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

[whataboutbob]

Just getting it off my chest. Any book premised around the deliberate ending of a humans life by another human is a turn off. If the victim is a woman ( and the perpetrator a man), if there’s mutilation, grief porn etc I want to know even less. But judging by TV, radio dramas, bookshops etc I sometimes feel like I’m a misfit. Anyone else want to join me?

I will join you, I think it’s odd, particularly those people who follow forums in unsolved murders. I am a medic though and probably see too much of it in rl.

Thanks conundrum. At least one other person agrees! So many murder podcasts too, it’s the consumption of others’ tragedy for entertainment that saddens me.

I completely agree. I hate reading about murders. Also abuse, whether that's domestic, child or sex - I don't want to read about it or watch it.

You're not alone.

I think people who get to spend their spare tine watching/reading severe trauma as entertainment must live very lucky lives. If you know what just some of that stuff actually means in reality, it's far harder to use it for escapism.

I agree. I detest crime drama/books etc. So depressing and unimaginative

I'm not interested either, but so many people love it!

I have no interest whatsoever.

Count me in. I refuse to watch thrillers or murder mysteries (my Mum loves them). I only very rarely read murders, usually by accident. Having said that my username is actually from a murder mystery that I read last year.

I'm interested in these things and I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

I definitely also understand not wanting to watch it. Some cases are too disturbing e.g. children and I can't sit through it

To me, crime documentaries are usually upsetting.

I'd only find fascination weird when people get pleasure from watching, or don't care about the victims/families at all, which is just bad.

I love that genre, but won't read fiction that contains gratuitous violence, particularly when there are lengthy descriptions of the murder of women. That means that James Patterson has gone and Martina Cole also. Shame about Martina Cole, but I had to skip every other page in one of her books, so much as I hate to leave a book unfinished, I put it down and haven't read anything of hers since.

Non-fiction murders, etc., fascinate me. Particularly serial killing or joint enterprise killing. It's the sociological and psychological side of it that is fascinating. Just on a human level, I think 'this person started out as an innocent baby. What happened to them that they became this?'

Definitely not alone. I hate this ever-present trope of murder/abuse of women and children in writing and tv/film.

I don't particularly like reading or hearing about actual murders but I find reading about a serial killer's background interesting. Hate crime scene photos and would never ever seek them out.

I think people who get to spend their spare tine watching/reading severe trauma as entertainment must live very lucky lives. If you know what just some of that stuff actually means in reality, it's far harder to use it for escapism.

I've experienced severe trauma in my life but still read a lot of crime fiction.
Sometimes if the crime resembles my own experiences then I spend some time reading other genres but it hasn't put me off entirely.

I really enjoyed crime thrillers and what not when I was a teenager. As an adult I find them utterly dull, repetitive, unimaginative and borderline insulting.

As for the people who feverishly watch murder documentaries on Netflix etc - they’re the modern equivalent of the people who turned up to watch public executions and torture in the past.

There is far too much weight placed on talking about the criminal rather than the victims. The appallingly lauded Jack the Ripper being surely one of the oldest examples. The things done to the victim are vomit inducing, utterly horrifying. There shouldn’t be a jolly tour around Whitechapel about those murders.

Me too. I would like to read/watch things about human relationships that don't end in violence.

I don’t watch them either. I find it upsets me and I do t see the appeal in other people’s misery. Even when it’s a drama I don’t enjoy it at all.
I believe what you consume affects you and I try to not consume violent or traumatising things for that reason.

You aren’t alone. I find podcasts in particular really distasteful, rich Americans giggling about hideous crimes, cut to hello fresh advert.

Me too.

There is far too much weight placed on talking about the criminal rather than the victims. The appallingly lauded Jack the Ripper being surely one of the oldest examples. The things done to the victim are vomit inducing, utterly horrifying. There shouldn’t be a jolly tour around Whitechapel about those murders

Completely agree.
Peter Sutcliffe was, and still is, afforded his own moniker by the media when, in fact, he was a sadistic killer. His victims get a sentence or two if they're lucky.
Murder is horrific enough without needing to see it dramatised, thanks.

What a relief, others agree. @SemperIdem I so agree about the “ ripper”. I live in London and there’s not one or two but several businesses running “ ripper tours” around the east end. You can read reviews on Tripadvisor. It’s just depressing that so many people want to go and gawp at the places where women were disemboweled and collect all the miserable factoids.

Me too.

For example, I adore David Tennant, but I haven't the slightest desire to watch Des in which I believe he is excellent (he does do bad very well).

Although I confess to a fondness for early 20th century crime writing (and similar such as Cadfael and Falco) so I can't follow you totally I'm afraid.

I’m with you too. DH loves unsolved crime documentaries and podcasts and wants to tell me all about them - not my idea of fun at all. Partly I really don’t like to guess as I go along what is going to happen in a story, some people seem to love that. I’m usually too busy thinking about some detail of what I’m seeing in the moment.

I'm with you.

I readily admit I hated GoT. I got torn a second one on here for stating that, as apparently rape, torture and immolation of screaming children is just entertaining, innit?

I can't see horrible things happen to people without imagining what they must be actually feeling, both the raw terror and unimaginable pain, as 'stuff' is done to them.

And actually, I am a hard-nosed bee-ach!

DH is a fan of Scandinavia-noir. I just don't get it. The raped and mutilated young girl whose body is examined in the mortuary. The small boy's final scream as he knows what's about to happen....

The bottomless pit of grief of the parents.

er.... no.

If I want to see carnage and depravity, I'll go to work 😉 HCP.

Yes totally agree. I am done with watching women being victimised for so called entertainment. Whoever thought it was a good idea? And does the sheer ubiquity of this theme contribute to how women are treated in real life? I am sure it must.

I don’t like gratuitous violence, don’t find serial killer psychology interesting at all and avoid any sort of crime fiction or drama that features women being killed by evil geniuses... and yet, I do find a lot of true crime documentaries and podcasts very interesting. The investigatory and justice angle is fascinating, and the audaciousness of people is incredible. The latter point interests me in the same way as I read a lot of AIBU threads on this board - seeing how some people have a completely different view to mine on what is right or usual.

I actually find the most intriguing examples not to be about murder at all. There was a very satisfying 24 Hours in Police Custody episode about a fraud case. I also remember a multi-part documentary about the investigation of an arson - in which nobody was hurt iirc- several years ago. I also relish a good hoax documentary. How they are built up and then unravel.

So I don’t think it’s necessarily about the gruesome aspect of things so much as it is about how people step outside all societal norms and what happens when they do.