lecture5- profiling

What is the investigation cycle

Information → inferences → action → information etc

What is the A to C equation - Canter 1995

Crime scene Actions

Inference processes

Offender characteristics

The 3 main goals of psychological profiling ?

1. Social and psychological assessment of offenders

2. Psychological evaluation of relevant possessions found with suspected offenders

3. Consultation on strategies that should be used when interviewing offenders

What is the goal of offender profiling

Working with info that already have to narrow a list of potential suspects, it doesn’t point to one specific person. It helps investigators develop interview strategies and suggests directions the investigators should consider

Basis of offender profiling (3 types)

Crime scene profiling - crime scene info to generate picture of offender

Offender profiling - empirical data to collect characteristics of those involved in certain crime types

Psychological profiling - standard personality tests together with interviewing to assess extent individual fits known personality profile of offender type

Who was dr Thomas bond in jack ripper case

Thomas bond was at the post mortem of last known victim of Jack the Ripper

Thomas bond - one of first known attempts to use evidence to predict features of perpetrator to identify the offender

Who was dr James Brussel in mad bomber case

James brussel was a psychiatrist who provided a profile of the unidentified suspect for a series of bombs

George metesky fitted the profile so was investigated and immediately confessed

He was declared as a paranoid schizophrenic

What is a top down approach (American) to profiling

• Crime scene data used to identify characteristics of offender

• Attempts to fit crime details into pre existing categories (reductionist)

• Barnum effect - accepting vague statements as descriptive of ones unique personality = accepting ambiguous profile as accurate description of unknown suspect

What is a bottom up approach (British) to profiling

• Aka investigative /scientific approach

• Small details to create bigger picture

• No initial assumptions made

• Relies heavily on computer databases

• Details often missed that are crucial to the case

Overview of fbi BSU in 1970s and their definition for serial killers

Howard Teten - first chief of fbis division training and development at quantico

The BSU began to look at a sub type of offender in 1970s and looked at sexual elements to serial killers

The fbi defined serial homocides as ‘3 or more separate events in 3 or more separate locations with emotional cooling off period inbetween events’

FBI and organised/ disorganised theory

Typological profiling strategy : Whether or not crime scene is left organised or disorganised provides info about offenders criminal sophistication and personality

• Organised : offender who commits crime out of need for power and associated with psychopathy

• Disorganised : offender who commits out of passion, compulsion, frustration or anxiety. Associated with psychosis

Also focused on MO (method of operation) and ‘signature’

canter et al,.2004 - disorganised snd organised crimes

found crimes showed a subset of organised features typical of most serial killings and disorganised crimes are less likelt

canter and larkin ,1993 - marauder model

out of 45 rapists,35 demonstrated the marauder model

meaney 2004 - marauder/commuter in diff offenders

Burglars and adult males generally more likely to fit commuter model

Sex offenders more likely to fit marauder

Across all crimes - last crime furthest from home in comparison to first

Criticism of fbi profiling

Relies too much on on intuition - faulty use of scientific method

Stage 1 fbi crime scene profiling process

Data assimilation (police reports, post mortems, crime scene photos, etc)

Stage 2 of fbi crime scene profiling process

Crime classification : organised, disorganised or mixed

Stage 4 of fbi crime scene profiling process

Profile generation : physical, demographic and behavioural characteristics

Stage 3 fbi crime scene profiling process

Crime reconstruction : hypotheses about crime sequence, offender and victim behaviour etc

What does method of operation tell us about the offender

• how offender committed crime

•  Experience of offender and situational/ contextual factors involved in crime

What does ’signature’ tell us about the offender

• Behaviour/ expression of fantasy the killer must leave at scene to satisfy psychological and emotional needs

Criticisms with typology information (organised/disorganised)

Over simplified

For use by law enforcement with little academic training in criminology, psychology and forensic science

Is a false dichotomy - few offenders / crime scenes fit neatly into either type

What did Snook 2008 suggest?

Says it may be an illusion that we can predict criminals characteristics from crime scene evidence. Meta analysis of studies on deception. Measured accuracy rates and people generally bad at detecting.

What is the homology hypothesis

Assumption that offenders who commit crimes with similar styles/actions share similar background characteristics

What does geographical profiling tell us about crimes

Offender is likely to live in central area

The further from the centre, less likely offences are likely to occur

Relatively few offences occur in outer ring

Railway rapes and circle hypothesis?

Large number of rapes - appeared to be linked to railway network, in and around stations but over a wide area.

Narrowed this down to a small area to where perpetrators may be located. One of the perpetrators lived right in the centre of the circle of events

What is the marauder model

Offender in centre with crimes around this, likely that earlier crimes in a series will be closer as familiar. Then when they get more confident with offending they are further away

What is the Commuter model

commuting further to commit crimes. But may still have a connection to that area

What are the dangers of getting profiling wrong

Killer may strike again

Arresting an innocent person

Case of Rachel nickell 1992

Walking with son in broad daylight - sexually assaulted and murdered

Offender profile produced two profiles - sexual fantasy, demographic

Quickly identified a suspect who lived in flat who was an odd character, Colin stag. Didn’t have an alibi and was a prime suspect although they didn’t have direct evidence

Vital clues missed by police

Charged stag with the murder although he wasn’t responsible

2008 Robert Napper was charged with the murder. Killed again and was in prison for different murder. He had Asperger’s and was a paranoid schizophrenic. In 1993 killed a young woman and her 4yr old which would have not occurred if he had been identified in 1992.