ABSTRACT
Our attempts at understanding crime are as old as our attempts at understanding the larger subject of human behavior. When Cain murdered Abel, the meaning of the act was dissected for many centuries, for many audiences, and on many levels. Today, crimes of various sorts are predictably frequent subjects in movies, books, in the news, on talk shows, and in the corner pub. Crime is a subject that nearly everyone feels qualified to debate, to have opinions about, to comment on. There are many conflicting views on crime—perhaps because the subject of crime is itself a contradiction. Literary critic Wendy Lesser (1994) has argued that we are drawn to horror films such as The Silence of the Lambs because we, the audience, identify with both of the movie’s main characters: the detective and the murderer. Even as the diabolical Hannibal Lecter assists in the investigation of the latest serial killer by putting himself into the killer’s shoes, Lecter’s audience imagines what it is like to be him. Contrast that image—of murderous impulses within the investigators—with the criminal justice system. The bureaucratic, “fact-finding” image of police investigation and courtroom trial gives the outward impression of objectivity, of “us” versus “them,” the good and bad, the law-abiders and lawbreakers.Yet, the sorting of individuals into moral and legal categories is far from a precise science.
