Connecting Criminal Minds to

Communication Theories

Ashley Einspahr

12/10/19

Speech 499

Akbar Javidi
 “People do things for “their” reasons, not ours. So, find their reasons.” Dale Carnegie

stated that phrase and it describes one of my favorite television shows, Criminal Minds. The

quote also describes why I love communication so much and hence chose to pursue it as my

degree. Mr. Carnegie understood that people do things for their own wants and needs. But it is up

to the receiver of the message to understand their reasons. I can apply many communication

theories to the television show Criminal Minds because that is what they do. The characters

convey an understanding of why and how criminals do what they do. I find that fascinating and

hope that I can have that level of understanding of not only criminals but whoever I come into

contact with. I chose this particular show because of those reasons. It is also important to me

because I spend most of my time watching this television show. I think that this show shows

many different communication styles and beliefs and it can be applied in many educational ways

to communication theories. Let me take a stab at it.

A little background about the show first so that in case you haven’t seen it you can

understand it a bit better. Criminal Minds first started showing in 2005 and is currently still

showing new episodes to this day. The hit television series is made by the Columbia

Broadcasting System or CBS. The description that Google gives about the show is “An elite

squad of FBI profilers analyzes the country’s most-twisted criminal minds, anticipating the

perpetrators’ next moves before they can strike again. Each member of the “mind hunter” team

brings his or her expertise to pinpoint predators’ motivations and identify emotional triggers to

stop them. The core group includes an official profiler who is highly skilled at getting into the

minds of criminals, a quirky genius, the former media liaison who manages to adeptly balance

family life and the job, and a computer wizard.” Since this show has over 300 episodes, many of

the characters come and go, but the main few people stay on and we learn a little about their life
outside of the office. They work for the Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico Virginia, so

politics comes into the show a few times. At the beginning and ending of almost every episode

one character states a quote that gives a little intel or closing remark about the episode.

A huge piece connects this television series to communication theories is that the

television show is based off of four main communication theories. Those include; Social

Constructionism or Social Construction of Reality, Attribution Theory, Ernesto Grassi’s Italian

Humanism, and Elaboration Likelihood Theory.

Starting with the Social Constructionism or Social Construction of Reality theory we can

better understand why it is connected to Criminal Minds. The Social Constructionism theory

investigates how human knowledge is constructed through social interaction. When the FBI

agents understand the criminal, they must understand how they are acquiring their victims by

their interaction with people. Most episodes the FBI ‘profilers’ give a profile to the general

public and to law enforcement. Their social interaction is one of the things that they ‘profile.’ An

example of that would be if a killer is abducting his victims at a park where it is open, they must

know that he has a high social interaction for people to go with him to a more secure location to

be taken. In order for the killer to do so they must understand the culture. That it might be

suspicious if a man was at a park with no child or dog. But if he showed up with a dog leash and

waited for an isolated child to approach saying he lost his dog might be a little less suspicious.

Or if he used a child as a ruse to go up to a parent saying they lost their parent and leads the

helping adult to an isolated place to where the man is would be even more likely because it is

believable.

The second theory the attribution theory explains the interpretation of causes of

behaviors. This is useful for the agents in the television show to understand who their next target
could be or when they are going to attack next. This theory is their job description; how to figure

out why people behave in certain ways. The causal attributions that Fritz Heider, the founder of

attribution theory, states it is one of the reasons why people become killers. Those causal

attributions are situational causes (being affected by the environment), personal effects

(influencing things personally), ability (being able to do something), effort (trying to do

something), desire (wanting to do something), sentiment (feeling like it), belonging (going along

with something), obligation (feeling you ought to), and permission (being permitted to). Every

single criminal that appears on the show has some sort of causal attributions leading up to their

insanity of killing or kidnaping people. Most of the episodes include killers that do it because of

sentiment, obligation, or desire. An example of this would be if a killer always grew up in a

home where the parents talked badly about prostitutes or homeless people. Then it is a situational

event, or even a personal effect, that happened from birth till 18 years old and took it upon

themselves as an obligation to ‘clean up the streets.’ Sometimes it is hard to understand the

‘why’ behind such evil doings, but it is important to know the ‘why’ so that we can learn and

prevent future criminals by teaching about that and having a good understanding of those causal

situations.

Ernesto Grassi’s Italian Humanism is one theory that really focuses on the start of the

Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). Later on, in the show we see bits from the past of the original

startup of the BAU. With Ernesto’s theory, understanding of human condition through the study

of literature and history, two men started the unit. They first took a look at all of the past

criminals and studied them to figure out what main things needed to be learned in order for

people to understand why criminals do what they do. They studied theories and explanations of

sociology, psychology, and communication to make the department what it is today. Studying
the different times and what was the norms of that time helps understand why criminals have

gotten away with crimes also. In new things that you try to start up, one important thing that you

must research into is the past of human conditions. Most of the time human conditions do not

change a whole lot through time. That is why it is easy to study it and implement it into a new

idea.

The Elaboration Likelihood theory looks at how we make decisions on conscious and

unconscious levels. In criminal minds there is a lot of psychology that the FBI agents must

understand. Some of the criminals go into a deep shock by an extreme loss such as the loss of a

child and unconscious kill people. While it is rare, it happened in the show. Understanding that

can contribute to where the criminals go after they are proven guilty. Either to a jail or to a

mental facility. This can also go into their interrogating methods that they use. An example of

that is using a female for a man who is thought to be killing females and get them to show

unconscious behavioral signs that shows it triggers him to have females in front of him with

power. Or putting an African American FBI agent into the room to have some common ground

with an African American person in order to relate to. They can understand and relate better. The

goal of those methods is to make the criminal feel safe and give the agents information easier. Or

having a female talk with the family about the loss of a loved one. Here are some other examples

that go into detail about some more theories.

The most general thing that I have learned from communication theory that I can apply to

this television show is systems. “The idea of a system the core of cybernetic thinking.”

(Littlejohn & Foss,2011) Cybernetic thinking is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of

complex systems especially communication processes. (newworldencyclopedia.org, n.d.) The

way the mind works is a cybernetic system. Each person thinks and works in different ways.
There are no two people who think alike in this world. Applying this to Criminal Minds, the job

of the FBI agents is to understand the way criminal minds work. They must put themselves into

the criminal’s mind and understand why they kill or kidnap people. That their choices to kill or

kidnap effect the whole system of another. But the criminal’s system is sometimes what defines

them to become a criminal.

In season eight episode eight we can take a look at this particular criminal that had

something disrupt his childhood and influenced him into becoming a murderer. In Chicago there

had been murderers targeting middle-aged men. At one of the ‘dump sites’ (place where bodies

are dumped after being killed) there is a clue that leads the team to one of their past. One of the

BAU members, agent Derek Morgan, had been molested as a child. He kept quiet for a long time

believing he was the only one that was harmed. In exchange the man took the boy ‘under his

wing’ and kept him out of the streets in order to give him a ‘better’ life. In this episode the clue

leads to another man who Morgan knew when he was growing up, around the same time he was

being harmed. In the end the criminal who was murdering the people was the childhood arch

nemesis to Derek, Rodney Harris. Rodney was molested as a child also, but he grew up to be in

other circumstances. Rodney hung out with gangs growing up and didn’t have the outcome of

Derek. Although both people had similar backgrounds; both of African American decent, both

grew up in the same neighborhood, both raised by a single parent, and both had younger siblings.

Derek and Rodney held onto the anger of what happened to them when they were growing up. In

the end one became an FBI agent who catches criminals, and the other became a criminal and

continued to advance into becoming a murder in adulthood. They had relatively similar systems

but still had different outcomes. The ending quote to this episode is Derek saying “For darkness

restores what light cannot.” I think that means sometimes people get overcome by the darkness
in their life and continue to let darkness into their life to find a solution to their pain. With the

understanding of the systems you can change your outcomes and the character Derek made that

connection to become a better person.

Another theory in depth can be seen in season 9 episode 9. A couple had noticed a busted

waterline in their yard. The water line crew had to go through the neighbor’s yard, the Johnson’s,

in order to fix the problem. They dug into the yard and found bodies buried. The bodies had

scientific evidence going back around 25 years ago. As the team keeps searching the backyard,

they found a more recent bodies that went back 5 years ago. The Johnsons had lived in the house

for over 30 years. The Johnson’s consisted of a father, son, and mother. The family ended up

being prime suspects in this case, especially the father and the son. The FBI agents knew that the

son could not have done the few bodies that were older than 30 years because he was a little

child. But the more recent ones that they found pointed to the son. The two men that were found

buried in the backyard had a past with Mr. Johnson when they were younger. Mr. Johnson was

assaulted by those men because of a lie that a female made toward Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson

then received an apology letter from the female years later and snapped, ending up killing two of

the men that assaulted him. Since the letter came to him later in life, most of the other men that

had assaulted him had already passed away. But they had daughters that he targeted and killed,

one of whom was dating Mr. Johnson’s son. That was the other main trigger for Mr. Johnson to

snap again because his son was of African American decent and the daughter was Caucasian.

That affects the story because Mr. Johnson grew up in Virginia in a time where the Ku Klux

Klan was roaring. Those men were part of that group that assaulted him. It was unjust for him to

be treated that way.

 Another theory from communication came into the light when Mr. Johnson was

interrogated. It is the Critical Tradition. That examines how power, privilege, and oppression are

products of certain forms of communication. (Littlejohn & Foss, 2011) In one of the first

interrogations with Mr. Johnson he finds out that the profilers use Agent Rossi and Derek

Morgan. Part of the reasons that they use those agents is because they have connection to the

African American community. Derek is African American decent and agent Rossi had a wife

that was African American. When Mr. Johnson finds that out he states “You know what you can

do with your wife and black friend?....You can kiss my black ass.” That would be a direct

correlation from his oppression growing up has influenced his communication toward people

who he knows has more power over him, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. With his past with

the KKK and growing up in that era with people against people just because of race he shows a

lot of hatred and silence words towards the Caucasian people in the police station. In that time

his voice would not be heard even though he tried to tell the police back then that he did no harm

to the lady and that she was just lying to get herself out of trouble. That especially shows the

relationship for the basics of Co-culture Theory. Mr. Johnson is the underrepresented group

communicating with a dominant culture. Although it has gotten better than it was in the past this

still goes on today.

The last theory that I would like to connect to Criminal Minds is the theory of Feminine

Style. This theory is to make us understand gendered aspects of language. In season 7 episode 18

a child is found in the Arizona desert and another boy goes missing. The Behavior Analysis Unit

has to try to get information out of this lost boy in order to save another child from the same

torture. All seems easy but the boy has gone through a traumatizing eight years being held

captive by a pedophile, hebephiliac serial killer, serial rapist, and abductor. It is learned through
hand gestures that his name is Angel. Angel will not talk to anyone except for the female BAU

agent, Jennifer. Jennifer has a lot of feminine qualities and they seem to highlight them in this

show as she is trying to balance this intense job and her family life. Through this Jennifer shows

feminine style by emotional crafts. Such as nurturance, empathy, and concrete reasoning. She

coaxes Angle to tell them his name, and to comfort him when he hears sounds that reminds him

of the past. Jennifer also shows concrete reasoning with Angel’s mother. When she learns that he

is found, all she wants to do is to see him and give him a hug. But Jennifer explains that Angel

has been traumatized for eight years and they do not yet know what all the man did to him, so it

is best to take it slow and on Angel’s terms. Jennifer has exhibited a lot of other times that she

uses the theory of Feminine Style, but this was the time that really stuck out to me. In the end

they finally were able to get Angel to talk and they found the man who did the horrible things

along with the new stolen boy alive.

Although I watch Criminal Minds in my free time, I have learned more about theories by

watching this show. If I had never taken communication theory, I probably would have gotten

tired of this show by season three. While watching this show I can point out many theories

without even knowing I am doing it. Criminal Minds is mostly about behavioral sciences but a

big part of that ties into communication. Why people say and do things. I have made the

connection to multiple theories that I have learned in communication theories class. I think that

you could apply many other theories but the ones that I hit on were the most impactful to the rest

of the show. I believe that if one were to sit down and fully analyze each episode they could

expand and relate each theory to everyday occurrences, good and bad. With that I will leave you,

in style of Criminal Minds, of a quote by John R. Pierce; “To talk about Communication theory
without communicating its real mathematical content would be like endlessly telling a man about

a wonderful composer, yet never letting him hear an example of the composer’s music.”
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