WEEK 3 Flashcards
what is the mystique of profiling?
A great deal of the mystique surrounding the art of
profiling disappears when one realises that a large
amount of the information provided in a profile is
arrived at analytically and logically
what is Geberth’s definition of profiling?
An educated attempt to provide investigative agencies with
specific information as to the type of individual who would have
committed a certain crime.
what is Douglas and Ressler’s definition of profiling?
The process applied by a criminal
investigative analyst in developing an offender’s personality
characteristics.
what is Turvey’s definition of profiling?
The process of inferring distinctive personality characteristics
of individuals through their crime scene and crime scene behavio
what does profiling an inference of?
Inference of type of person who committed a crime from
their offence behaviour
what does profiling provide a projection of?
Either as a projection of how they will be when found
(inductive, trait oriented, experimental) or as an
assessment of how they were at the time the crime was
committed (deductive, state oriented, clinical)
What makes methods of profiling differ?
Methods (two main methods of reasoning, 4 or so methods
of profiling) differ most according to reasoning, subtle
variance between most individual methods
what evidence does profiling provide
class evidence not individuating
what is individuating evidence?
evidence that individuates a person from the rest of the population (e.g. DNA)
what is class evidence?
e.g. DNA that shows hair colour, eye colour etc
who did Dr Thomas Bond famously profile?
Jack the ripper
what was Dr Thomas Bond’s profiling based on?
o based on autopsy – not likely to have medical knowledge
o didn’t have precision that a medical professional would
what did Dr Thomas Bond predict about Jack the Ripper?
potential sex addiction – evidence was evident at crime scene
Who did Walter Langer famously profile?
Aldolf Hitler
what strategy did Walter Langer establish?
strategy that is now a part of the CIA
what did Walter Langer predict about Hitler?
8 possible things he could do one being that he would commit suicide and talked about how hard it was to profile somebody who you were not able to interview them
How did Walter Langer’s profiling influence the future?
use he was correct, this is where profiling began to gain some esteem
How did Dr James Brussel profile George Matesky?
o GM = employee at an electrical company. Due to mental health deteriorating the company fired him
o Bombs started appearing. First at the electrical company then followed a pattern
o several letters written that contained weird things. The letters didnt use standard American colloquialism
o Brussel came in to assess these letters
o Many bombs went off at train line from Kenetiket to NY
o had Freudian thing going for him
• found writing style interesting
• based on writing style assumed that he might have mum issues
• might live with mother and did have strong sexual relationships
o When they go to arrest them Brussel predicted that Metesky would be wearing a three piece suit buttoned.
• Not accurate, in PJs when arrested and asked to get changed
what did Howard Teten & Pat Mullany establish?
o Founders of the profiling course for the FBI
o Had to change the
what did Ressler, Douglas et al criticse about the profiling course the FBI used?
o too detailed to agents to learn
o wanted to make it simpler
o developed organised and disorganised classification: Organised = psychopathic offender. Disorganised = psychotic offender
o research done with 36 sexual murderers
Who did Dr David Canter profile?
Railway Rapist
What was Dr David Canter’s occupation?
Organisational psychologist and assessed the placement of things in supermarket
what was the railway rapist?
- raping women along rail lines
- sometimes with accomplis
- started murdering victims
What was the issue with the railway rapist?
brough victims in to profile the offender - that why offender began to kill them
what did Dr canter predict about the railway rapist?
possibly a carpenter – used Spanish tool thing
Who were Jerome Bruds and Brent Turvey?
- trying to get into FBI
- trained at uni of konetict
- learned everything about Brudos
- and interviewed Brudos
- found Brudos lied or minimised everything he did
- started writing about and put forward a much more crime related
where can profilers work?
anywhere, LE, private, prosecutor’s office, for media (e.g. Pat Brown - American journalist who profiles.)
what are the two types or profiling and what are they both based on?
inductive and deductive.
Both based on premises and conclusions- premises are reasons that support the main claim of the argument, conclusions are what is inferred from them
how are inductive logic conclusions made?
made probable by premises
how are deductive logic conclusions made?
made certain by premises
when is a statement inductive?
when it may be true given the available evidence - but not always
• You do not know until after the fact whether you are correct
• After the fact is when a suspect is caught and found guilty*
what are some typically inductive profiles?
- Offer characteristics based on previous offenders and their behaviours
- Combine research on the crime type into a report
- May assume the research is valid or representative of this crime
- Offer offender characteristics which are probable
- Use qualifiers (“may be”, “is probably”)
- Not concrete or specific; often refer to this crime by simple comparison (in X research, it was found that…)
what is the problem of induction?
o “Now it is far from obvious, from a logical point of view, that we are justified in inferring universal statements from singular ones, no matter how numerous: for any conclusion drawn in this way may always turn out to be false: no matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white”
- Karl Popper
when is a statement deductive?
• A statement is deductive when it must be true, if the information or evidence on which it is based is true
what conclusions do deductive things make?
- Conclusions follow logically; no space aliens, nothing that isn’t true of this world (reality oriented, susceptible to testing)
- Direct extension of the scientific method (falsification is key!)
what are some types of deductive profiles?
- Discuss the behaviour in this crime, regardless of other offenders
- Try to fully outline/account for available physical evidence
- Seek to establish victimology and crime scene characteristics
- Deduce offender characteristics from a culmination of the above, not related to past research
- Deductive conclusions are limiting, and limited to what can be inferred from the physical evidence
What is the problem of deduction?
- If no information is available, no conclusion can be drawn
- Very time consuming
- Proponents sometimes disregard or discount a lot of good research, forgetting that induction plays a major role in reaching deductive conclusions
- May involve more than just the FP. A criminologist, forensic scientist, pathologist, etc. may also be necessary
What are the profiling methods?
- Criminal Investigative Analysis – (FBI) organised disorganised typology, BSU/BAU
- Investigative Psychology – (UK) very research focused
- Behavioural Evidence Analysis - (USA) forensic science/crime reconstruction focused
- Diagnostic Evaluations – specific to individual analyst (physicians, FPs, psychiatrists, psychics, etc).
- Geographic profiling
What is criminal profiling?
An investigative tool used to determine offenders
what can criminal profiling be used for?
- Identify a suspect amongst a suspect pool
- used to flush out an offender or a likely offender
- police can use to help inform interrogation techniques - if you have an idea of what is potentially motivating the perpetrator, can use this to determine the approach of interrogation
- Threat assessment
- used in cross examination in court
Inductive profiling?
where you can make a probable assertion of what something is based on past actions. Using information from past cases to determine who you are looking for an what you are looking for
Deductive profiling?
very specific and certain deductions based on evidence specifically related to the crime. Use the evidence from the crime scene
what are the types of models of profiling?
CIA
Investigative psychology model (UK method)
Geographic profiling
BEA
what is CIA method pf profiling?
- classifies defenders as organised and disorganised
* inductive
what is Investigative psychology model method pf profiling?
- high level statustics
* inductive
what is geographic method pf profiling?
- using software and mathematical models of the geographical location of where the offender might live
- inductive
what is BEA method pf profiling?
- only looking at the physical evidence specific to the crime
- deductive method
why is profiling not scientifically strong?
a lot of error
• many cases where used well and hasn’t been used well
• error based on theories of personality based on little support
what are other problems f criminal profiling
o accuracy can be limited
o profile themselves can be quite vague – a lot of the times will be profiled to male, single, Caucasian, brown hair
what is the Mr big technique?
o where police officers will go undercover and pretend to be a part of an organised crime group and get them to do some small crimes
o then say to the offender and ask them whether they did It ti ‘give them bigger jobs’
o why tjey need the info? – so that we can trust you
o can try and remove all the evidence so that you can gain their trust
o Used in Daniel Morcombe case
o requires money
o Honey trap – uses females and connectioj
