Character Analysis
You Do Know Jack
Jack Crawford is the head of the FBI's Behavioral Science Services. He's well-respected, and Clarice idolizes him as a father figure of sorts. A father who sends his daughter to interview the most dangerous and demented man on the planet, evidently.
Despite Hannibal Lecter's insinuation that there's something sexual between them, we know Clarice doesn't feel that way. She wants to earn Crawford's respect, not a way into his pants.
We don't know what he's thinking, though. His character is mainly used for exposition and driving the plot forward. It's Crawford who sends Clarice to interview Lecter. It's he who brings Clarice along when a new victim's body is found. But we do know that the respect goes both ways between them. He admires her determination in the Academy, saying "You grilled me pretty hard, as I recall, on the Bureau's Civil Rights record doing the Hoover years." And when he says, "I gave you an A," she corrects him: "A-minus, sir." He likes her brave frankness.
This doesn't mean he isn't using her, though. He knows Lecter would respond to a female, and he uses Clarice to present the fake offer to Lecter. But can someone use a person and still respect them? We think Crawford can. He congratulates her and shakes her hand when she graduates, and tells her, "Your father would have been proud today." And Crawford is proud, too.