10/8/2019 Criminal Profiling: 6WCM0032-0901-2019 - Computer Systems Security (COM)

Criminal Pro ling

This material aims to achieve these Learning Outcomes:

Understand the process of criminal profiling

Identify how profiling can assist in resolving a crime
Examine and critically compare the different techniques for constructing profiles.

Authors: Stilianos Vidalis, Renate Paetel

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Criminal Profiling - Concept and Definition

Criminal Profiling is used to analyse the background, possible interests, and characterisation of
suspects believed to be responsible for committing a crime.

Definition

Profiling according to Ainsworth, (2001) ‘generally refers to the process of using all the available
information about a crime, a crime scene and a victim, in order to compose a profile of the (as yet)
unknown perpetrator

Is it of any use?

Law Enforcement agencies often seek help from psychologists, criminologists, psychiatrists and
other professionals that specialise in human behaviour when trying to catch a suspect.

Profiling Aims

Holmes and Holmes, (1996: 156) put forward the idea that profiling has three aims which attempt to
provide the Criminal Justice System with information, specifically;

a social and psychological assessment of the offender;

a psychological evaluation of possessions found with suspected offenders;
consultation with law enforcement officials on the strategies which might best be employed when
interviewing suspects. (Cited in Ainsworth, 2001, p 15)

Not a new discipline

Criminal profiling has been used by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation since the
1970’s when it was recognised as an official field and has championed its use in past analysis.

but is it a useful one?

There is a difference of opinion on the most effective profiling process, but real world instances have
proved that criminal profiling can be helpful and lead to accurate arrests.

However, when used alone, profiling can prove potentially dangerous and is completely useless. It must
be used as a combination of detailed case analysis, accurate information and reliable records and
statistics to prove it’s true worth. (Nykodym, et al, 2005)

Snook et al. (2008) The Criminal Profiling Illusion What's Behind the Smoke and Mirrors?

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In this book, the authors conclude that CP should not be used as an investigative tool because it lacks
scientific support.

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Offender Profiling
Offender profiling is a criminal investigative tool that makes conclusions about the characteristics of a
likely offender based on the behaviour exhibited at a crime scene or if there is more than one crime
scene, the series of crime scenes.
Canter and Alison (1997) point out ‘that the most controlled information is that gathered from the
actual crime scene.
Evidence of this nature tends to be physical, such as DNA testing, ballistics and fingerprinting.’
(Evans, 1996, cited in Alison, 2005, p 11)

In a manual called Crime Classification Manual which is used for offender profiling issued by the FBI,
Douglas et al., (1992: 21) explain that ‘The crime scene is presumed to reflect the murderer’s behaviour
and personality in much the same way as furnishings reveal the homeowner’s character’ (Cited in Alison,
2005, p 3)

FBI Profiling
The type of profiling most used by the FBI, is retrospective profiling.
This approach uses any evidence left behind by a criminal to develop a likely description of that
person.
The idea is to link a specific person or persons to a specific crime (or series of crimes) that have
already occurred based on personality and behavioural characteristics that have been identified
through analysis of the crime scene and the facts of the case. (Nykodym, et al, 2005)

Crime Scene Analysis

So in studying the crime scene, profilers can in fact come up with a viable description of the likely
perpetrator.
Profiling is not conclusive about the individual, but depends on probabilities to create a combination
of the likely traits of the individual who committed the crime.

It functions as any other piece of forensic evidence in an investigation, operating to narrow the search
parameters of law enforcement authorities.

Law enforcement authorities, recognize that it is an important but limited tool that is used in conjunction
with other forensic evidence to help discover the identity of a perpetrator.

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Profiler
The criminal profiler is a person capable of giving the police insights about a probable criminal, which
will hopefully help solve the case.
The main focus of the criminal profiler is on the social and behavioural characteristics of the criminal.

He helps to focus the efforts of police by narrowing the search parameters to a defined set of suspects
who exhibit certain set of behavioural or personality characteristics.

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The profiler assumes that an offender will exhibit similar behaviour across separate offences of the same
or a similar type, or at least that the variation between the crimes of a persistent or serial offender are
less than between a random selection of offences. (Alison, 2005, p 79)

The dark of it…

Profiling acts as a means to draw the attention of police to an investigative pattern consistent with the
forensic and physical evidence.

Normally, the profiler examines:

what took place at the crime scene,

determines the type of person that committed the crime and then
generates a profile of likely characteristics and behaviours of the perpetrator.

Accurate profiling requires a careful compilation of theories and hypothesis from psychology and
sociology as well as data obtained by examining evidence and methods of operation employed by
criminals in previous crimes.

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Approaches in Profiling
Nowadays, profiling takes two approaches; prospective and retrospective.

Prospective Profiling
Prospective profiling endeavours to create a “template” of a particular offender, i.e a serial
murderer or a child molester based on the characteristics of previous offenders.

These prospective profiles are then held over a specific population in order to narrow down and
predict who will commit these types of offences. This approach is heavily criticised because it is
often overly inclusive and can lead to false allegations.

Retrospective Profiling
Retrospective profiling is the opposite of prospective profiling and is mostly used by the FBI.

This approach is after the facts and case specific.

It uses the clues left behind by an offender to develop a description of that person with the idea
of linking the person or person’s to a crime scene or scene’s that have already occurred based
on personality and behavioural characteristics that have been identified through analysis of the
crime scene and the facts of the case.

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FBI CSA
The FBI model has developed into Crime Scene Analysis, and incorporates six steps;
profiling inputs;
decision process models;
crime assessment;
criminal profile;

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the investigation and

apprehension. (Douglas et al,. 1988; Cited in Rogers, 2003)
The basis for the analysis is still the offender dichotomy of being organised or disorganised.
By exploring the crime scene the investigator tries to identify appropriate evidence to pin point an
offender modus operandi or any signature behaviours.
This will then highlight whether the offender is organised or disorganised but each category shares
common characteristics that the investigator can use to narrow down the number of potential
suspects and assist in developing an interview strategy.

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Investigative Psychology
Another approach is Investigative Psychology (IP), developed by Canter. It is similar to the FBI model as
it also heavily relies on statistics obtained from offender databases.(Canter, 1995)

IP uses five factor models which include:

interpersonal coherence,
significance of time and place,
criminal characteristics,
criminal career and
forensic awareness.

BEA
Behavioural Evidence Analysis (BEA) is based on deductive logic and was developed by Brent E
Turvey.
it is more reliable to look at the forensic evidence and then use the criminal event to reconstruct
the behaviour.
The BEA approach has four steps and two primary phases:
the investigative phase which occurs when a crime has happened, but no offender caught for it
the second phase deals with addressing a known event with a known offender, (i.e. there is a
suspect).

The first step the ‘equivocal forensic analysis’ is to collect as much evidence as possible.

Step two involves a detailed, in-depth analysis of the victim, who Turvey argues, should be profiled and
analysed as much as the offender.

The why, how, where, when and who of the victim relates directly to the offender. (Turvey, 1999)

The third step the ‘crime scene characteristics is where the focus is on unique, distinguishing features of
the scene that are correlated with the offenders’ behavioural decisions (Turvey, 1999)

The fourth step ‘offender characteristics’ combines what has been collected in the other steps which
results in a determination of the offenders probable behavioural and personality characteristics.

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Summary

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Criminal Profiling is an important tool to help with the investigation of crime and criminal behaviour.
In order to carry out a successful investigation, the profiler needs to be eclectic in Criminology,
Sociology, Psychology and also geographical aspects.
The theories looked at today both seem to believe that people who turn to crime are born with a gene
to make them commit crime or that we learn how to be criminals by others including our peers.
However, if this were true then all people who carried the criminal gene would be able to be pin
pointed at birth thereby allowing law enforcement agencies to track and control them before them
have the chance to commit crime.

Everyone is exposed to criminal behaviour at some point in their lives, be it by a personal encounter or
through watching others or the television, so if the learning theory was true for everyone, then everyone
would therefore be committing crimes.

Not all criminals will fall neatly into this package.

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Conclusions
The mapping of crimes only gives an indication of criminal activity if the crime has been reported
before.
It is of no use unless it has been reported or recorded.
An understanding of the influence of the environment on a particular crime would be useful in
predicting criminal behaviour.
This would then enable profilers to know why particular crimes are committed by someone in a
particular location at a particular time.

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References
AINSWORTH, P. 2001. Offender Profiling and Crime Analysis. Devon: Willan Publishing.
ALISON, L. 2005. The Forensic Psychologist’s Casebook: Psychological Profiling and Criminal
Investigation. Devon: Willan Publishing.
NYKODYM, N. TAYLOR, R. VILELA, J. 2005. Criminal Profiling and Insider Cyber Crime. Digital
Investigation. 2 (4). Pp 261-267.
ROGERS. M. 2003. The Role of Criminal Profiling in the Computer Forensics Process.
http://www.2.tech.purdue.edu/cit/Courses/cit566/readings/Profile-Rogers.pdf
(http://www.2.tech.purdue.edu/cit/Courses/cit566/readings/Profile-Rogers.pdf) (14th Jan 2010)
WILLIAMS, F (111). McSHANE, M. 2004. Criminological Theory. 4th Edition. New Jersey: Pearson
Education.

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