Scene Analysis

Obviously, some crimes are more appropriate for profiling than others. We have listed these crimes in Chapter 1: sadistic torture +In sexual assault, evisceration, postmortem slashing and cutting, motiveless fire setting, lust and mutilation murder, and rape (stranger rape, not date or acquaintance rape). Such crimes as check forgery, bank robbery, and kidnapping, in contrast, are usually not appropriate candidates for profiling, nor are “smoking gun” or “dripping knife” murders. In this chapter we focus on those crimes to which the process of profiling is directly applicable.

BEYOND THE PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Perhaps one of the most difficult things for investigators to accept is the need to look beyond the physical evidence. Homicide detectives are generally trained to reconstruct a crime based on the physical evidence found at the scene, such as blood spatters, fingerprints, and semen. This kind of evidence is often mistakenly thought to hold the key to the successful resolution of any criminal case.