SleuthSayers: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

25 October 2025

A Criminal’s Hierarchy of Crime, by Lisa De Nikolits

by Melodie Campbell

ALL ABOUT MOTIVATION! Remember Maslow? My colleague and pal Lisa has turned Maslow sideways and upside-down in this terrific chart that creates a parallel for our antagonists! Illuminating for crime writers like us, but also lots of fun.

by Lisa de Nikolits

Imagine if Maslow had constructed a Hierarchy of Crime instead of a Hierarchy of Needs. Admittedly he didn't, but a hierarchy of criminal needs makes sense, right?

Crime. Gangsters. Drug running. con-games and con artists and those trying to outwit them. The darker side of life. The fascinating side of life. Real life, much stranger than fiction. What drives these criminals? What ladder of power do they climb. And what motivates them?

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation..." (Thoreau) and he was correct but there are also those who lead lives of quiet violence. And by quiet, I mean apart form the norm, below the surface, out of sight and unseen by the general suburban masses unless something mistakenly bubbles up to the surface, threatening to destroy the fiercely guarded status quo.

I often wonder about my own fascination with the dark side of life but life is dark. People are weird, inexplicably violent, and they are ever-creative in ways in which they perpetrate their evil deeds.

Which is why I plotted out a fictional Criminal's Hierarchy of Needs, based on the characters of Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon, but universally applicable to all criminal activities and novels. And Readers, I'd love your comments and insights - did I get it wrong? What do you think?

I love watching true crime; The Dark Side of the Ring (VICE TV), Mafia: Most Wanted (CRAVE, Canada) and of course, Forensic Files, which shows ordinary people committing heinous crime and getting away with them for years.

And as much as there is crime, there is sometimes justice. There is revenge, validation, vindication, and the happy-ever-after of the bad guys paying for their evil deeds.

But justice doesn't always prevail which is a harsh reality that crime writers try to address.

Much like Once Upon A Time in Hollywood in which Tarantino rewrote the Tate-LaBianca murders, we can address social discrepancies, we can right wrongs, solve crimes, bring the bad guys (and gals) to their knees and deliver a far more satisfactory happy-ever-after which is cathartic for both readers and the writers. We can, from the safety of our own homes, process our fears, make sense of the world and bring justice.

If I'm plagued by an injustice or social inequality, I find the best solution is to write a book. It's the only way I can wrestle with the issue and bring it to a resolution. Writing books is a form of political and social protest, a demonstration of our beliefs. It's our way of getting our voices out into the world on the backs of highly engaging vehicles that will entertain the readers and keep them guessing all the way.

Of course, there is the troubling matter of the truth. For example, will Tarantino's version of the Tate-LaBianca murders be remembered with more accuracy by generations to come than the brutal truth?

As writers, we face many challenges. How far can we change the narrative, Like Tarantino did? How can we avoid stereotyping criminals while also recognizing that some of the tropes exist for a reason. Is it possible to write noir crime without offending readers?

At the end of the day, apart from hate speech rhetoric, which has no place in this world, I say there are no holds barred as to what we can write. As creatgive, artistic people, it's our duty to rise about "quiet desperation" (or perhaps to delve into it and into what lies behind it and the lives of those desperately trying to escape.)

As writers we have a duty to explore everything in life; the good, the bad and ugly.

BIO:

Lisa de Nikolits is the award-winning author of eleven novels (twelve, with Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon) as well as numerous short stories and poetry, garnering five-star reviews and a strong international fanbase. Originally from South Africa, Canada has been her home since 2000. Forthcoming works include That Time I Killed You (2026, Level Best Books). She lives and writes in the Beaches in Toronto.