Elements of Crime Genres of Suspense

The main character of a crime story is a CULPRIT, defined as someone who is to blame for a crime that has occurred or will occur. There are several types of culprits that populate crime stories. There are the CAREER CRIMINALS that have known no life other than committing crimes, and there are the ACCIDENTAL CRIMINALS who are mistakenly imprisoned or caught up in a crime despite their lack of intention to commit the crime. There are CATBURGLARS who skillfully steal well-guarded physical items and HACKERS who do the same in the digital world. There are ROBBERS who target banks and houses, HIGHWAYMEN who target travelers on the road, and PIRATES who target those on the high seas. There are even KIDNAPPERS who steal people and SERIAL KILLERS who steal their lives.

Notice that several types of criminals have been left out of the list of culprits, such as human traffickers, rapists, pedophiles, incestuous abusers, and torturers. There are of course crime stories that feature these types of culprits (Sold, Flowers in the Attic, Terrifier), yet these are not typical of popular Crime stories for one important reason: the audience needs to empathize with the protagonist. It's very difficult to have an audience sympathize with someone who would violate society's most awful taboos. When authors want to address these crimes in their main plot, they often choose the victim and not the culprit in order to evoke a reader's sympathy--this can be seen in the novels Room and My Dark Vanessa. One of the only exceptions to this is the infamous novel Lolita, where culprit Humbert Humbert gains the reader's sympathy by lying to them and distracting them from his actions--and even then, the book is considered vile and unreadable by many readers.

One type of culprit that has their own subgenre of Crime is the MAFIOSO, a member of an urban gang that controls the criminal activity in the city through intimidation and violence. The Mafioso is either connected to the gang by family ties or by intense friendships that take the place of family. The Mafioso lives a paradoxical existence, as they are gentle to their loved ones but brutal to their enemies, cultured when in public but ruthless in private, patient in business but impulsively violent. The Mafioso is also typically very self-assured and confident, as the police are aware of their activity but rarely interfere. Instead of the law, the biggest antagonist of the Mafioso is the rival gang (or rivals within the gang) wanting to take power for themselves, and the most common conflict is the Mafioso wondering if they should "leave the life."

Another type of culprit with their own subgenre is the SPY. A spy is any culprit who is pretending to be someone they are not in order to gather information or thwart the plans of an enemy organization. Spies are often sponsored by a government agency, a secret society, or even a clandestine business organization. Spies are also often masters of disguise, experts in hand-to-hand combat, and keen observers of human behavior. These requirements make spies uncommonly intelligent (so much so that every spy parody focuses on the bumbling foolish spy) but also bad at making and maintaining genuine relationships. Spies frequently also use advanced technology and are charismatic and charming--traits that are valued in real-world spies that form the basis of spy stories. While spy stories seem to be a subset of the action supergenre, they are crime through and through--the spy's job is to stop a potential criminal plan from taking place, and they do this by becoming a criminal themselves, stealing information and lying to others.

The culprit, by definition, commits a crime. There are six basic crimes that a culprit can commit, which serve as the plot structures of the crime story:

• THE HEIST: The culprit plans a complicated robbery of a high-value target. The target could be money, as in the bank robbery in Rififi or the casino robbery in Ocean's 11. The target could be information, whether its James Bond looking through files in Casino Royale or going into a person's mind to get business secrets in Inception. Museums are popular for heists (just ask Catwoman or The Pink Panther), and every now and then you'll even see a reverse heist, where the culprit must prove their innocence by stealing something back from another criminal (To Catch a Thief is a great example of this).
• THE CAPTOR: The culprit plans more than just a robbery for financial gain: they want to capture and possess something important to them. The obvious culprit here is the kidnapper or stalker, like Frederick in The Collector or Madison in Swimfan, but there are other types of capture. There are the culprits who not just kill but compulsively keep or even preserve their murder victims (think Psycho or Megan is Missing). Sometimes culprits want to capture people to experiment on them or play deadly games of survival, like in Escape Room and Saw. Other culprits want to capture witnesses to their crimes, like in The Night of the Hunter. to capture illegal images, expensive paintings, or important historical artifacts--the difference between this and heists are that heists are to get things of value to sell or trade while captors want to keep what they get. Occasionally, the captor plot is reversed and the kidnapped person must be rescued by a spy or inside man or father with a particular set of skills, all of whom break the law to save a captive. Often, these plots blend into horror.
• THE SPREE: The culprit plans and executes a string of crimes until they can be stopped. This is the strategy of The Joker in The Dark Knight to cause chaos, as well as The Riddler in The Batman, who goes on a murder spree to expose police corruption. Sprees are often spurred by a culprit's mania: take Bonnie and Clyde, who rob bank after bank for both cash and to avoid the issues in their relationship. Sprees can be driven by ego: murderer Johnny Bartlet goes on his killing spree in The Frighteners to set a serial killing record. Sprees can be driven by desire: look at Buffalo Bill killing women for their skin in The Silence of the Lambs. Sprees can simply be business, like the murders committed in Collateral and Baby Driver. Sprees can even be driven by love: in The Pillowman, Michael kills children in reenactments of his brother's horror stories to encourage his brother to keep writing. While a spree implies that the crimes happen quickly in succession, this isn't always the case: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's robbery spree took place over several years.
• THE FUGITIVE: The main conflict is that the culprit is on the run from the law. While avoiding and escaping the law is part of most crime stories, here the escape is the main conflict. This includes the prison break plots of Escape from Alcatraz, The Rock, and... uh, Prison Break. This is the crime gone sideways resulting in a hiding culprit like in Reservoir Dogs, In Cold Blood, or... Hideout. Sometimes the fugitive culprit is a wrongly accused person trying to clear their name, like in Minority Report, Mission: Impossible, and... The Fugitive (okay, so crime stories don't always have the best titles). The fugitive may even commit other crimes as part of their escape, like switching faces with another innocent person (Face Off) or by pretending to be a different innocent person for years (Summer of '84).
• THE TARGET: The culprit has only one goal: to eliminate a target. This could be a person that the culprit has been hired to kill (the assassination plots of Pulp Fiction and The Man Who Knew Too Much come to mind) or merely someone the culprit wants to kill or torment as an act of payback (like in Cape Fear or John Wick). The target could also be a building that needs to be demolished (like Jottenheim in The Suicide Squad), a vehicle containing something important (Air Force One), or a potential weapon of mass destruction (Mission: Impossible 2, 5, and 6). Occasionally, this plot is inverted and a target must be protected through criminal means (The Hitman's Bodyguard, Human Target). Like how captor plots usually mix well with horror, target plots can be found in many westerns.
• THE GANG WAR: The culprit is part of an organized criminal group (street gang, mafia, etc) that is engaged in warfare with a rival criminal group, the police, or both. Mafia movies like Goodfellas and The Godfather are obvious entries into this category, but the gangs in gang war can be many things. They can be, of course, urban street gangs like in Gangs of New York or City of God. Yet they can also be businesses that seem legitimate by operating with a gang mentality, like in Mad Men, Succession, and everything featuring Lex Luthor. This could be a single gang of violent Neo-Nazis like in Green Room, a gang of ignored senior citizens sick of the way the elderly are treated (Going in Style), or a family clan in a bitter war with another family clan (the Hatfields and McCoys).

No matter what the overall story arc, the conflict of every crime story comes down to this: HOWCOULDTHEY? How could the Heist go off without an issue? How could the captor capture their object of desire and keep from losing it? How could the Spree be stopped? How could the fugitive escape forever? How could the target be eliminated or protected? How could the rival gang be stopped? Howcouldthey (sometimes called howcatchem) is the central thought and anxiety going through the audience's mind as they read or watch the crime story.

Crimes happen every day: a little girl steals a candy bar from the store, an old woman jaywalks across an intersection, and a teenage boy illegally streams films from a torrent site to watch in class when he doesn't think he's looking (yeah, you know who you are). Yet these crimes aren't going to be the basis of the next best-selling novel or blockbuster film. They're too ordinary and too simple. If the average audience member could commit the crime without getting caught or severely punished, why would that crime be interesting to them?

No, crime stories need a bigger crime, and not just a big crime but the biggest crime, the hardest crime: THE IMPOSSIBLE SCORE. In a heist, it's the priceless artifact surrounded by cameras 24/7, a laser grid, armed guards with attack dogs, a noise- and pressure-sensitive alarm, and a bike lock just for good measure. For the captor, it is the one thing that's not only hard to steal but will be hard to keep as time goes on. In the spree, this is the incredible amount of money, distance, destroyed buildings, or corpses to be left behind. For fugitives, this is the herculean task of either finding proof that they are innocent and can stop running or finding a way to disappear forever. When going after a target, the target has more security than can ever be bypassed. In a gang war, the rivals have all the odds in their favor while the culprit's gang is suffering.

The prize at the end of the crime can't just be difficult--by making the score impossible, the audience expects failure right away but is constantly wondering if the culprit can indeed pull off "the perfect crime." Just as one looks for clues in a Mystery along with the detective, the audience looks for potential problems that will prevent or reveal the crime along with the culprit. Conflict thrives on high stakes, and when the stakes are as high as can be or even all or nothing, the story captures not just attention but one's imagination.

Often, a culprit won't be alone, but will be part of a MOTLEY CREW, a term that comes from some of the oldest criminals in history, pirates. What exactly makes a crew "motley"? Motley refers to something different and varied, such as the different sizes and colors of fabric that make up a jester's motley cap. Similarly, the motley crew consists of very different people with very different backgrounds, views on the world, and skill sets. This creates a secondary tension in the story--not only is there the question of howcouldthey pull the crime off at all, but also the question of how these very different personalities can all come together to work as a team.

Whether a mafia family or a pack of desperate prisoners, there are several roles that tend to appear in the typical motley crew. Smaller crews often see some of these roles may be combined in one person, while larger crews may have roles occupied by more than one character. The main culprit in a crime story can even themselves may fit one of the roles:

• THE BOSS: This character comes up with the schemes and is in charge of all the others. The Boss is a big-picture thinker, assembles the crew, and is often ruthless. The Boss may or may not participate in the actual crime itself
• THE BRAINS: If the Boss figures out the overall score, it's The Brains who figures out the complex details of the crime. The Brains of the operation is highly organized and is often skilled in hacking or safecracking. While present in most crews, The Brains typically suffers from a large ego that gets them in over their head.
• THE MUSCLE: This character carries out any significant violence and defends the crew. The Muscle is typically paired with The Brains (who can't defend themselves) and is often not very intelligent. The Muscle is the most diverse personality of all the crew, as they can be sensitive and caring (Lenny in Of Mice and Men, Doyle in Pain and Gain) or silent and stoic (Lurch in Hot Fuzz, Oddjob in Goldfinger) or violent and malicious (like Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs, Grimsrud in Fargo).
• THE FACE: This character is a con artist who excels at deception and distraction. They trick others into trusting them and are often a public figure that hides the criminal operation under a facade of legitimacy. The face can be a smooth-talking conman (Frank Abagnale Jr. in Catch Me If You Can), a charming ex-lover (Danny Ocean in Ocean's Eleven), a seductive woman that constantly flirts (Julia Russell in Original Sin), or a hopeless cause looking for sympathy (Freddy Benson in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).
• THE WHEELS: This character is a driver who makes sure the crew escapes the law every time, like the titular Baby in Baby Driver and Driver in Drive. The wheels is typically adept at all vehicles and can fly planes and helicopters, like Pooch in The Losers or Frank Martin in The Transporter. The Wheels is typically the least loyal in the crew, and getaway drivers like Eddie Caputo in Child's Play and Dominic Toretto from the Fast and Furious franchise have left others to save their own skin before.
• THE FALL GUY: The fall guy or "patsy" may or may not be a member of the crew but is set up as the person who will accept all the blame should the crime not succeed. This is Felix in The Godfather, Cust in The ABC Murders, and Wilmer in The Maltese Falcon. Sometimes, mystery stories also use this character, as the fall guy tries to solve the crime in order to exonerate themselves (like Roger in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Poirot in "The Veiled Lady," and Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Retired Colorman.")
• THE CLEANER: This character is not part of the crew but is who gets called when the crew messes up. The Cleaner does just that--cleaning up after the criminals by destroying evidence, eliminating witnesses, and sometimes even killing the crew themselves so they can't reveal the crime. This is the Wolf in Pulp Fiction, Carl in Munich, and Victor in Nikita.

Many crime stories have an additional crew role: THE INSIDE MAN. Typically, the inside man is a member of the crew (often the face) who infiltrates the bank, rival gang, or even the police to get important information or orchestrate the crime from the inside (hence "inside man"). For example, Alonzo in Training Day is actually an inside man for the Russian mob who is about to be killed for his involvement. In The Ladykillers, D'Wayne gets a job at the casino so he can cover up the crew's heist.

There is also a second type of inside man: police who go inside the crew to dismantle their criminal operation. In Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Orange turns out to be an officer who has been feeding the police information for weeks (which is why the robbery went south). In The Departed, Billy Costigan becomes an inside man for the police by joining Frank Costello's gang at the same time as Colin Sullivan is a member of the gang infiltrating the police department.

An important element of crime is that... well, it's a crime. Something illegal. Something that deserves punishment. Committing a crime risks some sort of negative consequence--imprisonment, loss of reputation, bankruptcy, and even death. Worse, the watchful eye of the law never rests, so there is always the threat of danger. Unlike mystery stories (which show occasionally brushes with calamity) and horror stories (which focus on a specific malevolent threat), the sense of danger is constant for the culprit, even after the crime.

The culprit and their crew do have some resources to fight against this danger. First is the HIDEOUT, a central location where the crew can plan the crime away from the eyes of others. Sometimes, the hideout is deep in the woods or in an abandoned building far away from prying eyes. Sometimes the hideout is right next to the crime--in Rififi, the crew rents the apartment above the bank as a hideout in order to access the safe below them. Culprits can also escape danger from the law by having the law on their side. This is usually accomplished by a BRIBE, or money paid to an official to keep them from reporting a crime. However, an inside man on the police force can just as easily destroy evidence, and occasionally a villain like Wong in The Dark Knight and Getz in Lethal Weapon 2 get governmental immunity from punishment.

Of course, the constant danger comes from not only law enforcement, who work against crime indiscriminately, but from other criminals. Often, rival gangs and organizations can threaten the culprit's ability to handle the situation at hand. However, the biggest danger lies in the people closest to the culprit...

It's been said that there's no honor among thieves. After all, everyone in a crew is willing to lie, cheat, and steal others--what's stopping them from targeting you? Yet in order to execute the crime, the crew has to work as a team and trust one another to do their job despite their doubt. As matter of course throughout the story, The Culprit will encounter multiple moments where they look at others and ask themselves, Will they hold up their end of the plan? Are they secretly a cop? Will they let me leave when this is over or will they try to kill me?

This mistrust tends to also seep into the Culprit's world outside of the crime. Their partner starts feeling like they are holding something back, or the Culprit stops trusting close friends and family as a matter of habit. One major doubt many Culprits have is if they will still be accepted by their loved ones if the crime is discovered.

Doubts work a bit differently in fugitive stories, where the innocent culprit must plant doubts in the mind of their pursuer if they are really guilty. These doubts amp up the tension of the plot and make the audience doubt if the Culprit is really a culprit in turn.

Many crime stories push this mistrust to its ultimate conclusion: betrayal. The crew turns against the Culprit wanting a bigger share. The husband discovers his wife's crime and turns her in to the police. The alarm goes off, and The Wheels betrays the crew, leaving them at the scene of the crime. Betrayal and the criminal response to betrayal--payback--create many Act III twists and increased tension in the crime story.

A perfect crew would respond to doubts and setbacks the same way--but where's the tension in that? Most writers present a problem with the plan--an unintended hostage, a missed timer, a secret alarm that was unaccounted for-- and have the crew debate on how to deal with it. There will be more saintly members who don't want to cause violence, while others solve everything with a bullet. Some members will want to quit while they're ahead and others will want to finish the job. These tensions help drive the plot forward and make success even shakier.

There's a very good reason besides character drama to have a Culprit with a code of honor or a set of values: it makes them sympathetic to the audience. A cold-blooded killer with no redeeming qualities may make a great villain, but the protagonist should be someone that the audience wants to root for even when they do bad things. Moreover, the film sends a powerful social message about what is truly right and wrong when the criminals establish a line that even they won't cross.