Criminal Profiling

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Criminal Profiling

• LECTURE/DISCUSSION 2-3
• Profiling Approaches and the Profiling Process

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More on the Definition of Criminal Profiling

• CRIMINAL PROFILING
• Is the process of inferring distinctive
  personality characteristics of individuals
  responsible for committing criminal acts
  (Turvey, p. 1).
• Is based on the notion that the crime scene
  reflects the psychopathology of the offender
  (Holmes Holmes, 1996).
• Involves presenting a logical argument regarding
  the characteristics of an offender responsible
  for a particular crime or series of crimes
  (Turvey, p. 121).
• Is an educated attempt to provide specific
  information about a suspect and biographical
  sketch of trends, tendencies, and behavioral
  patterns (Wrightsman, 2001, p. 78 in Forensic
  Psychology).

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Controversy over Criminal Profiling as Forensic
Psychology or Forensic Science

• Criminal profiling is not generally viewed as
  science because
• Training has been controlled by the FBI.
• The number of profiling jobs is miniscule
  compared to the intense level of interest.
• The majority of people who do profiling did not
  do graduate work in psychology.
• Even experienced profilers acknowledge that
  profiling is more art than science.
• Expert testimony on profiling may not meet
  standards for the admissibility of scientific
  evidence

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Is Profiling a Profession or Science?

• Profiling has not yet achieved the status of a
  profession.
• FACTORS HINDERING PROFESSIONALIZATION
• Lack of consensus (on terms, approaches,
  training, appropriate experience/educational
  background, etc.).
• Practical issues (sensitivity and confidentiality
  of cases.
• Ego/territorial issues.
• Absence of uniform standards, practices, peer
  review, and ethics.
• Small number (if any) of profiling positions
  where profiling is the primary job description.
• The notion (and acknowledgement among many
  profilers) that profiling is more art than
  science.

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Approaches to Criminal Profiling

• TERMS Psychological profiling,
  sociopsychological profiling, offender profiling,
  behavioral evidence analysis, investigative
  process management, crime scene analysis,
  criminal investigative analysis . . .
• GENERAL APPROACHES
• Profiling historic figures.
• Profiling offender characteristics.
• Profiling crime scene characteristics.
• Profiling psychological characteristics.
• Profiling geographical location/ spatial mapping.

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Why Use Criminal Profiles in Law Enforcement
Investigations?

• SERIAL MURDERERS, SERIAL RAPISTS, SPREE KILLERS,
  MASS MURDERERS, SERIAL BOMBERS, TERRORISTS,
  STALKERS, ARSONISTS represent a small group of
  offenders who are responsible for a
  disproportionate amount of violent crime and harm
  to society.
• Often traditional investigative techniques fall
  short in such extreme (and often highly
  publicized) cases.
• Certain types of offenses/offenders are most
  suitable for profiling because the crime scene is
  said to reflect the offenders psychopathology.

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Profiling Process

• The primary goal of profiling is to determine the
  what, why, who from crime scene information.

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Utility of Criminal Profiling?

• There is little evidence to suggest that criminal
  profiling leads to the identification of an
  offender in more than a small percentage of
  cases. However, benefits may include
• Further understanding of the case or the
  offender.
• Reassurance of officers conclusions.
• Information for interrogation and interviewing.
• Information to defense or prosecution in
  adjudication process.
• psychological autopsies in equivocal death
  investigations to determine if death is natural,
  accidental, suicidal, homicidal (NASH
  classification).

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Inductive v. Deductive Profiling

• Turvey refers to the FBI method as inductive
  and his method as deductive.
• INDUCTIVE profiles Based on types developed
  based on generalizations from data collected from
  known offenders information found at the crime
  scene is assessed/compared to datasets including
  public data sources, practical experience, formal
  and informal studies of known offenders.
• DEDUCTIVE profiles Based on the unique aspects
  of the individual crime scene and use hypothesis
  formation and testing in the development of a
  profile based on the premise that no two
  criminals, or people, are exactly alike (p. 30).
• BEWARE There are problems with this way of
  categorizing profiling we will discuss in class!

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Categorizing Profiling Models(From Wilson,
Lincoln, Kocsis (1997))

• DIAGNOSTIC EVALUATIONS
• CRIME SCENE ANALYSIS
• INVESTIGATIVE PSYCHOLOGY

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Diagnostic Evaluations

• Personality theory and clinical diagnostic
  categories used to construct a personality
  profile representing the type of offender most
  likely to have committed the crime.
• Generally conducted by psychiatrists,
  psychologists, academic criminologists

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Crime Scene Analysis

• Crime scene patterns, crime scene indicators, and
  data collected from interviews with offenders
  used to determine type (organized/disorganized)
  of offender who committed the crime.
• Generally thought of as the method developed by
  the FBI. However, others offer competing
  approaches (e.g., behavioral evidence analysis)
  also focus on analysis of crime scene.
• Done by law enforcement officers trained in
  profiling and forensic scientists who specialize
  in profiling.

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Investigative Psychology

• Techniques and theories from social psychology,
  criminology, and forensic psychiatry used to
  develop a profile based on statistical
  probability.
• Done primarily by psychologists, academics
  without investigative training who use of
  typologies and empirical studies to construct
  profiles.
• Term used primarily in reference to the work of
  David Canter and the Investigative Psychology
  program at the University of Liverpool. Involves
  (in part) interpreting through signals/offender
  actions such as
• The personal world the offender inhabits
• The care taken by the offender to avoid capture
• Degree of criminal expertise
• Unusual aspects of the criminal act
• Habits of the offender that may carry over into
  everyday life.

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The Profiling Process

• The process used depends to some extent on the
  approach/framework from which the person engaging
  in profiling draws from.
• However, the underlying process and concepts used
  is essentially the same (on a continuum of
  sophistication) regardless of the approach.

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Assumptions made in the Profiling Process(from
Holmes Holmes (2001). Profiling Violent Crimes)

• Crime scene reflects the personality of the
  offender.
• The method of operation (M.O.) remains similar.
• The signature will remain the same.
• The offenders personality will not change.

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Key Concepts

• ORGANIZED-DISORGANIZED TYPOLOGY
• PSYCHOPATHY/PSYCHOSIS
• PREDATORY/AFFECTIVE AGGRESSION
• MO AND SIGNATURE
• SEXUAL HOMICIDE TYPOLOGIES

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The Organized-Disorganized Typology

• Developed by FBI Profilers.
• Whether or not the crime scene is left ORGANIZED
  or DISORGANIZED is said to provide information
  about the offenders criminal sophistication and
  personality.
• Organized crime scene reflects offender who
  commits crime out of a need for power. Motivation
  associated with PSYCHOPATHY.
• Disorganized crime scene reflects offender who
  commits crime out of passion, compulsion,
  frustration, or anxiety. Motivation associated
  with PSYCHOSIS.

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Brief Note on the Distinction Between Psychopathy
and Psychosis

• PSYCHOPATHY
• Personality disorder made up of a particular
  constellation of characteristics
• Lack of attachment, defect in affect, absence of
  anxiety
• In touch with reality
• PSYCHOSIS
• Clinical mental illness Schizophrenia
• May meet legal definition of insanity
• Out of touch with reality
• However . . . both conditions are more
  complicated than this and its important to
  remember that there a range of mental conditions
  (an internal condition) that can produce crime (a
  behavior).

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Theories of Aggression

• Aggression is shaped by emotional states.
• Aggression can be motivationally categorized into
  two broad categories
• AFFECTIVE (also expressive, defensive, reactive)
• PREDATORY (also instrumental, appetitive)

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Features of Aggressive TypesSee Meloy (1988).
The Psychopathic Mind. Jason Aronson.

• PREDATORY
• No perceived threat
• Goal oriented
• No conscious experience of emotion
• Planned, purposeful violence
• Increased self-esteem
• Unimpaired reality testing
• Generally associated with males and masculinity

• AFFECTIVE
• Perceived threat
• Goal threat reduction
• Conscious experience of emotion
• Reactive, unplanned violence
• Decreased self-esteem
• Possible loss of reality testing
• Generally associated with females and femininity

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M.O. and Signature

• M.O.
• Latin term meaning METHOD OF OPERATION. Reflects
  how the offender committed the crime and what
  he/she had to do to successfully complete it.
• Tells about the experience/state of the offender
  and situational/contextual factors involved in
  the crime.
• Signature
• The PSYCHOLOGICAL CALLING CARD (Keppel Birnes,
  1997) consisting of behavior/expression of
  violent fantasy the killer must leave at the
  scene to satisfy emotional/psychological needs.
• Goes beyond whats necessary to commit the crime
  and tells about the offenders emotional/psycholog
  ical needs and motivation for committing the
  crime.

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Applying the Concepts

• M.O., signature, theories, typologies offer a
  LANGUAGE with which to discuss, explain, and
  classify.
• This language provides a foundation upon which
  INFERENCES can be made.
• A PROFILE is constructed based on inferences as
  an aid in investigation, interrogation, risk
  assessment, and case linkage.

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Constructing a Profile

• M.O.?
• Signature?
• Type?
• Instrumental/ expressive aggression?
• Organized/ Disorganized?
• Mental condition?
• Offender background?
• Offender characteristics?
• Situational Factors?

• General profile of the offender?
• Investigation/ interrogation strategies?
• Risk prediction, case linkage?

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Terms to Know

• National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime
  (NCAVC)
• Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP).
• Organized/disorganized
• Modus Operandi (M.O.)
• Signature
• Locards Exchange Principle
• Serial Murderer/Serial Rapist
• Spree Killer/ Mass Murderer
• Linkage Blindness
• Less-Dead

• Inductive/ deductive profiling
• Threshold Assessment
• Case Assessment
• Inputs
• Crime Reconstruction
• Wound Pattern Analysis
• Victim Profiles
• Risk Assessment
• Precautionary Acts
• Scripting
• Crime Scene Staging
• Trophy/Souvenir
• Psychological autopsy

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Question

• What can you tell me about this case?
  http//www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/14/earlysho
  w/main943428.shtml.
• Construct a profile of this offender for use at
  the adjudication stage of the CJ process.

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Suggested Readings

• Egger, S. (2003). The killers among us An
  examination of serial murder and its
  investigation. Prentice-Hall.
• Pinizzotto AJ (1984). Forensic Psychology
  Criminal Personality Profiling. Journal of Police
  Science and Administration, 12, 32-40.
• Pinzotto AJ Finkel NJ (1990). Criminal
  personality profiling An outcome and process
  study. Law and Human Behavior, 14, 215-233.
• Ressler, Burgess, Douglas, Heafner (1995).
  Sexual Homicide Patterns and Motives. Simon
  Schuster.
• Fox JA Levin J (1996). Overkill Mass Murder
  Serial Killing Exposed. Dell Publishing.
• Wrightsman, LS (2001). Forensic Psychology.
  Wadsworth.