History Main / StandardCopBackstory

* Both Rays in ''DueSouth''. Ray Vecchio had an alcoholic, good-for-nothing father, while Ray Kowalski was a foster child.

* In ''The Heat'', CowboyCop Mullins is the one trying to look out for her drug-dealer little brother, and {{By The Book|Cop}} [[JurisdictionFriction Special Agent]] Ashburn is the overachieving, {{friendless|Background}} foster kid.

* ''{{NCIS}}'': Gibbs has the dead spouse/child back story in spades. After that, it's failed marriage after failed marriage. Tony's father was a useless alcoholic who neglected him and sent him to live in boarding schools after his mother died. Ziva's sort of difficult to place. Her upbringing was rough; she grew up surrounded by violence, her father admitted to having "raised her to be a killer", and most of her immediate family had died by the time she joined the show. [=McGee=]'s father, a Naval admiral, was absent during most of his childhood and a neglectful WellDoneSonGuy when he ''wasn't'' absent. [=McGee=] also has a troubled little sister.

* ''{{JAG}}'': Harm's father was [[DisappearedDad missing in action]] for most of his childhood, and early seasons had Harm obsessed with finding out what happened to him. Bud's father was physically abusive, as was Mac's. Mac is also a recovering alcoholic and she and Harm both had several failed romances under their belt before their LastMinuteHookUp in the series finale.

* ''{{NCIS}}'': Gibbs has the dead spouse/child back story in spades. After that, it's failed marriage after failed marriage. Tony's father was a useless alcoholic who neglected him and sent him to live in boarding schools after his mother died. Ziva's sort of difficult to place. Her upbringing was rough; she grew up surrounded by violence, her father admitted to having "raised her to be a killer", and most of her immediate family had died by the time she joined the show. [=McGee=]'s father, a Naval admiral, was absent during most of his childhood and a neglectful WellDoneSonGuy when he ''wasn't'' absent. [=McGee=] also has a troubled little sister.

* ''{{JAG}}'': Harm's father was [[DisappearedDad missing in action]] for most of his childhood, and early seasons had Harm obsessed with finding out what happened to him. Bud's father was physically abusive, as was Mac's. Mac is also a recovering alcoholic.

* ''{{NCIS}}'': Gibbs has the dead spouse/child back story in spades. After that, it's failed marriage after failed marriage. Tony's father was a useless alcoholic who neglected him and sent him to live in boarding schools after his mother died. Ziva's sort of difficult to place. Her upbringing was rough; she grew up surrounded by violence, her father admitted to having "raised her to be a killer", and most of her immediate family had died by the time she joined the show.
** Fortunately, this is balanced out by several characters who seem to have had happy, normal childhoods, including [=McGee=], Abby, and Palmer.

** Jim Brass had an affair, followed by a divorce from the wife who was also having an affair, and a daughter, Ellie, who went completely off the rails and turned to prostitution and drugs.[spoiler: It eventually turns out his daughter isn't actually his daughter.] Oh, yeah, and he accidentally shot another policeman once.

* ''{{NCIS}}'': Gibbs has the dead spouse/child back story in spades. After that, it's failed marriage after failed marriage. Tony's father was a useless alcoholic who neglected him to the point of abuse. [=McGee=] is a nerd with no social life, and while his parents never abused him, it's revealed that his father was very strict and never happy with anything Tim did (when Tim was seven, he painted a picture for his father, who handed it back to him and told him to try again). Ziva's sort of difficult to place. Her upbringing was rough. And she has less of a social life than [=McGee=].

* A troubled or irresponsible younger sibling that the character may feel responsible for or an angelic and perfect younger sibling who they [[BigBrotherInstinct feel responsible for]] or [[DeadLittleSister failed to protect]].

* ''{{CSI NY}}'' seems to have the most.

** Jo lost her sister to a drunk driver

** Until he hooked up with Sara Sidle, Gil Grissom was a workaholic with no personal life and hinted at an unhappy childhood. Asked what he was at high school, he replied "A ghost." Sara was basically his DistaffCounterpart.
** Jim Brass had a dead wife and a daughter, Ellie, who went completely off the rails and turned to prostitution and drugs.[spoiler: It eventually turns out his daughter isn't actually his daughter.] Oh, yeah, and he accidentally shot another policeman once.

** Calleigh Duquesne from ''CSIMiami'' has an alcoholic father.
** Anna Belknap's character in ''CSINewYork'' witnessed several friends being murdered as a teenager.

* Detective Olivia Benson from ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' believed for many years that she was a ChildByRape. Her mother was also an alcoholic.

* Both Bud White and Ed Exley in ''Film/LAConfidential'': Bud's father was an abusive drunk who eventually murdered Bud's mother and chained him to a radiator next to her corpse, while Ed's father (also a cop) was murdered by an unknown assailant.

* ''InDeath'' series: Eve and Roarke. Both of them suffered child abuse at the hands of their parents, had at least one alcoholic parent, their parents are missing, had little in terms of family income when they were young, and had little in terms of personal lives. In Eve's case, her father raped her more than once, she killed him in self-defence when she was 8 years old, had a stint in foster care, and had just one-night-stand before Roarke. Roarke had a younger angelic sister named Marlena who was raped and torture-murdered by a gang of {{Complete Monster}}s who had a grudge against Roarke. Roarke responded by going on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge and killed all six men. Honestly, it's like Nora Roberts was trying to hit as many items on the list as possible!

* Multiple characters on ''CriminalMinds'' have backstories that include elements of this trope, such as Reid's father's absence and his family's history ofschizophrenia and JJ's sister's suicide, but the only character with enough of them to fit the trope is Morgan, who grew up in a low-income, inner-city neighborhood, lost his father at a young age, and suffered abuse at the hand of a leader in his community.

* ''{{NCIS}}'': Gibbs has the dead spouse/child back story in spades. After that, it's failed marriage after failed marriage. Tony's father was a useless alcoholic who neglected him to the point of abuse. [=McGee=] is a real rarity not only in police back stories but in television in general: he grew up in a happy nuclear home! But oh wait, he's a nerd with no social life. Ziva's sort of difficult to place. Her upbringing was rough. And she has less of a social life than [=McGee=].

* Child abuse, usually, but not always, at the hands of a parent
* An alcoholic parent
* MissingMom and/or DisappearedDad
* A stint in foster care
* [[RapeAsBackstory Rape]], in reference to either the character or someone close to them
* Directly or indirectly, but never on purpose, caused a death
* A close family member or friend who suffered from a mental illness and/or committed suicide
* Very low family income, bordering on poverty
* A troubled or irresponsible younger sibling that the character may feel responsible for or an angelic and perfect younger sibling who they [[BigBrotherInstinct feel responsible for]] or [[DeadLittleSister failed to protect]]
* A dead spouse and/or child
* A trail of failed romances
* Little to no personal life

* Detective Benson from ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' is a child of rape.

A lot of her issues with getting close to/trusting people have to do with being experimented on as a child, though.

Picture your favorite character in a crime drama and think of their backstory. Got it? Good.

It’s almost a certainty that they were abused as a child, probably by an alcoholic parent. Was the other parent dead? Maybe even both parents were dead. A stint in foster care is common. How about an irresponsible or troubled younger sibling that said character spent their earlier years taking care of? Do they have a history of failed romances and a fairly dismal personal life?

The probability of most of these criteria matching is higher than not. This is because on crime dramas, almost across the board, this backstory is used for ''at least'' one of the lead characters.

The common backstory includes several of the following:
* Child abuse, usually, but not always, at the hands of a parent
* An alcoholic parent
* MissingMom and/or DisappearedDad

* A close family member or friend who suffered from a mental illness and/or committed suicide
* Very low family income, bordering on poverty
* A troubled or irresponsible younger sibling that the character may feel responsible for or an angelic and perfect younger sibling who they [[BigBrotherInstinct feel responsible for]] or [[DeadLittleSister failed to protect]]
* A dead spouse and/or child
* A trail of failed romances
* Little to no personal life

Some of these characteristics are more popular than others, and a character's backstory, by no means, needs to display all of them. It may only need to include two or three, depending on which two or three, to qualify.

This trope is used almost exclusively in straight dramas, where characters tend to have [[DarkAndTroubledPast dark and troubled pasts]], as opposed to dramadies or comedies, though certain elements of the backstory, such as a dead parent, are not uncommon in dramadies. It is also seems to occur more often in lead characters, though it is not unheard of for a supporting character to follow the pattern. Additionally, the trope doesn't apply exclusively to law enforcement agents and is equally as common when a main character is a consultant for a law enforcement agency.

This seems to be a newer trope, as it was not apparent in crime dramas as recently as the 1990s.

May result in a BrokenBird or JerkWithAHeartOfGold. Perhaps because TrueArtIsAngsty.

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!!Examples

* Commander Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch in ''{{Discworld}}'' grew up in poverty, with a dead alcoholic father ("His mum told him that the man had been run over by a cart, but Vimes suspected that if this were true at all, then it was probably a brewer's cart, which had 'run him over' a bit at a time for years"). He has no personal life before meeting Lady Sybil, and even afterwards needs to remind himself to make time for his wife and son.

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]
* On ''{{Bones}}'', Brennan, Booth, and Sweets show this trope. All three of them have a history of abuse, Brennan and Sweets both spent time in foster care, and Brennan and Booth both have a dead parent and a string of failed romances.
* On ''{{Fringe}}'', Olivia shows this trope, having lost both parents, been abused by her stepfather as a child, feeling responsible for her younger sister, and having no personal relationships with people that aren't related to her and don't work with her.
* On ''{{The Mentalist}}'', Lisbon's backstory is an example of this trope. She was abused by her alcoholic father after her mother's death, and spent the rest of her childhood taking care of her three younger brothers.
* Multiple characters on ''{{Criminal Minds}}'' have backstories that include elements of this trope, such as Reid's father's absence and his family's history ofschizophrenia and JJ's sister's suicide, but the only character with enough of them to fit the trope is Morgan, who grew up in a low-income, inner-city neighborhood, lost his father at a young age, and suffered abuse at the hand of a leader in his community.

* Lilly Rush on ''Series/{{Cold Case}}'' is a textbook example of this. Her father abandoned the family at a young age. She grew up on welfare with an alcoholic mother and an irresponsible younger sister. She has a history of failed romances and, outside of these failed romances, no personal life.

** Veronica herself fits a few of those points too.

** Until he hooked up with Sara Sidle, Gil Grissom was a workaholic with no personal life and hinted at an unhappy childhood. Asked what he was at high school, he replied "A ghost." Sara was basically his {{Distaff Counterpart}}.

** Nick Stokes was the victim of child abuse from a babysitter.

* From ''{{Reno 911}}'', Lieutenant Dangle's father abandoned his family when he was a child, and his mother committed suicide.

* A troubled or irresponsible younger sibling that the character may feel responsible for/angelic and perfect younger sibling who they [[BigBrotherInstinct feel responsible for]] or [[DeadLittleSister failed to protect]]

* Lilly Rush on ''{{Cold Case}}'' is a textbook example of this. Her father abandoned the family at a young age. She grew up on welfare with an alcoholic mother and an irresponsible younger sister. She has a history of failed romances and, outside of these failed romances, no personal life.

* Detective Benson from ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' is a child of rape.

* A troubled or irresponsible younger sibling that the character may feel responsible for

* On ''{{Bones}}'', Brennan Booth, and Sweets show this trope. All three of them have a history of abuse, Brennan and Sweets both spent time in foster care, and Brennan and Booth both have a dead parent and a string of failed romances.

** ''VeronicaMars'' herself fits a few of those points too.