The disturbing prime-time trend: TV crime dramas increasingly show women being beaten, raped, tortured, and killed. So why do we tune in?(WHAT YOU'RE DYING TO KNOW ABOUT)

* Like many young women, you maybe hooked on one of the several gritty crime shows on TV tiffs season. With three versions of Law & Order mad three CSIs, as well as a slew of new series, it's one of the fastest-growing types of prime-time programming. But what you may not be consciously aware of while you watch is that the level of violence against females in these series has skyrocketed this year.

The surge of girl gore isn't a coincidence; it's a tactic to attract viewers. "Images of brutality against women have been TV staples for years, but the cringe factor has been kicked up several notches this season," explains Robert Thompson, PhD, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. "Networks are trying to beat their competition by showing more violence." And like the crime-TV victims, most viewers are female. For some reason, chicks get transfixed on these gruesome shows. Cosmo investigates what's triggered the trend.

A Backlash Against Sex Has Upped TV Violence

Ever since the uproar over Janet Jackson's nipple slip during the 2004 Super Bowl half-time show, TV execs have had to tone down sexual content. To keep ratings from falling, however, they jacked up the level of carnage. And since these crime shows often deal with sexual deviance, women inevitably wind up being the targets.

"The Federal Communications Commission regulates sex and violence onscreen, and when they crack down on one, in this case sex, the other gets amplified," explains George Comstock, PhD, communications professor at Syracuse University.

When you look at three unsettling new shows, Killer Instinct, Criminal Minds, and Close to Home, it's hard to believe they're being aired on network TE. In the Killer Instinct opener, on Fox, spiders sink their fangs into a woman, paralyzing her while a sadist rapes her and she dies. The sicko in the first episode of CBS's Criminal Minds locks up and strangles women, videotaping each attack so he can replay it to relive the fantasy. And in the premiere of Close to Home on CBS, it's revealed that a man straps a collar around his wife's neck because "when a dog misbehaves, you have to chain the bitch up."

The Intense Adrenaline Rush Is Addictive