Chapter Two The Stereotype of the Criminal and the Strategy of Social Investigation

The creation of stereotypes is an important functional necessity in all societies and the stereotype of the Villain’ is of especial interest. Originally the lowest and most deprived group in feudal society (except for the slave), villains have in their stereotyped symbolic form continued to represent the evil concentrated in the lowest social groups. As Nigel Balchin expresses it:

‘I submit, therefore, that the monumental villain is a projection of two of man's most important subconscious characteristics … the sense of frustration and the sense of guilt’ (Balchin, 1950, p. 255).