I have no interest in serial killers or indeed murder generally. Am I abnormal?

I can definitely understand that point of view, and respect it. I personally enjoy reading about or watching real-life crime, but I completely see why somebody wouldn't.

For me I hate any kind of sexual torture-porn in horror films. It sickens me that there are people that want to watch this for entertainment. But, that is acted and pretend, and the real life crime I like to read, isn't. So each to their own I guess

I'll go even further: I don't generally have much interest in crime altogether. There can be exceptions (there was a fabulous book on art forgery), but I'd never seek something out specifically to read about crime in general.

Me too, I dont understand the fascination. I think its all too grim, reading fiction is about escapism to me so why on earth everyone seems to want to read about murder is baffling. Likewise with TV.

Not my genre either. It worries me the proportion of the population who seem to have an appetite for ‘entertainment’ which involves dead children. Truly grim.

I don't like anything with gratuitous violence or anything too graphic. I can't read crime books that are written from the pov of the perpetrator or the witness.

I do enjoy reading/ watching murder investigation books/ shows when the focus is on the police procedure, and the protagonist is the Detective. I find it fascinating how they use forensics and pull all the evidence together.

It’s bloody weird, there are whole Reddit threads dedicated to obsessing over the victims. What sort of person enjoys that as a bit of downtime?

I hate crime and thriller books, even more so since I had DD. I can't bear about harm coming to people, especially girls and women - and it's ALWAYS girls and women.

Same with podcasts. So much true crime.

Also hate the “no daddy no!” Misery lit which was so famous a few years ago

Me too. If it helps survivors to tell their stories then more power to them, but the way an entire genre of misery memoirs sprung up, each with a more "no daddy no" type title than the past, really bothered me.

Agree, I just can’t watch this stuff on TV either, I don’t understand people who love all this misery!

I find it a bit one dimensional and sensationalist and really hate the fact that generally it’s women copping it.

Also hate the “no daddy no!” Misery lit which was so famous a few years ago. It just feels lazy.

Part of it in me being a parent now though which has basically removed a layer of my skin so everything feels more painful.

You are definitely not alone in this

I don’t even consider that entire section of the book market. Nope, not for me.

With very very rare exceptions (Kate Atkinson’s When Will There Be Good News? Which isn’t graphic about anything so it’s really more the intrigue than anything).

I think it’s odd, particularly those people who follow forums in unsolved murders.

Why is that? I read two books last year which focussed on crowdsourced murder investigations and they were fascinating. The dedication many of the people have, to bring closure to victims and their relatives, is quite incredible.

In my head I would have made an excellent detective so I would love to help out with this stuff but sadly I don’t have the time!

No, most people who have a shit time don't become murderers which I guess is also partly why people are so interested. I have never heard anyone justify the actions of a serial killer.

I used to live in Berlin where all the main tourist attractions are war or genocide or Stasi related

But there are all the museums in the Museumsinsel, galleries for all sorts of art, lots of things about the 18th century... having said, Berlin's 20th century history has been very important to European and World history and is in living memory for many people, so it's not a surprise it is prominent. But I think it only needs to be dominant if you let it. I have been to Berlin a number of times as a tourist, and it's been a completely different experience each time. (I have also done the 20th century history stuff, because I studied it at A-level and degree, but it certainly hasn't dominated my visits.)

I'm actually interested to see so many people say they like watching/reading crime stories in order to understand why people do these terrible things.

I'm just curious, what sorts of answers have you found? How do these stories help explain things?

I tend to just see gruesome killers as sick fucks and leave it at that. What am I missing?

Wow @Stonehopper, that's both fascinating and depressing. I kind of get it, I used to live in Berlin where all the main tourist attractions are war or genocide or Stasi related, and I guess if you treat these things like tourist sites, you will get tourist critiques.

(sorry for derailing the thread a bit here!)

[quote dreamingbohemian]@Stonehopper It was really an incredible experience, of course it was a very somber kind of job but it's so important to educate people on the Holocaust, and the museum had a very obvious impact on visitors.

I did work with the public, mostly on bringing groups of survivors and veterans to the museum. It was very difficult and emotional for them in particular.

So no, it was in no way comparable to a tacky Ripper tour. Obviously @borntohula is right that some people go to Holocaust sites for kicks, but that does not put them in the same league. The whole purpose and focus is different.

Oh and to answer an earlier point, we did actually have a cafe and it was deeply weird but a practical necessity.[/quote]
Thanks, @dreamingbohemian. I can imagine the difficult compromises involved in catering to the needs of survivors or descendants while also managing tourist expectations.

This thread made me check whether the Dachau concentration camp museum is on Tripadvisor (not just idle curiosity, as I am currently writing about tourist expectations of another historically-significant place) -- and it is, and there are, incredibly, people saying it's boring compared to Auschwitz ('no sinister feelings here!' 'average, compared to Auschwitz), that they 'didn't feel punched in the gut', 'not much to see here', complaints about the original buildings having been torn down because it would have been a more 'authentic' experience, and complaints about the existence of a cafeteria outside the gates, and the quality of the audio guide. Some of the complaints suggest people were expecting the London Dungeon in Nazi uniforms.

I kind of agree, in that I can't read or watch anything explicit or violent relating to murder, or any violent crime. I just find it too disturbing.

I enjoy mild whodunnits like Agatha Christie because to me that's more about puzzle-solving. But anything where the focus is on the violence, where we see mutilated bodies and grieving relatives, I just find too disturbing. I don't have a clue why that's entertaining. I've heard people say they find the psychology interesting, but don't see why you need graphic depictions for that, or why graphic violence is so acceptable.

I've found a few documentaries/non-fiction interesting when they look at the social history or political aspects e.g. the recent BBC4 (I think) series on Peter Sutcliffe that focused a lot on the impact of police and media misogyny and attitudes to prostitution, also the brilliant book The Five which showed the Jack the Ripper victims as real human beings with families and friends - something I think is very much forgotten in the Ripper mythology.

A friend of mine lives in Whitechapel and there are frequent guided walking tours of the Jack the Ripper murder sites. I find that really ghoulish and disturbing that the Ripper has become almost a 'fun' part of East End history, with merchandise and a museum.

@Stonehopper It was really an incredible experience, of course it was a very somber kind of job but it's so important to educate people on the Holocaust, and the museum had a very obvious impact on visitors.

I did work with the public, mostly on bringing groups of survivors and veterans to the museum. It was very difficult and emotional for them in particular.

So no, it was in no way comparable to a tacky Ripper tour. Obviously @borntohula is right that some people go to Holocaust sites for kicks, but that does not put them in the same league. The whole purpose and focus is different.

Oh and to answer an earlier point, we did actually have a cafe and it was deeply weird but a practical necessity.

I don't think you're abnormal.

I've found of late I just cannot bear watching significant violence in films and TV programmes. DH and I were going to watch 1983 on Netflix: put it on the other day and the first 15 seconds were enough for me to be scrabbling for the remote to turn it off. I was watching Ackley Bridge with my middle son and there was an episode someone was badly beaten up, I could not watch the scenes it happened in. Not sure why- I've never been a fan but didn't used to have this intense reaction to it. Now it makes me feel sick and cold.

I am sometimes interested in mysteries and unsolved crimes but the details of the suffering of the victims... no, I don't want to read and see those. I stupidly followed a link to read about a horrific, disturbing, nightmare case from Japan some years ago where a girl was abducted, horribly tortured and eventually killed by male peers and I would pay good money to remove that knowledge from my head. Just thinking about it now is hideous.

But I’d not at all say anyone was weird or wrong for not enjoying them, I can’t watch them programs or movies with those themes because the visual reality of it is too distressing. The mental picture I see in my head while reading a book is nowhere near as graphic as those on tv etc

I read murder mysteries, but not because I enjoy reading about women being hurt or killed by men. I read them because I enjoy the mystery of who done it and why. I enjoy getting an insight into the minds of men that commit crimes, because it helps me to understand a bit. It makes me realise that some men are just sick in the head, and that helps me to cope with real life trauma. In a way it makes me realise that things that happen in real life aren’t because it was my fault or the woman who wore a short skirts fault, it’s because it highlights that the people who commit those crimes are seriously disturbed and it could have happened to any woman present. It wasn’t specifically me or them, if that makes sense?

There is nothing wrong with this and in fact if nobody had any interest then there would be no forensic psychiatrists or psychologists to help prevent these things happening in the future.

I don't think this is true at all. I have friends in those fields, also a forensic archeologist who has done a lot of work with the police on finding murder victims, and a forensics policeman, and none has the remotest interest in 'true crime' stuff in any medium. If they have any response to TV or film stuff that's very much in the public domain, it's mostly irritation at things being wrongly or misleadingly depicted.

@dreamingbohemian that does not mean that no one goes for 'kicks' whether you like it or not. I've seen concentration camps described as 'ghoulish.'