// By decade

1970s villains

The best villains from the 1970s analysed with real criminology: 45 case files applying genuine criminological theories to the characters you already know.

45 case files38 theories

Right realism 3

Poster of Harry Callahan, villain from Dirty Harry

Right realismHarry CallahanDirty Harry · FilmDirty Harry and right realism: the tough cop who sees procedural safeguards as nuisances that protect criminals. And the audience, uncomfortably, applauds.Read the case file →

Poster of Popeye Doyle, villain from The French Connection

Right realismPopeye DoyleThe French Connection · FilmPopeye Doyle and right realism: the obsessive detective whose war on drugs tramples rights, prejudices and bystanders. Hardline policing as a personal crusade…Read the case file →

Poster of Juez Dredd, villain from Judge Dredd

Right realismJudge DreddJudge Dredd · ComicsJudge Dredd and right realism: the iron fist carried to its dystopian conclusion. Judge, jury and executioner in a single figure—absolute order in exchange for…Read the case file →

Routine activities 2

Routine activitiesJawsJaws · FilmJaws and routine activity theory: the predator is beside the point — what turns a danger into a massacre is a guardian who decides not to protect. The town of…Read the case file →

Poster of Michael Myers, villain from Halloween

Routine activitiesMichael MyersHalloween · FilmHalloween and routine activity theory: crime doesn't need a twisted plan, only that a predator, an available victim and no one watching happen to coincide.Read the case file →

Anomie (Durkheim) 2

Poster of Diana Christensen, villain from Network

Anomie (Durkheim)Diana ChristensenNetwork · FilmDiana Christensen and Durkheim's anomie: the executive whose ambition has become deregulated in an industry drunk on prosperity, until every boundary between…Read the case file →

Poster of Howard Beale, villain from Network

Anomie (Durkheim)Howard BealeNetwork · FilmHoward Beale and Durkheim's anomie: the anchorman who, when the certainties that held him up collapse all at once, falls into a state without a compass where…Read the case file →

Anomie / Strain 2

Poster of Tommy Gunn, villain from Rocky

Anomie / StrainTommy GunnRocky V · FilmMerton’s strain shows up in Tommy Gunn as a shortcut: in Rocky V he wants the title now, gets it with a promoter’s money and finds that nobody accepts him as…Read the case file →

Poster of Randall Flagg, villain from The Stand

Anomie / StrainRandall FlaggThe Stand · LiteratureRandall Flagg and anomie (Durkheim and Merton): when a pandemic erases the norms and the world is left without rules, the leader appears who offers order in…Read the case file →

Institutional anomie 2

Poster of Arthur Jensen, villain from Network

Institutional anomieArthur JensenNetwork · FilmArthur Jensen and institutional anomie: the corporate president who reduces the world to a balance sheet. The file on what happens when the economy devours…Read the case file →

Poster of Boy Kavalier, villain from Alien

Institutional anomieBoy KavalierAlien: Earth · SeriesBoy Kavalier of Alien: Earth and institutional anomie (Messner & Rosenfeld): when winning is the only value, the corporation swallows every other institution…Read the case file →

Born criminal / Atavism 2

Poster of Leatherface, villain from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Born criminal / AtavismLeatherfaceThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre · FilmThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the theory of the born criminal, seen from its most social angle: Leatherface looks like the textbook “degenerate monster”—but…Read the case file →

Born criminal / AtavismXenomorfoAlien · FilmThe Xenomorph of Alien and Lombroso’s myth of the “born criminal”: what happens when evil is pure biology, with no psyche and no choice. The creature that does…Read the case file →

Differential association 1

Poster of Michael Corleone, villain from The Godfather

Differential associationMichael CorleoneThe Godfather · FilmThe Godfather and differential association: how the son who swore to stay clear—war hero, college man—becomes the coldest boss of them all. Crime isn't…Read the case file →

Low self-control 1

Poster of Sonny Corleone, villain from The Godfather

Low self-controlSonny CorleoneThe Godfather · FilmThe Godfather and low self-control: Sonny Corleone is brave, loyal and lethal, but his inability to master his anger makes him the weak point of a family of…Read the case file →

Class conflict 1

Poster of Hubert Pellegrini, villain from Arsène Lupin

Class conflictHubert PellegriniLupin · SeriesConflict theory asks who holds the power to name the thief. In Lupin, Hubert Pellegrini’s word was enough to have his chauffeur blamed for a theft he had…Read the case file →

Postcolonial criminology 1

Poster of Coronel Kurtz, villain from Apocalypse Now

Postcolonial criminologyColonel KurtzApocalypse Now · FilmColonel Kurtz and postcolonial criminology: the officer who, taking colonial logic to its extreme, discovers that the civilization he defended was, at its…Read the case file →

Queer criminology 1

Poster of Frank-N-Furter, villain from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Queer criminologyFrank-N-FurterThe Rocky Horror Picture Show · FilmFrank-N-Furter and queer coding pushed to its self-aware limit: the "transvestite transsexual" who turns gender ambiguity into sexual threat, but only to turn…Read the case file →

Critical criminology 1

Poster of Noah Cross, villain from Chinatown

Critical criminologyNoah CrossChinatown · FilmChinatown and critical criminology: some crimes are so vast and so well dressed that the law never sees them. Noah Cross steals a city's water, commits the…Read the case file →

Feminist criminology 1

Poster of Enfermera Ratched, villain from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Feminist criminologyNurse RatchedOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest · FilmOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and feminist criminology: Nurse Ratched is at once a real tyrant — the institutional power that crushes with a white glove —…Read the case file →

Green criminology 1

Poster of El Once-ler, villain from The Lorax

Green criminologyThe Once-lerThe Lorax · LiteratureThe Lorax and green criminology: the Once-ler cuts down every last tree to sell a useless product, and does it all within the law. The perfect fable of the…Read the case file →

XYY chromosome 1

Poster of Ivan Drago, villain from Rocky

XYY chromosomeIvan DragoRocky IV · FilmRocky IV and the myth of the genetic brute: Ivan Drago looks like the perfect killing machine. But he wasn't born that way (a State manufactured him), and when…Read the case file →

Bounded rational offender 1

Poster of Sonny Wortzik, villain from Dog Day Afternoon

Bounded rational offenderSonny WortzikDog Day Afternoon · FilmSonny Wortzik and bounded rationality: an improvised heist that collapses in minutes and forces hours of improvisation. A smart man trapped by his own lack of…Read the case file →

Moral development 1

Poster of El muchacho de Bohemian Rhapsody, villain from Bohemian Rhapsody

Moral developmentThe boy in Bohemian RhapsodyBohemian Rhapsody · MusicKohlberg arranged morality in steps, from fear of punishment to principles. The narrator of “Bohemian Rhapsody” treads them out of order: first guilt before…Read the case file →

Social disorganization 1

Poster of Dementus, villain from Mad Max

Social disorganizationDementusFuriosa: A Mad Max Saga · FilmSocial disorganisation explains what grows where no community is left. In Furiosa, Dementus is that harvest: a warlord who knows how to loot Gastown but not…Read the case file →

Defensible space 1

Poster of El Hombre Alto, villain from Phantasm

Defensible spaceThe Tall ManPhantasm · FilmThe Tall Man and defensible space: the villain who reigns over the most indefensible place imaginable (the cemetery, the funeral home), a territory of the dead…Read the case file →

Stigma 1

Poster of Jefe Bromden, villain from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

StigmaJefe BromdenOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest · FilmChief Bromden and Goffman's stigma: a man who accepts a false label because it costs him less than the true one. The file on spoiled identity and on what a…Read the case file →

Labeling 1

Poster of Pazuzu, villain from The Exorcist

LabelingPazuzuThe Exorcist · FilmPazuzu, the demon of The Exorcist, is not a criminal: he is a hypothesis about evil. Labeling theory explains why a society would rather name a demon than look…Read the case file →

Behavioral genetics 1

Poster of Damien Thorn, villain from The Omen

Behavioral geneticsDamien ThornThe Omen · FilmThe Omen and behavioral genetics: Damien is "born bad" pushed into the supernatural—a child for whom no home, no love, changes anything. The purest, and…Read the case file →

Criminogenic facilities 1

Poster of Mr. Slausen, villain from Tourist Trap

Criminogenic facilitiesMr. SlausenTourist Trap · FilmMr. Slausen and Tourist Trap: the roadside attraction whose true purpose is to capture whoever stops to visit it. Tourist curiosity as the bait of the…Read the case file →

Economic model of crime 1

Poster of Carter Burke, villain from Alien

Economic model of crimeCarter BurkeAliens · FilmCarter Burke and the economic model of crime: white-collar crime pushed to the abyss, the man in the suit who calculated that the commercial value of a monster…Read the case file →

Neutralization 1

Poster of Chris Hargensen, villain from Carrie

NeutralizationChris HargensenCarrie · LiteratureChris Hargensen, of Carrie, and neutralization: she leads the bullying in the showers, refuses her punishment and sets up the bucket of pig’s blood. Sykes and…Read the case file →

Criminal personality 1

Poster of El psycho killer, villain from Psycho Killer

Criminal personalityThe psycho killerPsycho Killer · MusicEysenck sketched a personality predisposed to crime, and the sleepless narrator of “Psycho Killer” seems to step out of that portrait. Both share one mistake:…Read the case file →

Social information processing 1

Poster of Paul Kersey, villain from Death Wish

Social information processingPaul KerseyDeath Wish · FilmPaul Kersey and Dodge's model: the hostile attribution bias not as an innate trait, but as something that is learned. A gentle architect whose reading of the…Read the case file →

Psychoanalytic criminology 1

Poster of Margaret White, villain from Carrie

Psychoanalytic criminologyMargaret WhiteCarrie · LiteratureMargaret White, Carrie’s mother, and criminological psychoanalysis: she sees sin in her daughter’s body, punishes her for it and ends up holding a knife. Freud…Read the case file →

General strain 1

Poster of Carrie White, villain from Carrie

General strainCarrie WhiteCarrie · LiteratureCarrie and general strain: Carrie White endures years of school bullying and abuse from a fanatical mother, until one final public humiliation makes everything…Read the case file →

Deterrence 1

Poster of Arsène Lupin, villain from Arsène Lupin

DeterrenceArsène LupinArsène Lupin · LiteratureArsène Lupin and deterrence: the gentleman thief who warns the police before he steals. When a criminal challenges punishment instead of fearing it, deterrence…Read the case file →

Positive deviance 1

Poster of Randle McMurphy, villain from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Positive devianceRandle McMurphyOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest · FilmRandle McMurphy and positive deviance: rebellion against the soft tyranny of an institution. A crime for Nurse Ratched, a liberation for the inmates that…Read the case file →

Focal concerns 1

Poster of Luther, villain from The Warriors

Focal concernsLutherThe Warriors · FilmLuther and focal concerns: excitement as the only value. A man who unleashes a gang war for fun, and when asked why, gives the most honest answer possible.Read the case file →

Cognitive scripts 1

Poster of Travis Bickle, villain from Taxi Driver

Cognitive scriptsTravis BickleTaxi Driver · FilmTravis Bickle and cognitive scripts: rehearsing violence in front of the mirror. An isolated man who replays the scene of his armed confrontation again and…Read the case file →

Subterranean values 1

Poster of Toecutter, villain from Mad Max

Subterranean valuesToecutterMad Max · FilmMatza and Sykes called subterranean values what society celebrates in leisure and punishes on the street. Toecutter, in Mad Max, lives them flat out: speed,…Read the case file →

Somatotypes 1

Poster of Clubber Lang, villain from Rocky

SomatotypesClubber LangRocky III · FilmClubber Lang and Sheldon's theory: the layer the myth never wanted to see. The bias of the criminal body is not only about size (it is also about class and…Read the case file →

Operant conditioning 1

Poster of Assane Diop, villain from Arsène Lupin

Operant conditioningAssane DiopLupin · SeriesAssane Diop and operant conditioning: when the reinforcement is not just the loot, but the thrill of outsmarting everyone. And why punishment, so improbable,…Read the case file →

Culture conflict 1

Poster of Vito Corleone, villain from The Godfather

Culture conflictVito CorleoneThe Godfather · FilmVito Corleone and Sellin's theory: primary culture conflict in its purest form. A Sicilian code of honor, family and reciprocity transplanted to New York,…Read the case file →

Broken windows 1

Poster of Immortan Joe, villain from Mad Max

Broken windowsImmortan JoeMad Max: Fury Road · FilmMad Max: Fury Road and the theory of order: in a lawless desert, Immortan Joe imposes his own by controlling the only thing that matters—water—and wrapping it…Read the case file →

Frequently asked questions

How many villains from the 1970s are analysed on KRIMINIS?

45 case files of villains from the 1970s, each tied to the criminological theory that best explains their behaviour.

Which criminological theories show up in the villains from the 1970s?

Among others: Right realism, Routine activities, Anomie (Durkheim), Anomie / Strain, Institutional anomie, Born criminal / Atavism and more. Each case file links to the full theory.

Which villains from the 1970s are in the archive?

The Once-ler, Assane Diop, Harry Callahan, Popeye Doyle, Arsène Lupin, Hubert Pellegrini, Michael Corleone, Sonny Corleone, Vito Corleone, Pazuzu, Noah Cross, Leatherface, Carrie White, Paul Kersey, Margaret White, Chris Hargensen, Nurse Ratched, Jaws, Randle McMurphy, Sonny Wortzik, Frank-N-Furter, Jefe Bromden, The boy in Bohemian Rhapsody, Ivan Drago, Damien Thorn, Clubber Lang, Travis Bickle, Diana Christensen, Howard Beale, Arthur Jensen and 15 more.