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Criminal Profiling

Criminal Profiling

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Criminal Profiling: The Original Mind Hunters

The FBI formed its Behavioral Science Unit in 1974 to study serial predators. Since then, the art and craft of criminal profiling have become the subject of numerous books, TV shows and iconic films such as The Silence of the Lambs.

Continuing the trend, the Netflix series Mindhunter explores the early efforts of the FBI to understand and profile serial killers. Mindhunter is based in part on the writings of best-selling author Mark Olshaker and legendary FBI profiler John Douglas.

John Douglas is one of several pioneering FBI agents, along with the late Robert Ressler and Roy Hazelwood, who essentially invented computer-based, modern-day criminal profiling in the 1980s.

What exactly is profiling?

Profiling, or criminal investigative analysis, as it is called by the FBI, involves the investigation of a crime with the hope of identifying the responsible party, based on crime scene analysis, investigative psychology and behavioral science.

Additional Reading... Criminal Profiling: The Original Mind Hunters

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The Criminal Profiling Illusion: What’s Behind the Smoke and Mirrors?

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Criminal profiling (CP) is the practice of predicting a criminal’s personality, behavioral, and demographic characteristics based on crime scene evidence (Douglas, Ressler, Burgess, & Hartman, 1986; Hicks & Sales, 2006). This practice is being utilized by police agencies around the world despite no compelling scientific evidence that it is reliable, valid, or useful (Snook, Eastwood, Gendreau, Goggin, & Cullen, 2007). This disparity between the use and the lack of empirical support leads one to consider the question Why do people believe CP works despite the lack of evidence? We explain this criminal profiling illusion in terms of the nature of the information about CP that is presented to the people and how they process that information.

Our article is divided into five sections. First, we outline current knowledge of CP techniques, the frequency with which CP is used in criminal investigations, and the extent to which police officers and mental health professionals perceive CP as a valuable tool. Second, we argue...

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A Rhetorical Journey into Darkness: Crime-Scene Profiling as Burkean Analysis

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Abstract:

This essay focuses upon dramatistic nature of crime scene profiling, the technique used to infer the motivations that underlie a baffling but increasingly familiar human act: the “stranger killing.” It argues that this technique of interpreting the symbolic “text” of the crime scene is essentially a rhetorical method that employs with different names the elements and ratios of Kenneth Burke’s dramatistic pentad. My study, like other broad applications of Burkean principles, both validates Burke’s observation of the ubiquity of the two principal dramatistic ratios (act-scene and scene-agent) and affirms the symbolic infusion of all human action, including acts of identification through extreme mortification.

THE MAJOR FEATURE OF ANY STORY of unprovoked violent crime is the baffling question of why such acts occur. Because they are typically random, and because they appear to be without motive as it is commonly understood, these crimes compel our attention even as they terrify and confound us. “Who done...

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Racial Misuse Of Criminal Profiling By Law Enforcement: Intentions And Implications.

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ABSTRACT

This article examines critical issues regarding criminal profiling, its misuse by law enforcement, and its utility to solve serious crimes with the technique, hereinafter known and called “Criminal Profiling”. The specific issue under investigation is the misuse of criminal profiling in the United States, and its impact on African Americans, and other minorities. In that realm, a discussion and analysis of the importance of criminal profiling, the development of criminal profiling and, the misuse of criminal profiling as a critical issue in the 21st century are analyzed.

INTRODUCTION

This paper investigates criminal profiling. Criminal profiling has always been an important law enforcement tool in solving crime. Profiling narrows the field of, investigation by indicating the kind of person most likely to have committed a crime by focusing on certain behavioral and personality characteristics. It is a collection of leads, and has been described as an educated attempt to provide specific information about a certain type of...

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A Methodology for Evaluating Geographic Profiling Software

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1. Introduction

This report describes a methodology for evaluating geographic profiling software. Following a brief overview of geographic profiling (Section 1.1), Section 1.2 describes how the methodology was developed. The key component of the methodology was convening an expert panel that met in August 2004; a summary and full transcript of the panel’s discussions are in Section 2 and the Appendix, respectively. The panel focused on four geographic profiling software applications, which are described in Section 3. The actual evaluation methodology is outlined in Section 4.

1.1. Background on Geographic Profiling

Geographic profiling is a criminal investigative technique that attempts to provide information on the likely “base of operations” of offenders thought to be committing serial crimes. The base of operations could be the offender’s home, place of employment, a friend house, or some other frequented location. The predictions are based on the locations of these crimes, other geographic information about the case and the suspect, and certain assumptions

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Profiling Killers: A Revised Classification Model For Understanding Sexual Murder

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Abstract

Generally, murder classifications have failed to be useful for investigators in identifying perpetrators of murders. Based on the experience of the authors, this article extends the definitions of four previously recognized rape-offender typologies (power-assertive, power- reassurance, anger-retaliatory, and anger-excitation) into classifications for sexually oriented killers. These types of murderers and their crime scenes are described through the dynamics of their behaviors, homicidal patterns, and suspect profiles. Each typology is followed by an actual case example that fits that particular type of killer. By identifying crime scene and behavioral factors of these killers, the homicide investigator will be more equipped to process murder scenes, prioritize leads, and apprehend killers. Unlike earlier efforts at crime scene classification, the present work addresses the behaviors, motivational continuum, and the effects of experiential learning by the perpetrators. The relative frequency of the four types within a population of murderers at the Michigan State Penitentiary is revealed....

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Offender Profiling And Criminal Differentiation

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Purpose. The psychological hypotheses that form the foundations for ‘Offender Profiling’ are identified and the research that has tested them is reviewed.
Argument. Offender profiling’ is taken to be the derivation of inferences about a criminal from aspects of the crime(s) s/he has committed. For this process to move beyond deduction based on personal opinion and anecdote to an empirically based science a number of aspects of criminal activity need to be distinguished and examined. The notion of a hierarchy of criminal differentiation is introduced to highlight the need to search for consistencies and variations at many levels of that hierarchy. However, current research indicates that the key distinctions are those that differentiate, within classes of crime, between offences and between offenders,. This also leads to the hypothesis of a circular ordering of criminal actions, analogous to the colour circle, a ‘radex’. The radex model, tested using Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) procedures, allows specific hypotheses to be developed about important constituents of criminal differentiation:...

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Criminal Profiling From Crime Scene Analysis

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Abstract

Describes the developing technique of criminal personality profiling. Such profiling will not identify the offender, but indicates the kind of person most likely to have committed a crime by focusing on personality characteristics. A basic premise is that the way persons think directs their behavior. The profiling process moves from input through a decision models stage considering the type and style of the crime. After further assessment, a generated profile is applied to the investigation. The profile is reviewed when the suspect is apprehended. Criminal personality profiling has proven to be a useful tool in law enforcement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

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