Criminal Profiling Flashcards
Offender Profiling
- A technique for identifying the personality, behaviour, motivation and demographic features of an offender based on an analysis of the crimes he/she has committed
- A biographical sketch of personality characteristics, behavioural patterns, trends, and tendencies
Goals of Profiling
Suspect prioritization
- New lines of enquiry
- Interview strategies
- Predict dangerousness & Evaluate threats
- Flush out offender
- Develop interview/interrogation strategies
- Offer cross-examination strategies to prosecution
Modus Operandi
- criminals standard operation
- mode of operation
- their signature
- learned behaviour that is modified
Aims to predict
- Age
- Sex
- Race
- Intelligence
- Education
- Hobbies
- Family background
- Location
- Criminal history
- Employment status/history
Inductive profiling
Profiling an offender from what is known about other offenders
•Advantages
–Very easy tool to use
–General profiles assembled relatively quickly
•Disadvantages
–Information generalized from limited samples - not related to any one case
–Does not fully or accurately take into account current offenders at large
–Because general, may contain inaccuracies that implicate innocent individuals
Deductive Profiling
Profiling an offender from evidence relating that offender
•Advantages
–Produces more specific profiles
–Focus on motivations
–Built on case evidence rather than hypothesis
–Examines behaviours of individual offenders as they occur over time;
- Change and growth allowed for, analyzed, and recompiled back into the criminal profile
- Disadvantages
–Requires specialized education and training in forensic science, crime scene reconstruction, and wound pattern analysis
–Great effort and multi-disciplinary collaboration
–Potentially emotionally exhausting
•Get ‘inside’ offenders head
–Cannot identify a specific known individual unless that offender’s unique signature is known and established
Organized killer
-high functioning
self control
–Murders are planned, target victims, show self-control, may act out violent fantasy
Disorganized
low functioning
impulsive
disturbed
–Less planful, gets victims by chance, haphazard behaviour during crime
Typology of Serial Killers
1.Visionary
•Psychotic (e.g., hear voices from god)
2.Mission-oriented
•Motivated to kill those they believe to be evil
3.Hedonistic
•Kills for pleasure
4.Power-Oriented
•Kills for the satisfaction of controlling
Typology of Sexual Killers
1.Power-assertive
•Plans the rape, but not the murder that occurs due to violence to subdue
2.Power-reassurance
•Plans the rape, but not the murder that occurs do to frustration as not be able to seduce
3.Anger-retaliatory
•Plans rape and murder—based on vengeance
4.Anger-excitation
•Plans rape and murder—goal is to inflict suffering
“Hunting” Process
- Hunterà looks for victims close to home
- Poacherà looks for victim away from home
- Trollerà victims selected by on opportunity
- Trapperà uses his positive to lure victims (e.g., want ads)
“Attacking” Process
- Raptorà attacks upon encounter
- Stalkerà follows and waits for opportunity
- Ambusher à attacks when he has control
•Criticisms of Profiling
- Theoretical underpinnings
- Prevalence of ‘mixed’ crime scenes
- Ambiguous advice
classic trait model
infer traits from behaviours and use these traits to predict other behaviours BUT, there is no empirical evidence to support this
Geographical profiling
involves an analysis of crime scene locations in order to determine the most probable area of offender residence
Assumes that offenders do not travel long distances from home to commit the majority of their crimes
–In many cases geographic profiles can be quite accurate (Rossmo, 2000)
- Useful for suspect prioritization
- Patrol saturation and surveillance
- Neighbourhood canvasses
Circle Hypothesis
Offenders tend to live within a circle defines by a diameter that is dictated by the two farthest crimes.
