: hybristophilia, a perversion that denotes sexual attraction to those who commit violent crimes, such as rape and murder, often multiple ones.

The condition, more common in women, would involve a series of beliefs and factors. Many believe they are capable of changing such violent men, others want to take care of the injured child they once were, others want fame and media attention, others see a prisoner as the perfect boyfriend, incapable of betraying them and demanding let them wash clothes and make food.

However, journalist Sheila Isenberg, who interviewed several women who have relationships with violent prisoners and published the book “Women who Love Men who Kill”, says she doesn’t see things that way. .

She says that all of her interviewees came from violent families in which one of the parents was extremely controlling, often nullifying their identities. Several of them suffered sexual and physical abuse.

According to Isenberg, most were not attracted to violence nor were they trying to change the killers because they believed in their innocence. The Park Maniac’s wife, for example, separated from him because she discovered that he had a “very violent” temper – something that, despite being widely reported, she only realized after getting married.

The journalist also says that they lived a fantasy in which the criminal was not only innocent, but one day he would be released and they would form a couple and live a perfect romance. The fact that this fantasy is impossible to come true — after all, many of these men have been sentenced to life in prison or death and cannot receive conjugal visits — is especially compelling.

From this perspective, these men are not sexually attractive because they can hurt you, but because they can never hurt you, after all, they are trapped.

Regardless of the theory that may be formed about this, it is a fact that crime is a subject that interests the female public. A survey carried out this year by Podchaser, a podcast platform and database, found that 61% of listeners to the top 25 “true crime” programs in the United States are women.

Furthermore, the “dark romance” genre, which shows situations of crime and abuse, has been gaining interest among erotic romance readers. I believe we have a lot of material for a sociological study.