Songfacts®:

• "Favorite Crime" is a stripped-down folky song where Olivia Rodrigo looks back at a dysfunctional relationship. She employs various Bonnie and Clyde-type metaphors to illustrate how her ex committed the crime of walking out, leaving her heartbroken.
  
  And I watched as you fled the scene
  Doe-eyed as you buried me
  
  She admits to ignoring the glaring red flags that he was taking advantage of her.
  
  I let you treat me like that
  I was your willing accomplice, honey
  
  Despite the way the boy treated Rodrigo, she admits she loved him, which is why he was her "favorite crime."
• Rodrigo wrote the song with her producer, Dan Nigro, in the summer of 2020. The singer had "know I loved you so bad I let you treat me like that" written in her notes app, and it was that line that generated the rest of "Favorite Crime."
• Rodrigo shared in her Sour Diary "Journal / Zine" that she loves the way this song became one extended metaphor. "Figurative language was something I had to work on in my song writing," she wrote. "I'm a very literal, specific writer and metaphors and similes aren't often where my brain tends to go, so I'm super proud of this song."
• Dan Nigro played the acoustic guitar, bass and Roland Juno 60 synthesizer. The only other musician on the track is saxophonist Ryan Linville.
• Rodrigo performed the song live for the first time for Vevo LIFT on May 25, 2021.