FBI-Style Profiling Flashcards
FBI style vs Statistical profiling
FBI-style profiling: intuition/art
Statistical profiling: empirical/scientific
Types of profiling:
- crime scene
- offender
- psychological
Crime scene profiling: use info from crime scene to generate picture of the offender
Offender profiling: characteristics of offenders within specific crime types drawn from empirical data
Psychological profiling: assessment of individual offenders to determine risk
Serial killer profiling
FBI behavioural science unit studied serial killers with sexual aspects
Defined as 3 or more separate events in three or more separate locations with a cooling off period
Experience and intuitive are key
Weak empirical base - based on 36 offenders
Modus operandi vs criminal signature
Modus operandi
The in which an offender commits the crime - may change based on what the offender has learnt (Consistent behaviour)
Criminal signature
Aspects of the crime that are idiosyncratic or a characteristic of the offender (trophy taking, calling card etc.)
FBI profiling - stages of the process
Stage 1 - data assimilation (eventually identify crime signature)
Stage 2 - crime scene classification (organised/planned or disorganised/chaotic)
Stage 3 - crime scene reconstruction (generate hypothesis, based on crime scene what led to crime)
Stage 4 - generate profile
Claremont serial killer
Investigators used criminal profiling, geographic profiling, polygraphs, public surveys, DNA testing taxi drivers
Widespread media campaign for public to look for signs (guilt ridden, absent from work, left work, deterioration in performance, inability to concentrate, headaches, sudden change in plans
Effectiveness of FBI-style profiling
- little new research
- may help police in prioritising info (and vice versa)
- may eliminate suspect as much as identify offender
- helps info gathering from crime scene (attention to detail)
- generally informative but doesn’t identify offender in specific cases
