Found this interesting article about the Victorian fascination with crime and it's similarity with our own.
Of course, the Victorian penny dreadfuls, those cheap papers full of salacious and gory details, and fully illustrated throughout, weren't all bad (and bare a striking resemblance to some modern magazines.) Penny dreadfuls were accessible to the lower classes, undoubtedly they would have helped many to teach family members to read and extended the vocabulary of hundreds if not thousands. The 'lower-end' press would also allow working people to connect with what was going on in the country; people could take the first step on the line to developing their own opinions on current events and the prominent figures of the day. Of course, unless you owned property you couldn't vote anyway, but it was a step forward in the inclusion of all in what happens in this country.
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