After analyzing the readings on death investigations by nature they are very complex incidences requiring individuals with the skill and know how. In spite of, depictions of Hollywood's imagination on the subject there are many players involved in the foreground and background working together. First, is the first responder to the scene. The officer's role is to establish scene safety getting appropriate medical help with along with formal contact with victims and witnesses, and detectives. One "key" role in these types of crimes is establish if any artifacts (i.e. evidence) at the scene and the use of the chain of custody.
According to the National Institute for Justice (NIJ) one "best practices" have been established to guide police in
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a critical role of chain of custody. In any criminal investigation to preserve the integrity of the evidence is called the "chain of custody." In the interpretation, of the literature by Joseph Prahlow he explains the importance of dealing and documenting evidence. Prahlow articulates contaminated or compromising evidence that has the potential of being inadmissible in court. (Prahlow, 2010) By the same token, larger police department, for example such as the Kansas City, Missouri Forensics Lab, a program has been adopted called Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS). With this software key, components of the "chain of custody" is strictly monitored for quality assurance. (Galvin, 2014) Seconded, is the Crime Scene Analyst collecting the evidence. In the YouTube film called "Crime Scene" Analyst Nicole, portrays her typical day using assorted techniques such as photography, fingerprint lifting, and evidence collecting. Profoundly criminal analyses by nature can be both physically and mentally exhausting, and work hours can last outside the normal established weekly business hours. (Crime Scene Analyst (CSI), Career Video from drkit.org, 2011) Third, is a brief glance inside the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office remains a model for what a national standard should resemble. First, is the communication between the pathologist. The Medical Examiner's Office conducts daily meetings to review cases from the day before as well as talk about the supplementary complicated cases. (Examining the Medical Examiner, 2011) Equally important, examiners have various duties such as managing autopsies, systematize medical records, and find the circumstantial confirmation to establish time and source of death. In fact, medical examiners spend countless hours testifying in court and contacting expert witnesses in both civil and criminal cases to find facts on cause of death and theories of events leading up to the murder. (What Does a Medical Examiner Do?, n.d.) Medical examiners first were medical students that then found an interest after getting their medical degree. This is followed up by a one-year training program residence with a doctorate in the discipline and later getting certified by the board of pathology. Certain counties in the U.S. required the pathologist to have a law degree. (What Does a Medical Examiner Do?, n.d.) Equally important, to this discussion of "criminal profiling" in the criminal justice system.
In short this is the concept of analyzing an individual(s) behaviors to gain some understanding of a plausible suspect(s). (Kocsis, Middledorp, & Karpin, 2008) In any case profiling is a "tool" used to decrease the doubt about identifying cases to resolve crimes. Author Damon A. Mulle in "Qualitative Approaches to Criminal Profiling as Ways of Reducing Uncertainty in Criminal Investigations" breaks down criminal profiling into two notable categories. First, is mapping the characteristics of the crime scene (i.e. profiling) in in other scientific words behavioral investigative advice. Second, is establishing the suspects geographic distribution to find the geographical base. Most of what is considered criminal profiling is little more than the opinion of an experienced criminal investigator who does not necessarily "Research on police perceptions of the effectiveness of criminal profiles has reported that police found the advice from the pro- files useful; however, this research is limited in that it only reflects the subjective opinion of police surveyed" Mulle said. (Muller, 2011) Furthermore, authors in the text also mirror author Damon A. Mulle findings as well finding criminal profiling is examining different personalities traits help in the understanding how investigations into killers' action are actually carried out. (Hough & McCorkle, 2017)
In conclusion, this segment reminds me of a classic 1991 Hollywood film "Silence of the Lambs" starring Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn), and Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) the plot takes place when a young FBI agent wants to advance her career by working in the behavioral science unit under the leadership of Agent Jack
Crawford. As the film unfolds Agent Starling learns Dr. Lector has been playing psychological games with her using cryptic lines to find a serial killer "Buffalo Bill" (Ted Levine). (Demme, 1991) According to the text these types of intended killings are extremely rare and that record homicides are as a result of an argument. Paradoxically, crimes committed such as in "Silence of the Lambs" do attract media attention and naturally put communities in disarray until the subject apprehended. Comparable the book speaks of "Buffalo Bill" had periods of downtime between murders resulting in a "cooling off period". Furthermore, in the film "Buffalo Bill" took time to reflect on his killings admiring trophies and did express moments of emotional thoughts while spending time of romancing the killings.
This article gives some examples of crimes and how they were solved using a psychology technique along with how criminal profiling is used to solve crimes and how the profilers know how to slim down the suspects. In the first case, there was a man that planted bombs in multiple places each time writing a note in block letters- signing it F.P. The first bomb was found in 1940, in 1954 he struck four times, and in 1955 five times. In
Criminal profiling is a law-enforcement technique that uses psychological clues to identify potential characteristics of a suspect; Criminal profiling has been used in many cases, including serial-killer Ted Bundy. Has been largely contributed to by the FBI, and is portrayed in many television shows and movies, most famously, Criminal Minds.
With the society that most individuals are offered today, the world of crime has been constantly transforming. This can influence the typical individual to question if there are too many laws that one should follow, including the penalties that are to be expected. The word crime can insinuate many thoughts of apprehension, segregation, and security when applying the law in accordance to criminal acts being prosecuted. In order for penalties to apply to a particular individual, law enforcement must first be able to track and identify suspects of various crimes. Numerous approaches can be offered for this process, but profiling is a common tactic that has aided law enforcement in seeking justice for both suspects and victims. Although viewed negatively at times, law enforcement profiling is an effective tool for police officers that should not be abandoned due to infrequent and negligible invasions into an innocent person’s personal privacy. Suspect profiling has diverse backgrounds, intentions, and classifications that are demonstrated in various forms and allows law enforcement to evaluate and distinguish any probable evidence. With the following paragraphs I will provide detailed information on what ‘profiling suspects’ means in a law enforcement setting, the pros and cons of profiling, and the reasons why profiling should be used in law enforcement.
police then look for a suspect who might possibly have committed it. Profiling means that a suspect is discovered and the police then look for a crime for the person to have possibly committed” (Tator & Henry, 2003, p3).
It helps develop a picture or description of what the suspect looks or acts like (Winerman p. 1). This type of methodology can help police find criminals faster. By eliminating criminal profiling, it would make the police’s job harder because they wouldn’t be able to use their knowledge from the scene and apply it to their suspect. Eliminating racial profiling is a very good idea. It would make police’s jobs easier because they would be more respected, and people would probably be less violent and more willing to cooperate.
Office Of Justice Programs (January 20, 2012) National Institute Of Justice (Police Use of Force
Criminal profiling is not just something that one as a law enforcement officer, jumps up to. It is usually done by forensic experts who have anatomical knowledge and are conversant with the criminal mind and culture. According to Fintzy (2000), it requires diligence, brainpower and the ability to query assumptions and presumptions. Thus a normal police officer would be confused when left to decipher the cause of a particular crime and would appear completely subdued if told to deduce the profile of the possible criminal. Criminal profiling itself as a process of deciphering criminals and their actions, began in 1969 and was advanced by the FBI (Turvey, 1997). According to many psychological experts on crime scenes, the scene of crime should and will always tell of the offender’s psychological disp...
Travis Siska Professor Fos Alvin Community College Racial Profiling in Criminal Justice Racial Profiling in Criminal Justice This paper will define the topic of racial profiling, as well as the history, present day issues, how it may be dealt with in the future, and my opinion on the topic. Racial Profiling is the practice of targeting people of color or a certain ethnicity for investigation or arrest. History starts with the New Jersey State Police Department investigating activities instituted the term racial profiling that we know today in order to raise awareness of the issue. Some of the current issues today with racial profiling have caused many problems for the criminal justice system, hindering police efforts in communities and losing the reliability of the people.
Since a specific degree program has yet to be created for criminal profiling, extra training and classes must be taken in order to be a profiler for the FBI. The FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit was formed to investigate serial rape and homicide cases in 1974. From 1976 to 1979, several FBI agents, most famously John Douglas and Robert Ressler, interviewed 36 serial killers to help develop theories and categorize different types of offenders (Bumgarner).... ... middle of paper ...
Profiling itself has been in use since Jack the Ripper in London during the 1880s. George Phillips and Thomas Bond made predictions about the murderer’s personality based on the information at the crime scene (Winerman, 2004). The FBI now runs the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) and the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) made popular by the television show Criminal Minds. Forensic profilers interact with a large variety of crime, but the focus of this paper will lie on the interaction of profiling and serial killers.
When it comes to profiling, it is a very controversial tool, although within the past couple decades it has increased in use significantly. One huge controversy is the fact that not a lot of people believe that a hypothetical depiction of a suspect actually helps contribute to solving crimes, however, a lot of the profiles for serial killers in the past have been incredibly accurate. There is, however, a lack of scientific evidence to support these techniques. With the lack of a scientific basis, the question of the validity that profiling brings to investigations arises often. The main issue is that no one knows if they have a good portrait until the suspect is caught.
... in psychological profiling and in 1972 created its Behavioral Science Unit (BSU). By 1978, the FBI established a formal Psychological Profiling unit within the BSU at its training facility in Quantico, Virginia (Egger, 1999). In 1982, the program was expanded using a National Institute of Justice grant to collect and store recorded interviews with convicted murderers. The program interviewed some 36 convicted sexual murderers who represented solo, serial, and mass murderers (Egger, 1999).
Imagine pulling into your driveway and seeing your neighbor’s house surrounded by police, flashing lights, and caution tape with bodies covered in white sheet on the lawn. It was a drive by shooting. Next, a van pulls up and a Criminal Investigator steps out and starts assessing the crime scene. She begins taking photos, marking shell casings, packaging evidence, documenting tire treads on the pavement and inspecting and collecting DNA evidence from the bodies. Criminal Investigators are highly trained college graduates that are a vital part of bringing criminals to justice.
The process of inferring the personality characteristics of individuals responsible for committing criminal acts has commonly been referred to as criminal profiling. (Turvey) Criminal profiling can also be referred to as, behavioral profiling because when a profiler creates a profile they refer to the behavior of the offender. The general term criminal profiling can also be referred to as crime scene profiling, criminal personality profiling, offender profiling, psychological profiling and criminal investigative analysis. All the terms listed above are used inconsistently and interchangeably. Modern criminal profiling is owing to a diverse history grounded in the study of criminal behavior (criminology), the study of mental illness (psychology and psychiatry), and the examination of physical evidence (the forensic sciences). (Turvey) There are four very important elements that contribute to the making of a criminal profile. These elements are victimology, wound pattern analysis, crime scene characteristics and criminology. Victimology is the study of victims. The profilers ask themselves questions such as, “Why this person?” and “Was the victim related to their killer or attacker?” Wound pattern analysis is the study of the way the wounds on the victim were made. Crime scene characteristics help to the making of a profile by showing profilers what exactly went on during the crime. Criminology is the study of the crime, criminals and criminal behaviors.
Computers take part in a big role in the Criminal Justice Field. So far computers have allowed us to make it accessible for witnesses to go through and look for a suspect's picture on the screen. Computers have enabled us to be able to do DNA testing. Which now only takes the labs a short time to process, and finding criminals from cases 15+ years ago can now be charged for their actions.