Behind The Criminal Mind

Chapter I. Criminal profiling

Due to the abnormal increase in the percentage of violent crimes from the past two decades, the investigative technique, most commonly referred to as criminal profiling, has rose in popularity both in practical use and media portrayals.

Criminal profiling as a law enforcement tool emerged in the late 1960s from the work of FBI special agents Howard Teten and Pat Mullany. Nowadays the leading entity engaged in profiling is the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

But what does criminal profiling actually mean?

Developing descriptions of the traits and characteristics of unknown offenders in specific criminal cases, especially in cases involving serial killers, that is the famous technique called “profiling”. It is often used in situations for which authorities have no likely suspect.

There are two basic varieties of profiling: inductive profiling, which involves the development of a profile based on known psychological typology, and deductive profiling, which reasons exclusively from the details of the victim (a practice called victimology) and crime scene to develop an unique profile of the unknown offender.

Deductive profiling involves a process that avoids generalizations and averages. Not only is it based on pieces of evidence discovered at the crime scene, but it also takes into consideration the victim’s background.

A deductive profile is set up based on the offender's actions before, during and after committing the crime. For example, if the murderer used a makeshift weapon, investigators are then able to deduce that the crime was probably spontaneous. Another example involves serial murderers. Investigators are able to find out whether the murder was organized, which means that the killer carried out a planned, premeditated attack on a victim, or if the attack was disorganized, meaning that the murder was unplanned and the killer behaved in an uncertain way. Organized and planned killers often carry a tool kit containing duct tape and rope to bind their victims and gloves and a mask to hide their identity.

The study of victimization, including the relationships between victims and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system (the police and courts, and corrections officials) and the connections between victims and other public groups and institutions, such as the media, businesses, and social movements, is very useful in the development of the psychological profile of the offender and is commonly known among profilers as victimology.

Deductive profiling requires specialized education and training in forensic science, crime scene reconstruction, and wound pattern analysis. That is why only very experienced federal agents become profilers.

The deductive model’s greatest advantage is accuracy.

Deductive Criminal Profiling is also useful for thoroughly establishing Modus Operandi behavior, as well as offender signature behavior, which assists in the linkage of seemingly unrelated crimes. According to Vernon J. Geberth, a retired Lieutenant-Commander of the New York City Police Department with over 40 years of law enforcement experience, the Modus Operandi, or MO behavior, or method of operation, is a dynamic, learned behavior, changing over time, as the offender becomes more experienced. In other words, if the offender evolves, so should profilers.

One of the disadvantages of the deductive method is undoubtedly the fact that not only is it time consuming, but it also requires a great deal of effort and skill from all the investigators working on the case.

An exact opposite of deductive profiling is inductive profiling.

Inductive profiling is the process of profiling criminal behavior, crime scenes, and victims from the known behaviors and emotions suggested by other criminals, crime scenes, and/or victims. In essence, as the term suggests, this is reasoning from initial statistical data to specific criminal offender behavior. In any event, inductive profiling is generally the result of some kind of statistical analysis, or finds it's reasoning in cases outside of the case at hand.

This is how the inductive method works: for example, it is a fact that 80% of known serial killers that attack college students in parking lots are white males age 20-35 who live with their mothers and drive Volkswagen Bugs. This offender has attacked at least three female college students on separate occasions; he has attacked all three victims in parking lots. Therefore, the offender is a white male age 20-35, lives with his mother, and drives a Volkswagen Bug.

In other words, inductive profiling involves assuming that when a criminal commits a crime, he or she will have a similar background and motive to others who have committed a similar crime.

The strategy is used to predict behavior and apprehend potential offenders before they commit a crime.

However, the use of inductive profiling carries serious implications. First, the generalizations that are made to construct the profile stem from limited and often very small population samples.

Inductive profiles also only take into account the characteristics of apprehended offenders and neglect offenders who are at large. Characteristics of non-apprehended offenders are likely to be missing from the profiles.

Another problem is that behavior and motivations are assumed to be constant over time in inductive profiling. But people change with time, and it is simply inaccurate to profile a rapist operating in 2006 with one operating in the early �60s.

But why go through all the trouble, just to create a psychological profile?

The answer is that criminal profiling helps the investigators briefly understand what goes on in the offender’s mind, his personality, his relationship with society. It helps investigators “place” the offender in society.

It is used mostly by behavioral scientists and the police to narrow down an investigation to those suspects who possess certain personality traits that are revealed by the way a crime was committed. Therefore, the primary goal is to aid local police in limiting and refining their suspect list so they can direct their resources where they might do the most good. Profiling in itself, however, does not identify a specific suspect, or give an address or a phone number. Instead, profilers sketch a general biographical description of the most likely type of unknown suspect.

Another key use of a profile is to go