Help for a Batman related essay required please!!

[LauFrances]

I am studying for a degree in criminology and am writing a dissertation next year. For it, I plan on investigating how much fact there is in the crimes of Batman villains/do they link to real criminals. Therefore, I help in deciding which issues of the Batman comic book will provide me with the best information.

Any advice you can give will be much appreciated! Thanks in advance

[The Laughing Fish]

It's going to be very difficult to try to link real life crime to Batman's fantastical villains without finding anecdotes to explore the subject. That being said, there are a couple of points from the comic Batman: Blind Justice (1989, written by Sam Hamm) that might help your essay.

On chapter five - pages 15-16 of Blind Justice, Bruce Wayne's former mentor Henri Ducard describes Batman's crime-fighting crusade as putting a "band-aid on a cancer patient". In other words, Ducard believes Batman's efforts doesn't help improve the downtrodden state that Gotham City is in, and even dismisses his detective expertise because Batman only tackles low level street thugs and costumed psychopaths who are compelled to do things just to get his attention. Ducard believes Batman fills an empty void in the villains' lives; without him, they would have nothing better to do. This is the part which might provide a key point to your essay: Ducard says "true evil" don't announce their goals beforehand, like Batman's villains tend to do. "The dangerous ones set their subversive goals and achieve them, bit by bit...invisibly, inevitably. They have no taste for theater". If you want to use this point as a contemporary issue, you might want to compare to the shocking and unexpected Aurora massacre, since the now-convicted killer planned his horrible crimes without even attracting suspicion before the fact.

Furthermore on chapter six - page 28, there is a flashback of Ducard and Bruce Wayne researching an international suspect who was threatening to attack U.S.-affiliated nations in retaliation for starting a puppet regime in his own country, losing his entire family in the process. Ducard lectures Bruce by telling him that "a terrorist kills because he's powerless. He may be striking back at an oppressor...or he may want to publicize his cause". Some might want to contend this point, but I reckon it does explain terrorists' state of minds when they try to justify their crimes, especially if they have a political or religious agenda. Something that most Batman villains don't have.

Hope that helps.