Crime Fiction and Crime Fact

But often fiction is based upon truth.  For example, the killers in the book and the movie Silence of the Lambs are based on real killers.  Fritz Haarman was the inspiration for Hannibal Lector.  Haarman was a German serial killer in the 1920's.  He routinely ate his victims, and would often deliver a killing bite to the throat.  Ed Gein was the basis for Jame Gumb (Buffalo Bill).  Ed Gein was a quiet man with a taste for human taxidermy.  He robbed graves at first and then killed a couple of women. In another violent movie, Natural Born Killers, the spree killings of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate generated the fictional killings of Micky and Mallory.

And movies in the past were not exempt.  Hitchcock's Rope almost copies the Leopold and Loeb murder.

But does crime fiction cause people to commit crime.  So far studies have proven that violent media does inspire people to become more violent in general.  However the people most affected by fictional violence are the ones who live in an atmosphere of real violence.  One tends to reinforce the other.

But crime fiction has an upside to it as well.  The police have used techniques and ideas that originally came from crime fiction to catch real criminals.
When Edgar Allen Poe penned the first mystery, "The Purloined Letter", with the first amateur sleuth, M. Auguste Dupin, a new idea entered law enforcement.  The idea of searching for something by using logic instead of merely tearing the place apart was the first baby step in crime fact.

Arthur Conan Doyle inspired policemen a few decades later with Sherlock Holmes.  Holmes did not just round up suspects and witnesses in order to grill them about a crime.  He looked for physical evidence left at the scene.  Today, professional crime scene workers and analysts scour a crime scene for the least clue that can link a criminal to his crime.

Agatha Christie launched an entire new veiwpoint on criminals and crime.  In the words of Hercule Poirot, "To know the victim is to know the murderer", and then the concept of victimology (the study of victims) raised the consciousness of law enforcement everywhere.  When faced with a bizarre murder, they no longer had to be frustrated.  A close investigation into their victim's work, love life, hobbies, habits, ect, would often provide an answer.

Sweetkittie Sweetkittie's Cat Index Sweetkittie's Crime Index Sweetkittie's General Index Please Sign My Guest Book View My Guest Book Send Me Mail

If you liked this java, I found it at The Omega Factor