10 ~ Criminal Profiling & Multiple Murder

Profiling

• Subsets of forensic psychology

  • Police Psychology

  • Investigative Psychology -- application of psychological research and principles to the investigation of criminal behavior

  • Criminal Psychology

  • Legal Psychology

  • Correctional Psychology

Main Categories of Profiling

• Psychological profiling

  • Threat assessment and risk assessments of known individuals

• Suspect-based profiling

  • What are the psychological and behavioral features of persons who may commit a particular crime?

    • What is the "profile" of the typical offender?

  • Based on data from previous offenders

  • Actuarial approach/instructive methods (not clinical)

• Geographic(al) profiling

  • Determining, from an offender's crime sites, areas they are geographically most familiar with

• Crime Scene profiling

  • Aka crime scene analysis, criminal investigative analysis

  • Identifying personality traits, behavioral patterns, geographic habitats, cognitive tendencies, and demographic features of an unknown offender based on characteristics of the crime

  • Clinical/deductive methods

• Equivocal death analysis (not discussed)

Actuarial (Statistical) v. Clinical Profiling; Induction v. Deduction (logic)

• Inductive -- probabilities; likely conclusions; "probably" true, given what we know

  • Generalizations based on past cases/research

    • Useful as "working hypotheses"

  • "What kind of person would have most likely done this?"

• Actuarial/statistical -- what are the characteristics of past offenders who have committed similar offenses?

  • Cf. "suspect-based profiling"

• Deductive -- produces conclusions that are more certain

  • Use only what is known, not generalizations

    • Conclusion is a direct extension of available physical evidence

  • Experience/training rather than statistical generalizations

  • Offender characteristics are inferred from physical and behavioral-evidence patterns

• Clinical profiling -- description, understanding, and identification of a single offender based on the material gathered on an individual case

  • Cf. "crime scene profiling"

Geographical Profiling

• An offender's residence/work is inferred from location of crime sites

  • Buffer zone -- the area immediately outside the home where the offender does not commit any offenses (too close for comfort)

  • Comfort zone -- the areas where the offenders feels comfortable committing criminal acts

  • Distance decay -- farther away from home = less likely to offend

    • Criminals prefer to operate in areas they are familiar with

    • Offense areas often overlap with places they attend as non-criminals

Criminal Investigative Analysis

• Originally based on FBI interviews in late 1980s with serial sexual murderers

  • Main results:

    • Organized/Disorganized dichotomy

      • Reflected in crime scene

        • Organized offenders are generally psychopathic and are "organized" in most areas of their lives

          • Crime scene appears controlled and planned (e.g., brought weapons/tools, evidence absent)

            • Inference = (Unknown) offender probably has above-average intelligence, married/involved, employed, traveled/lives further away, careful victim selection, etc.

        • Disorganized Offenders may be psychotic and "disorganized" in daily lives

          • Crime scene appears less controlled and planned (e.g.. Used weapon from scene, left evidence)

            • Inference = (Unknown) offender likely of lower intelligence, poor social adjustment, lives/works nearby, victim = opportunity, etc.

      • Tells us:

        • "Organized" personality --> "Organized daily life" --> "Organized" behavior before/during/after crime --> "Organized" crime scene

    • Distinguishes between offenders on basis of the sophistication of their offenses

Behavioral Evidence Analysis

• Elements of Criminal Profiling

  • Forensic analysis

  • Victimology - relationship between offender and victim; victim's lifestyle, hobbies, habits, friends, enemies, and demographic features

    • Victim risk and offender risk

  • Crime scene Characteristics

    • Location and crime scene types

    • Method of approach and attack

    • Method of control

    • Weapons and use of force

    • Nature and sequence of sexual acts

    • Precautionarily acts and staging

    • Items taken

    • Verbal behavior

  • This provides evidence for…

    • Inferred offender characteristics (i.e., "profile")

      • Offender MO and signature behaviors

      • Evidence of crime scene staging

      • Crime scene motivation

      • Offender characteristics

Victim Exposure Analysis (Victim Risk)

• Lifestyle Exposure -- how exposed what the victim to being targeted based on their lifestyle

  • Careers (e.g., prostitute, drug dealer, law enforcement)

  • Afflictions (e.g., drug addiction, alcoholism, mental disorder)

  • Personal traits (e.g., self-destructive behaviors, passivity, low self-esteem, sexual promiscuity)

• Situational Exposure -- incidental risk due to situation

  • Time

  • Location

  • Proximity to criminal activity

  • Availability of weapons

  • Supervision

  • Victim state of mind (present)

  • Drug and alcohol use (present)

Key Terms and Ideas: M.O.

• M.O. (modus operandi) - "method of operating;" offender's habits, techniques used to successfully complete offense

  • The "How?" of the offense

• Examples of MO Behaviors:

  • Amount of planning

  • Offense location selection

  • Pre-surveillance of scene or victim

  • Involvement of victim during crime

  • Use of weapon

  • Use of restraints to control victim

  • Precautionary acts

  • Transportation to and from scene

• Can be used in any type of criminal offending (not just homicides)

• Offender signature - pattern of distinctive behaviors that reflect and satisfy psychological needs

  • Not part of M.O.

  • The "Why" of the offense

• Signature behaviors - unnecessary to complete offense; used to satisfy psychological/emotional needs

  • Reflect underlying personality, lifestyle, and developmental experiences of offender

  • Needs are distinctive, therefore behaviors are distinctive

• Signature aspect

  • Overall psychological themes that offender satisfies

  • Motivational categories:

    • Anger/retaliation; reassurance/excitement; assertiveness/entitlement; sadistic needs)

• Psychodynamics of offender signature are rooted in fantasy

  • Actualizing fantasy (temporarily) restores a sense of control for the offender

Multiple Murder - Definitions and Distinctions

• Multiple homicide - killing of three (3) or more people

  • Main types:

    • Mass murder (inc. school shootings) - at one time

      • "final statement" (often killed, suicide)

    • Serial murder - over time (with "cooling off" period)

      • Temporarily satisfies psychological needs

      • Will not commit mass murders

• Single Victim

  • Anger/lack of control

  • Interpersonal conflict

  • Victims = family, acquaintances, felony commission

  • Method = firearm

• Serial

  • Planned, controlled

  • No precipitating conflict

  • Victims = strangers

  • Method = hands-on (e.g., strangulation)

  • Multiple crime scenes, restraints, dumping

Serial Murder: Victim Selection

• Selected using three criteria:

  • Availability

    • Lifestyle

    • Opportunities for abduction

    • Not missed/"less dead"

  • Vulnerability

    • Easy prey

      • e.g., young women, elderly, children

    • May change with experience and/or confidence

  • Desirability

    • Appeal to offender (subjective)

    • Demographics, hair, body type, occupation, etc.

Serial Murder: Motives

• "Thrill" of killing

  • Can be sexual ("lust;" but not most); Power

• Anger or hatred - e.g., for a certain gender, sexual orientation, etc.

• There are typologies of serial offenders

  • Non-sexual

    • Visionary offenders

      • Ex. "God wants me to rid the world of prostitutes"

      • "Psychotic"

      • Rare

    • Mission-oriented

      • Ex. "I want to rid the world of prostitutes"

      • No psychosis

      • Personal mission

  • Sexual/Aggressive (i.e., "sexual sadistic" murder)

    • Hedonistic (pleasure)

      • Comfort (non-sexual)

        • Lust

        • Thrill

    • Power-control (dominance)

  • Groth (1979) - Typology of Serial Rapists

    • Power reassurance ("compensatory")

      • Underlying inadequacy; restore confidence

    • Power assertive ("entitlement")

      • Most common (38%)

      • Underlying inadequacy

      • Expression of virility

      • High aggression - restore confidence via control, mastery, and humiliation

    • Anger-retaliatory ("displaced")

      • Second most common

        • Rage/retaliation

        • May be symbolic

    • Anger-excitation ("sadistic")

      • Sexual

      • Gratification from suffering

Geographic Locations

• Comfort zones; "anchor point" (e.g., home, work)

  • "the base from which an individual resides or regularly operates…"

• "Hunting Patterns" (Rosmo)

  • (1) hunter - awareness space; geographically stable; near residence/neighborhood

    • Confined to city of residence; awareness space

    • Second most common (31%)

  • (2) poacher - travel

    • Most common (55%)

    • Travels outside home city; or, actively node outside home base (e.g., home base)

  • (3) troller - random encounters/opportunistic during routine activities

    • Opportunistic; routine activities; spontaneous, but may have fantasized, rehearsed

  • (4) trapper - entices victims to come to him

    • Victims come to them; occupation, want ads, boarders

Routine Activities and Crime

• "most criminals are predominately non-criminals; that is, they spend most of their time in non-criminal pursuits"

• Serial Sex Offenders:

  • Occupation where they could come into contact with potential victims

  • Recreational activities (e.g., bar, party)

  • Commuting from one place to another

  • 42% - prowling for victims during normal activities

• Victims:

  • Commuting (39%) from one place to another (e.g., leaving work, driving home after shopping, walking home, leaving a bar)

  • In the offender's home or workplace prior to the crime (25%)

  • At home (22%)

  • Indoor/outdoor recreational activities (22%/20%)

  • Working (12%)

Risk Factors

• Genetics + environment (no single "cause")

• Many of same factors associated with violence generally

• Predisposition factors --> Trauma events --> Low self-esteem; retreat into fantasies --> increasingly violent fantasies --> homicidal behaviors

  • Predisposition + trauma(s) = feelings of rejection and/or mistrust

Female Serial Murder

• Rare, ~34 documented

• Victims - Most commonly husbands, former husbands, suitors

  • Occasionally children/elderly who are dependent on them

• Motives - material/monetary gain (insurance, will)

• Method - poisons (usually cyanide), overdoses of pills

• ~50% had a male accomplice (potential for male influence on female offenders?)

• Healthcare killers

  • As many as 17% of female serial killers are nurses

  • Why? Possibly recognition, revenge, and/or power

Two Types of Mass Murder

• Classic mass murder - "public mass murders" (e.g., schools, churches, work); firearms; random/strangers (can be targeted - e.g., gender, race, religion)

  • 60% of mass murders

• Family mass murder - "domestic mass murder;" 3+ family members killed by another family member (familicide); murder/suicide

  • 40% of mass murders

• Research:

  • Significant neuropsychological differences between offenders who kill family members/intimate partners, and those who were victims were not bio-psychosocially related

  • Big differences between public mass murderers and family mass murders psychologically

Public Mass Shootings

• Relatively uncommon: cf. 10,982 firearm homicides in 2017

• Almost exclusively male

• Locations (2000 - 2013)

  • (73) business locations; (39) schools; (16) government

Themes/Patterns/"Profile?"

• Accurate predictive profile does not exist

  • "Seven shooters were in their teens, 18 were in their 20s, nine were in their 30s, nine were in their 40s, three were in their 50s, and four were in their 60s"

Mental Disorder?

• Silver et al. (2018) - 25% diagnosed with mental illness of any kind prior to the shooting

  • 12 (of 63) - mood disorder

Themes/Patterns of Mass Shooters

• Most - no criminal records or psychiatric hospitalization

• Most - multiple stressors before attack (esp. financial/job-related, conflicts with peers, partners, coworkers, supervisors)

• Often precipitated by a triggering event (e.g., being fired from one's employment)

  • 79% - grievance of some kind

  • Sense of personal failure + recent loss (e.g., employment, significant other)

• 50%+ suicidal ideation, behaviors prior to attack

  • Behaviors that "may signal impeding violence" in weeks/months before attack

• 77% spent a week or more planning their attack

  • "Mass murderers have been known to follow a mental script, one that is rehearsed over and over again, to the point where they become comfortable with the mission"

  • 46% spent a week or more preparing and procuring the means for the attack

• Majority obtained firearms legally

• Targets often planned and deliberate (can include non-strangers)

  • Not targeted as individuals, but as a group of people to be targeted for violence (symbolic victims)

    • Symbolic of discontent (e.g., workplace)

    • Hated/blamed for misfortunes

    • Targeting of groups (e.g., religion) - blame the group for own failures or perceive as threats

• Usually plan to die at the scene

  • 50% self-inflicted, remainder shot by law enforcement

• Socially isolated, but most at least some social connection to another person

• No patterns of drug/alcohol abuse

• Unusual interest in/use of firearms is common

School Violence - School Shootings

• More school shootings have occurred in the United States than in all other countries combined

School Shootings

• Majority (high school/middle school) - shooter was a student at the school

  • "School shooters are often students who have been bullied, picked on, and marginalized"

• Most - shooter acted alone

• Key characteristics: peer/social rejection

  • Poor social and coping skills

  • Anger about teased/outcast

  • Desire for revenge against individuals/groups

  • "they lacked social support and prosocial relationships that might have served as protective factors"

• Marginalized but not "loners"

  • "Sought out peers who were also disliked, forming their own fringe group"

School Shooting: Characteristics

• Primarily white, male offenders

• History of mental illness or disciplinary problems not common

• Symptoms of depression and suicidality not usual

• Average or above-average intelligence; school failure very uncommon

  • 2% failing grades

• Reside in rural towns and suburbs

• Middle class family background

• Typically kill alone

• Might victimize family members before shooting

• Signaled intention to other students

• Cruelty to animals - at least 50%

  • But, unusual affection/attachment/empathy towards pets in some

• Unusual interest in guns; often easy access

• Planned to be killed (cf. suicidality)

• Carefully planned attacks

"Leakage"

• Violent intentions often made clear to others, particularly peers (~50%)

• School peers and teachers most likely to observe concerning behaviors

Psychological Characteristics: Cautionary Note

• There is no "profile" that accurately predicts

• Many false positive and false negatives

Psychological Characteristics

• Social rejection (most), fringe groups of peers, pattern of teasing, bullying, ostracism, recent romantic rejection

• Victims among those who rejected or humiliated the shooter (or symbolic)

• Social rejection + other risk factors

  • Psychological problems (impulse control, lack of empathy, depression, aggression)

  • Unusual interest in guns or explosives

  • Fascination with death

• Depression

  • No history of treatment, but early onset of depression/suicidality (esp. suicidal thoughts + hostility toward others)

    • 78% of school active shooters demonstrated a history of suicide attempts or suicidal thoughts at some point before their attack

• Fascination with/access to guns

  • "Many high school shooters manifest intense interest in guns prior to the shooting incident" (Bushman)