Interest In Disasters/Crime?

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Just curious... I have noted quite a few aspies who have had, like myself, an interest in Serial killers and such things, most likely the psychological aspects...and I have always had some strange interest in such things as the Titanic and Hillsborough and other such disasters including tsunamis and hurricanes... I especially liked looking at the imagery and reading any firsthand accounts.

Has anyone else had interests, particularly obsessive ones, in crime or disasters, and if so, why do you think this is? I am still trying to work out why these things have always interested me...whether it is a way of getting in touch with human emotions and empathy, some perverse part of myself or just the dramatic element?

I like disasterous weather. I think the scariest movie I've never seen is "Perfect Storm."

I like learning about outbreaks and epidemics... they completely fascinate me. There is a lot of overlap with natural disasters and outbreaks- so I do end up learning quite a bit about those too, but it's the outbreak that really gets brain working.

I still watch a lot of crime shows, but I don't research serial killers anymore. I started getting paranoid that someone was monitoring my library habits and the tv shows I watched. So, I cut back greatly on those so that the feelings of paranoia aren't as bad.

Yep, me too.

Yes, I'm quite intensely interested in serial killers and disasters, too. Of course I'm also interested in many other thiings. The difference is that I also feel partly ashamed of my interest in these tragedies. And I've also wondered quite why I'm interested.

I think it's at least partly to do with trying to find patterns in these events that most believe to be random tragedies. Then I can try and avoid them happening to me!

With serial killers I'm more interested in how detectives have pieced together the clues to catch them - or not as the case may be. I occasionally wile away a few hours studying some unsolved crime trying to puzzle it out.

I must make it clear that I'm deeply appalled by the idea of innocent people suffering, it would be easy to accuse me of being emotionally detached from those who suffered. This is absolutely not the case, I really do feel for them and their loved ones. And I now believe that capital punishment is totally appropriate for the perpertrators. Reading about such cases is a bit like eating junk food that you know is doing you no good, but you just can't resist.

As for natural disasters, something strikes me as deeply unfair in the universe if you can be perfectly happy one minute, then swept of the face of the earth the next, with virtually no warning.

Yes, I find natural disasters both amazing and distressing. It is just difficult for my brain to fathom... I have to work hard though to imagine individual people, with feelings and thoughts, having just been gone like that. I have to see visual imagery to feel anything often in such things. As to serial killers, I am not sure where my interest lay. I do not think it lay in how the crimes were solved so much as in the psychology of the killer, and their childhood background and how they behaved at times when not killing. I just never could fathom how anyone could manage to take a life while aware of what they werre doing...even having planned it, often.

*whew* I thought I was the only one!

Disasters, not so much, although planes crashing into houses, something I used to worry over in my youth (which was an odd thing to think about at that time, because it was almost unheard of then), disturbs and intrigues me. Seems like ever since the late eighties, there's a plane crashing into a building or house every month now. This relatively new occurrence fascinates me.

I've always been interested in serial killers and abnormal psychology, and my writing (short stories) reflects that. To me, no fictional monster is more terrifying than the human beast.

Ditto, thank God I am not, I remember arguing with my mother as a teen about the difference between my interest in real life crime, and her obsession with murder novels, lol.

I've always had a strange fascination with disasters. When I was a kid/teenager, I was practically obsessed with earthquakes. I watched movies about them, read books and encylopedias about them, and could recite to anyone the different types and causes. For a while I wanted to be a seismologist (until I realized that, in the absense of a major event, seismologists actually have pretty boring jobs). I'm probably one of the only people on earth who's first thought was "COOL!" when I heard about the San Francisco earthquake in the late 80's (I was probably about 11 at the time). But it wasn't just earthquakes, I was extremely interested in volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and even plane crashes and other such events. I was fascinated with the Titanic as well. And to this day, one of my all-time favourite movies is Apollo 13.

Even today, I still get that "cool!!" reaction whenever I hear about disasters, although it's much more subdued. I think about the human element now, whereas when I was much younger, it wouldn't sink in unless I happened to hear a personal account from someone who'd lived through it.

I have Apollo 13 here waiting for a viewing...not seen it in a long time. The disaster that fascinated me most was the Challenger shuttle disaster... I would watch the footage of it again and again with amazement. It gave me a horrible feeling though, to be honest. I suppose that is particular to me because I was in the USA and saw it before it was due to launch. Titanic is the other one I seem to have a particular interest in. And the power of the elements just unnerves me and amazes me at the same time. Tsunamis... I have a great fear of waves and very wild seas, although I love the sea when it is in its tamer moments.

I love watching Forensic Files and Body of Evidence. If that counts. Murder, yes.

the branch of violence i'm mainly interested in is school shootings, though serial killers also pique my interest.

I read a lot about Chernobyl when it was going on. I think this tied in to my interest in the Ukraine back in the 1980s.

For me the Titanic has been a major part of my life and for me a disaster isnt so much an act of god like a storm but more a situation that has beed left to developed over a period of time and in the end is played out like a climax such as the Titanic or at the most infamous end of the scale the Nazis rise to power. Im sure there where many people that just felt a big sigh of "oh no, what has happened" when Hitler came to power.

There are endless scenarios of disaster but all are fascinating none the less.

Me too. I'm addicted to Court TV.

I'm also very interested in diseases and outbreaks, but I've turned that into a professional interest.