Earlier today I read an on-line article on Comcast news about a missing Yale student and it got me thinking. Who would best know how someone could have disappeared without anyone or any surveillance camera seeing her? Professional criminals, the more successful ones, anyway. Now, I am not suggesting that Ms. Annie Le, the missing Yale student, is a criminal. Rather, I am wondering how useful former fugitives-of-the-law could be.
An art thief, for instance, would definitely be able to spot a number of ways to get out of a building without being seen. At least, a thief that's good at what he/she does. What if former criminals, who already did their time or paid their fine, could be hired to help solve missing persons ,and other, cases? A criminal would have an easier time thinking like a criminal than a police officer would. In addition, it would give them a legitimate job, and thus, perhaps, lessen the likelihood of a return to crime.
Obviously, there are a large number of objections that could arise to such an idea, some of which are very legitmate worries that would have be addressed before police begin relying on ex-criminals. For one, how can you trust someone who made their living breaking the law? Using an ex-theif to find stolen merchandise may just be tempting them to steal it for themselves. Nevertheless, I think this could be a useful proposition the should be taken into serious consideration.
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You /might/ be right. I think you’re basing this on sort of a romanticized image of a criminal, though. I mean, how many times have we seen cartoons, dramas, or movies show a jewel thief or other criminal as some sort of badass, cunning, godly, charismatic figure who has the ability to do all sorts of things (even sometimes fly!)? I think every other show I’ve gotten really in to has at some time had some sort of jewel thief or whatever that somehow knows how the police think in every way, but are entirely mysterious themselves at the same time and are always just one step of head of the dumbfounded detectives. They’re even making a tv show where the police have to rely on a genius criminal to tell them how to do their job. There’s this sort of picture of a ‘criminal mastermind,’ a guy who knows everything in every situation and who has all of the strings to pull.
ReplyDeleteYour idea assumes a lot to begin with. Are criminals really this way? Are any?! Where are the super-intelligent ones—if we don’t have them yet how do you advertise for that service? Are people who study criminals automatically less knowledgeable of how criminals’ minds work? Why would one criminal know automatically know more about another criminal’s mindset than anyone else? Is the missing piece to the police’s resources to research this girl’s disappearance (access to tapes, searches, labs, manpower, etc) only missing criminals for help?
I think this idea is entirely based on fantasy. There’s no magic bullet to finding out who kidnapped the yale student. What you need are witnesses, leads, and evidence. It makes absolutely no sense to bring criminals in to this, even if the police aren’t perfect. Progress will be made if a sort of story can be constructed about this girl’s life, which hopefully will develop with time, but I simply don’t think there is a use for criminals’ input. If anyone has any ideas, they can call it in on the tip line.
Also, the notion that this will give criminals a legit job doesn't really make any sense, either. It doesn't take in to account training or education that would be required to get them in to a field, that it takes people years to complete. Is a criminal automatically qualified for the job? That's certainly not an effective way of reducing the likeliness someone will return to crime, because I can't see it as being feasible or logical.