CSI: Miami

Horatio Caine, played by David Caruso

Raised in 1960s miami, Horatio Caine had experienced a lifetime by the age of 16: Civil Rights marches, Cuban freedom fights, violent race riots and the rise of the drug culture. His mother, a single parent in a time that did not favor such a definition of family, taught Caine that strength resides in your mind not in your hand. Though she was demanding, her love protected him until she stood up to a drug dealer and was killed. At 17, while other teenagers were learning to disco, Caine set out to help the police find her killer. By the time the murderer was sentenced to life, he knew he had found his calling.

Caine entered the police academy after high school, but quickly discovered that the beat left him bored. When he realized that the evidence-cracking CSIs were the people who actually solved the crimes, he enrolled in college and, four years later, Chemistry degree in hand, he was a Level I Criminalist with the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Rising quickly through the ranks, Caine grew frustrated with departmental bureaucracy and eventually moved to bomb squad. When the head of the Crime Lab stepped down, the police chief asked Caine to take over. Caine missed what had drawn him to police work in the first place, the science of catching the "bad guy," so he accepted the position.

A three-dimensional thinker, Caine can rapidly understand how pieces fit into a puzzle. He knows that science ultimately provides the solution, but he also knows there is more to crime-solving than blood spatter and DNA. When it comes to protecting his city, Caine doesn't just trust science; he trusts his gut.