First Chapter
I'll start with a brief recall:
Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling is a behavioral and investigative tool intended to help investigators to accurately profile and predict the characteristics of unknown offenders. Geographic profiling is another method to profile an offender.
Holmes and Holmes (2002) outline the three main goals of criminal profiling:
1. To provide law enforcement with a social and psychological assessment of the offender;
2. To provide law enforcement with a "psychological evaluation of belongings found in the possession of the offender" (p. 10);
3. To give suggestions and strategies for the interviewing process.
According to Ainsworth (2001) there are four main approaches to offender profiling:
(1) The geographical approach in which the patterns are analyzed in regard to timing and location of the crime scene in order to determine where the offender lives and works;
(2) The investigative psychology approach focuses on the use of psychological theories of analysis to determine the characteristics of the offender by looking at the presented offending behavior and style of offense;
(3) The typological approach looks at the specific characteristics of the crime scene to then categorize the offender according to the various ‘typical’ characteristics;
(4) The clinical approach in which the understanding of psychiatry and clinical psychology is used to determine whether the offender is suffering from mental illness of various psychological abnormalities.
When generating a profile one should use those 5 steps:
1. A thorough analysis of the nature of the criminal act is made and it is then compared to the types of people who have committed similar crimes in the past – (As mentioned before, Statistics);
2. An in depth analysis of the actual crime scene is made;
3. The victim’s background and activities are analyzed to look for possible motives and connections;
4. The possible factors for the motivation of the crime are analyzed;
5. The description of the possible offender is developed, founded on the detected characteristics, which can be compared to with previous cases – again Statistics…
Several aspects of the criminal's personality are determined from offender's choices before, during and after the crime. This information is combined with other relevant details and physical evidence and then compared with the characteristics of known personality types and mental abnormalities in order to develop a practical working description of the offender. Offender profiling is as a method of identification which seeks to identify a person's mental, emotional and personality characteristics as manifested in things done or left at the crime scene, based on past experience.
One type of criminal profiling is referred to as linkage analysis. Gerard N. Labuschagne (2006) defines linkage analysis as "a form of behavioral analysis that is used to determine the possibility of a series of crimes as having been committed by one offender." Gathering many aspects of the offender’s crime pattern such as Modus Operandi, ritual or fantasy-based behaviors exhibited and the signature of the offender, help to establish a basis for a linkage analysis. An offender’s modus operandi is his/her habits or tendencies during performing the crime. An offender’s signature is the unique similarities in each of his/her crime and it may not be directly connected to the crime. Linkage analysis is used especially when physical evidence, such as DNA, cannot be collected. In gathering and incorporating these aspects of the offender’s crime pattern, investigators must engage in five assessment procedures: (1) obtaining data from multiple sources; (2) reviewing the data and identifying significant features of each crime across the series; (3) classifying the significant features as either MO and/or ritualistic; (4) comparing the combination of MO and ritual/fantasy-based features across the series to determine if a signature exists; (5) compiling a written report highlighting the findings.
According to Brent E. Turvey, linking analysis refers to the process of determining whether or not there are discrete connections between two or more previously unrelated cases through crime scene analysis. It involves establishing and comparing the physical evidence, Victimology, crime scene characteristics, Modus Operandi, organized or disorganized typologies and signature behaviors between each of the cases under review. It has two purposes:
With respect to behavioral evidence, case linkage efforts have most typically hinged on three concepts:
According to Gregg O. McCrary behavior reflects personality. In a homicide case profilers try to collect the personality of the offender through questions about his or her behavior at four phases:
A sexual crime is analyzed in much the same way because murder is sometimes a sexual crime. With a little advantage - in addition to the four points, we'll get information from the living victim.
How Does Criminal Profiling Work?
Criminal profiling works on the principle that each and every criminal, regardless of the level or severity of their crime, will work to a certain set of values. These values are as individual as one's own handwritten signature and once identified can be used to help law enforcement make a positive identification. Profiling also takes in victimology.
What is victimology?
Victimology is the study of the victims in a number of crimes perpetrated by the same criminal. The idea of victimology is to identify similarities between each of the victims of a particular crime so that the profiler may be able to identify a definite pattern in the criminal's approach to his/her crimes. Victimology looks at age, lifestyle, similarities in hair color and eye color, whether the victims have met or worked together in the past or if they share a common interest. All of this information can be used to help the profiler build up an accurate picture of the offender.
The Homicidal Triad
Profilers are also interested in what is referred to as the Homicidal Triad; three defining factors that may have bearing on an offender's adulthood from events that have taken place in their childhood. This triad normally takes the form of: Bed Wetting, Animal Cruelty and An Interest in Starting Fires. This triad of events which does often occur in a criminal's childhood - especially if their crime is murder - is indicative of their desire to be in control and to experience an emotional or sexual release as the result of inflicting pain on others. Their desire to test this on animals before moving on to human beings is also well documented. Most arsonists have this triad of events in their childhood as well as an absent or abusive father, trouble with the opposite sex and chronic low self – esteem.
Predicting a Criminal's Next Move
Profiling is also used as a means of attempting to - and in most cases succeeding - predict the next move of a criminal who may be on what is commonly referred to as a 'spree'. Offenders who are engaged in crime sprees often devolve from a lucid state of mind into a pathological state of frenzied criminality which can often result in assault or even murder. A profiler will try - where possible with the evidence already in hand - to predict what the offender may attempt to do next and may also try to communicate with them via the media. Profilers often spend a lot of their time working in conjunction with companies and large organizations offering psychological evaluations of their staff and this is most apparent among the variety of law enforcement agencies that are required to undergo evaluations on a regular basis. The most important element of any case against a suspected criminal is the forensic evidence. In the past much was made of eye witness accounts of a crime but now – as technology evolves – the eye witness is the evidence left at the scene of a crime by the perpetrator before he/she flees; here we look at how that evidence is used to build a case against the criminal that will pass jury muster.
Fingerprint Evidence
Fingerprints are unique to each and every one of us; they cannot be forged or copied and they cannot be altered to appear as someone else’s. Many criminals tend to wear gloves to disguise their fingerprints in an attempt to throw the law enforcement agencies off the scent as it were but a great number of crimes that are committed are ‘opportunistic’ meaning that they have been committed on a spur of the moment and that fingerprints are often found. Fingerprint evidence is not only important as a means of identifying a suspect but also as a means of proving the suspect’s presence at the scene of a crime especially if the scene of the crime is somewhere he or she may not have had any reason to be.
Hair and Fibers
Again hairs are something that is unique to each of us and the presence of our hair at the scene of a crime can be a great source of evidence. Our hair also contains strands of our DNA, the unique genetic code that identifies each of us individually and this DNA – just like fingerprints – is something that cannot be duplicated or forged so the presence of such can only seek to prove that the individual in question was present. Fibers also are useful as a means of identification especially if the offender has been wearing a particular kind of shirt, jumper, coat and so on which may have woven fibers or fabric that are unique to a particular brand or style.
Computer Evidence
Many crimes are now committed using computers, the Internet and computer technology – much of which creates its own set of logs and transcripts that are hidden away for only the most expert to find. Those who commit computer crime such as online banking fraud often find it difficult to dispose of their cyber trail even though for the most part they think that they have. Specialist computer experts – forensic computer technicians – can reconstitute wiped hard drives and reassemble erased files in order to build up a detailed picture of the suspect’s online activities. This is also useful if the suspect is considered to be involved in the production or distribution of child pornography.
DNA Evidence
DNA is a specific kind of evidence that cannot be altered, manipulated or forged in any way. Within each of us we have specific DNA that when collected from a crime scene and that tested against a sample taken from the individual later nearly always matches. This genetic fingerprint is now widely recognized as one of the most accurate ways in which to identify a suspect after he or she has fled the scene of a crime.