Informal Criminal Profiling Tool

In the article The Serial Killer Phenomenon Richard Whittington-Egan aims to explain what exactly a serial killer is by giving an in-depth evaluation on how a serial killer differs from a mass murderer, or a psychopath. Whittington-Egan breaks down and showcases the defining characteristics of a serial kill with the help of numerous cases of evidence which confirms the accuracy of each statement. Characteristics such as narrowed age, race, and typically being a loner with difficulty with relationships are talked about. The article concludes by examining the future of this phenomenon, what has been done, and most importantly, how difficult it will be to solve such an unpredictable behavior. The Serial Killer Phenomenon article shows us what evil is through the lack of morals and

Crime dramas like Criminal Minds do sometimes give an accurate glimpse of how things like profiling are conducted. In this case with episode ten the BAU team does do some profiling correctly. Once they had an idea of who the offender was they looked into his past and realized that he previously been convicted of sexually assaulting women and had knowledge in IT giving him the ability to enter the homes with ease. Looking into the past behaviors is something that the BAU does when profiling the unsub. Keely said understanding an offender’s past

Serial killers have dated back to the Roman Empire where a group of matrons allegedly murdered men with a poisoned ring. Although many centuries have passed and the murder methods have changed, serial killers are still about. However over the course of the years, forensic professionals have determined some general traits that serial killers usually possess. Such traits include childhood abuse, a desire for power, manipulative charm, lack of empathy, substance abuse, fantasies, acting out said fantasies on animals, lonely and isolated youth, physical injuries, being antisocial, bedwetting, and early interests in voyeurism and fetishism. But what defines one as a serial killer? A serial killer is defined as person who murders at least three

Over the years, profiling has become an interest to many people in the world today. According to Richard Kocsis, a psychologist in Sydney, Australia; “criminal profiling has over the past four decades, steadily grown both in its use by law enforcement agencies and in terms of research endeavors invested its development” (79). Although profiling serial killers has become a big fascination, it is uncertain if it is successful or not. Many questions that arose about profiling were: how do investigators identify serial killers, what methods do investigators use in profiling, how technology and social media affect profiling and how accurate is profiling. In addition, the profiling of serial killers has started to develop over the past years, making

The ten most common traits among serial killers are as follows: alcohol and substance abuse, psychological abuse during childhood, sexually stressful events in childhood, bed wetting, growing up lonely and isolated, fantasies, preferring auto-erotic activities, developing voyeurism and fetishism in adulthood, and physical injuries. There are four main types of serial killers. Hedonistic - thrill/rush; lust/sexual pleasure; or gain (financial). Power/Control - satisfaction of having complete control; sex; main motive is to gain power. Mission Oriented - seek revenge; eliminate a specific group or person; “ridding the world”; generally not psychotic. Visionary - suffer from some sort of psychosis; delusions; hallucinations; feel compelled or commanded to kill; common: God or demons; victims are not targeted. An example of a hedonistic killer is Jefferey Dahmer who killed 17 men and boys, raped them, and dismembered them. He had necrophilia and was also a cannibal. A power/control killer is Ted Bundy, he was very smart, who would stalk, kidnap, rape, and then kill his victims. Joseph Paul

Mark Twain said, "Let us consider that we are all insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles”. The job of a Criminal profiler is to “unriddle” the psyche and crime scene, and by doing so, pin pointing a person-of-interest based on behavioral characteristics of the person and the crime. Criminal profiling has been used for many years, and has helped law enforcement find and convict many criminals, and has many times been called the crossroads of psychology and law enforcement.

According to Ebisike “Offender profiling is a crime investigation technique whereby information gathered from the crime scene, witnesses, victims, autopsy reports and information about an offender’s behavior is used to draw up a profile of the sort of person likely to commit such a crime” (Ebisike, 2007). Since it was first introduced in 1974 by the FBI, the method of profiling has been defined in many ways by theorists, critics, the media and the general public. Throughout the evolution of this method there have been profiles created that have successfully described the criminal and some that have not. The argument put forward in this essay is that criminal profiling isn’t a reliable method of investigative work, however it is in some sense

Since the late 1800s, the reliability of criminal profiling has been a very controversial topic in regards to whether it is is an art or a science. Many factors go into play when it comes down to determining the correct perpetrator of a crime such as observation and analysis of crime scenes, victims and most importantly looking into the criminal’s mind. Psychology plays a great part in the apprehension of criminals, profilers aim at predicting a suspect’s possible residence, family life and most importantly the characteristics of the person such as height, weight and any other clues that would prove helpful. Despite few similarities, criminal

The objective of the research is to examine the concept of offender profiling. This concept relates to the behavioral, as well as investigative approach or mechanism, which focuses on enabling the investigators to predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminal offenders or subjects accurately and efficiently. Cole and Brown (2014) focuses on the illustration of the important and significance of a Behavioral Investigative Adviser (BIA) towards assisting the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) in the course of investigating difficult-to-detect murders. This is an illustration of the concept of profiling, which seeks to facilitate effective and efficient profiling of the murder offenders for accurate prediction of their behaviors. It is possible for the readers of the research article to gain substantive insights and knowledge on the issue of profiling from this research article, thus relevant to the selected topic.

Criminal profiling can even be dated back to the 1800s when doctors were trying to predict the patterns of serial killer Jack the Ripper. Back in 1974, the FBI developed its Behavioral Science Unit to help investigate serial rape and homicide cases. It was during this time that two agents, Robert Ressler and John Douglas, came up with the idea called “organized/disorganized dichotomy”. This theory states that organized crimes are premeditated and carefully executed, therefore, there would be little evidence left at a crime scene. The opposing idea being that disorganized crimes are not planned and the criminal might leave behind a slew of evidence including blood or fingerprints. The theory goes on to say that an organized criminal is most likely antisocial and know right from wrong, and, although they may not be insane, they show no remorse. Whereas disorganized criminals they categorized as young and possibly under the influence of drugs or alcohol or they are mentally ill. For year the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI kept working on this theory and fine tuning it but still stating that the basic premise is that

Still unique to the philosophy of law, criminal profiling has been confirmed of being able to open new doors to the study of the criminal mind. It is very easy to argue the progress of forensic psychology, some people believe that it is not helpful and some people will swear by it. While many people praise the FBI 's Behavioral Sciences Unit with the improvement of criminal profiling, the actual act of getting inside a criminal 's mind began hundreds of years ago. It has not only

Criminal profiling is the process by which an expert analyses information and evidence from a crime scene to create a physical and psychological profile of the perpetrator. The information gathered from the crime scene is reflective of the criminal’s behavioral characteristics, tendencies, and personalities, which often create an accurate picture of the criminal offender (Schlesinger, 2009). Current methods in criminal profiling began in London around 1888 when two prominent physicians were used to predict the characteristics and identity of the Whitechapel district serial killer responsible for kidnapping, raping, and murdering several women (Kocis, 2004). In America, criminal profiling dates to the mid 1950’s when criminal investigators

(Woodruff, 1982) observes criminal profiling being a process of understanding a person’s particular behaviors has a long history and describes the famous case of Jack the Ripper

Criminal Profiling is a method of identifying the perpetrator of a crime based on an analysis of the nature of the offense and the manner in which it was committed. It most notably can be traced back to work done in the later part of the last century, and possibly even earlier in a variety of forms. There has been a definite growth since this early work, with many individuals doing a great deal of both research and practical work in criminal profiling. The investigative technique has recently risen in popularity both in practical use and media portrayals.

Many critics of criminal profiling presume that criminal profiles are usually too big to create the desired picture and that it takes a little more than common sense to successfully profile a criminal. If we are to acknowledge that profiling is a science, then it is only so because psychology as a science comes into focus in the solving of crimes. It is and has been proven possible, that the psychological study of people helps in the determination of their behavioral dispositions accurately. Going from this statement, it is thus of importance to realize the fact that criminal profiling is a major asset to many law enforcement agencies as some crimes are just not ordinary, and require specific studies into their nature for a proper profile to be acquired.