ipl-logo

Dr. Hannibal Lecter's The Silence Of The Lambs

764 Words4 Pages

Silence of the Lambs Paper Psychological profiling is a method of developing a profile for criminals in unsolved cases. Criminal profiles are used by investigators to infer characteristics that may be advantageous in solving a crime. Dr. Michael Stone, a forensic psychiatrist and professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University in Chicago, has created a 22-point scale for the classifications of criminals. This scale ranges from homicide to murder, rape, and torture and has been used to classify some of the most evil criminals. Even fictitious characters such as, Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill, who are featured in Jonathan Demme’s 1991 thriller, The Silence of the Lambs, may have a place on this scale of evil. On the surface Hannibal …show more content…

He never does something that he hasn’t planned or can’t take advantage of. Lecter believes that he is a psychopath although there is never proof, in the movie, that he has a mental disorder. It is only implied. However, he does show that he prone to abnormal and violent behavior and he is not delusional as he is fully aware of everything he does. Therefore I would place Dr. Hannibal Lecter on a level 18 of 22. Level 18, labeled “Torturing Murders”, is defined as applying to those who are primarily motivated by murder and not torture. When they do torture they do not prolong it. I placed him on this level since his fundamental objective is to eat his victims and not to torture …show more content…

Michael Stone’s 22 point scale of evil has been used to catalog and classify some of the most villainous criminals. Based on my interpretation of the scale and of the characters Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill from the movie The Silence of the Lambs, I have placed Dr. Lecter on level 18 and Bill on level 15. Even though both characters are dangerous psychopaths, Dr. Lecter is clearly the more deadly of the two. He has superior intelligence and skill compared to Bill who seems unprofessional in his murderous spree. Overall both characters are extremely deadly and hold spots on the the upper half of the scale of

Open Document