Why Do We Root for Criminals?

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In less than 10 minutes, $100 million of iconic jewelry was stolen from the home of France’s priceless artworks—the Louvre Museum (Phillips). With a ladder mounted on a truck, four thieves wearing yellow vests committed the greatest heist of the decade. However, this headline-making event drew not only widespread public attention but also fascination. What stood out most was that this heist wasn’t met with outrage but with curiosity and questions.

While it is true that the theft was calm and efficient, with no violence involved, this unusual public reaction is linked to something beyond coincidence. Popular shows and movies like Lupin, Now You See Me, and Money Heist involve narratives that shape the audience’s perceptions of thieves as clever, strategic, and stylish instead of evil, psychopathic, and violent. You can just imagine genius thieves with IQs soaring well above 160 cracking codes with elegance and style—a recurring scene used in almost every popular heist movie. And suddenly, we find ourselves rooting for the criminals. These unrealistic media portrayals of criminals feed our fictional expectations, blurring the gap between real events and fiction. In turn, people think of the Louvre heist as “masterminds vs museums,” not “criminal vs law.” 

Outside of fictional productions, real Jewelry robberies also capture the essence of our fascination with heists. According to The Guardian, the “Pink Panthers,” who robbed Harry Winston in Paris in December 2008, were a team of four men recognized for their precise and clever execution. The men wore facial prosthetics and wore female clothing as a disguise and fled in under 15 minutes with $90 million worth of jewelry (Davies). They had detailed knowledge of the store, referring to staff by their first name and knowing the location of top-secret storage boxes. Their victimless approach demonstrated intelligence, years of planning, and outsmarting a system, and with movie adaptations of this event, it seemed to appeal to the public even more. 

Given these iconic heists, it is convincing to see criminal behaviours as acceptable, especially if no one was physically harmed during the process. However, there are always victims when jewels are stolen, like designers, artisans, and brands who are left heartbroken. 

The fascination with jewellery heists starts with films and television, and is bolstered by real events and their extraordinary details—the prosthetics, precise memorization, and expert knowledge. But we often forget to look at the bigger picture and the more terrifying reality of these events. Big brands may be able to recover from losses of reproducible goods over time, but the cultural, historical loss of great works of jewellery art and its impact on people lasts more than a lifetime. Ultimately, media portrayals can shape our perceptions of criminals, making events like the Louvre heist seem fascinating while masking the real consequences.