Why do I enjoy true detective and true crime books when I am a non-violent, pacifist person?

Any armchair psychologists out there?Why do I enjoy true detective and true crime books when I am a non-violent, pacifist person?
Because they are about ordinary people....well, until they commit the crime, they are 'ordinary', not movie stars or other larger-than-life figures that typically fill the biographical bookshelves.





Or the people are not ordinary, as much as very flawed and in some cases sociopathic. Or their lives were going well but then they screwed it up by doing something incredibly stupid. Or it was about unrequited love or something else that most of us can relate to....until it turned into a crime.





True crime books can make one feel superior.....like hey I didn't do anything THAT stupid.





It also offers a window into the human psyche, usually in a bare bones, journalistic format - not the flowery or glossy tone that is the style of most memoirs or biographies.





It could be an attempt to understand how or why lives go horribly wrong. Sometimes you learn about prisons and what happens to these people in prison.Why do I enjoy true detective and true crime books when I am a non-violent, pacifist person?
Detective stories are puzzles. Many many people like them. In many mysteries the violence is off screen.


I think everyone is drawn to crime stories. This is how you meet evil in the world without having to be facing it in person. These stories also give you info about how criminals work, which you can use to protect yourself.


For instance, if not for Mafia movies, I could have very well ended up as a drug dealer. I didn't know any Mafiosos, but I knew that if I dealt cocaine I would someday kill someone, because you must do something when you are ripped off (there is no legal recourse here). Knowing how awful this could get convinced me to not even try it, although I was desperately poor at the time.
Because you are curious. Many people are; especially people who would never engage in the activity. There are people who would never dream of doing a murder and they don't understand how another person could. So some of these folks try to understand the thinking process of the murderer. They might think they can find this through the magazines and books you describe, but rarely is the answer found in that level of writing. The truly intrigued seeker will then turn to books on abnormal psychology to find the answers. Sometimes they can be satisfied but mostly not.





I would have to say that only a murderer can say why they do the things they do and if they were to give some insight to their behavior it is more likely than not that they would still not be understood. The mind that can conceive and carry out a murder or torture is not your average Joe. He might look like your average Joe but he most definitely is not.





More likely than not it is just a temporary stage you are going through. It happens to lots of people and they move on, grow up, find better more interesting things to do, so on and so forth. So until you kill your first kitten I wouldn't worry about it so much. But once you take a life and it horrifies you then by all means run to your nearest help store and get some help.
Dr. Jung says we all have a dark side. Maybe indulging in such reading allows you to be in touch with yours.





Or it's juat a look at a different world, much as if you read up about Moslem life in the Middle East or what it's like to work in a Korean sweatshop
Im the same way,I think we enjoy reading them so we will no what kind of sickos are really out there.Im always wondering what makes thes criminals minds tick,what kind of child hood did they have,it couldn't have been good.
It means that such pathology intrigues you. I am also a peace-loving person, but I absolutely love shows like ';Forensic Files,'; ';Criminal Minds'; and ';The First 48.'; It's an interest and I am fascinated by such shows.
Because it is a way to fill that void of violence. You are interested in violence on the most non-violent level.
maybe becuase you don't like being in that type of situation yet you want the excite from a different perspective
I love them too to me it gives me insight to the human psyche I also like to ask questions like OMG! how could someone do that
cause it intrigues u