There are a few types of criminal profiling, there is Geographic Profiling, Investigative Analysis, Investigative Psychology, and Behavioral Analysis. Geographical Profiling determines the location of the offender/potential target by examining his/her past actions. This can be done by analyzing places that he/she has visited frequently or where they committed crimes. Investigative Psychology discovers facts about the offender based on the crimes that they committed. This uses more psychological techniques on top of analyzing evidence. Behavioral Analysis determines how the offender acts or will act based on how they committed the crime. Based on the evidence the profiler creates a profile of the offender and determines their characteristics. …show more content…
Investigative Analysis determines the behaviors and characteristics of the offender and then categorize them. It determines the course of action based on how each person is categorized (types of criminal profiling). 3.2 Geographic Profiling Geographic Profiling analyzes locations that are related to a series of crimes with an unknown offender to attempt to determine the potential location of the offender.
It is typically used for multiple crimes in which the offender is unknown. This method of criminal profiling was developed based on research from Simon Fraser University. Obviously, the information gained from geographic profiling will not solve the entire case; but it can use the current information to decrease the area in which you are searching. An example of how geographic profiling aided a crime spree is shown in “figure 2” (center for geospatial intelligence). The color scheme on the on the left side of the picture indicates that the blue area is the least likely area in which the offender may reside in. The yellow, orange, and red areas on the other hand indicate a high probability that the offender may live in that area. This was done by checking the locations of previous offenders who matched the suspect’s description and lived within the top five percent of the geographic area. After several different attempts, and with the help of the media, the suspect was caught and ended up living in within the top one percent of the geographic area. As stated above, geographic profiling does not solve crimes, but it does help support law enforcement with new information (Harries …show more content…
Keith). Figure 2: Figures display the jeopardy surface and geoprofile produced from analyzing 32 armed robberies in Vancouver. The geographic profile helped to identify an offender who resided in the top 1% of the geoprofile (center for geospatial intelligence) 3.3 Investigative Analysis Criminal Investigative Analysis, also known as crime scene analysis, is another form of criminal profiling in which the profilers identify a criminal’s behavior and categorize them into groups.
In this method, based on previous offenders as well as other data, there are already set categories for many different types of offenders. After analyzing the behavior noted from the current crime, and the previous crimes should there be any, the profilers determine which category the offender belongs to. Once the offender is placed in a category, the officers take action based on the protocol for that category. This method is not as supported as others since it there is already a set protocol for each case. Psychologists would rather treat each offender as their own separate case and decide what action to take based on the information available in that case. The differences between a person’s behavior can cause problems if the wrong protocol is used, this is why psychologists are not as supportive of this method as the others (types of criminal
profiling). 3.4 Investigative Psychology Investigative Psychology studies the crimes of the offender as well as other information to determine facts about the offender. In this method, psychologists are the profilers, and they use their knowledge and techniques to make more than just educated guesses about the offender. Based on all of the information they have obtained, and years of experience in analyzing and predicting behaviors, psychologists create a profile of the offender. Some feel that this method is the only real way to create an accurate profile. Others, on the other hand do not believe in this method since it is not based on hard facts (types of criminal profiling). It was first developed by Professor David Canter and Detective Constable Rupert Heritage at the University of Surrey, UK during the early 1990s. One of the earlies studies began during a sexual assault case named “Railway Rapist”. At this time, many forms of criminality were being considered for psychologists since people were starting to recognize its value in criminal cases. The early studies focused on what the offender did, although, this method also has begun to realize the importance of analyzing the polices method as well. It has become more important to analyze the police to study which actions are effective and which are not (origins of investigative psychology). 3.5 Behavioral Analysis Behavioral Analysis and Investigative Psychology are very similar in nature. They both use similar techniques to create a profile of the offender, but unlike Investigative Psychology, the offenders are not placed in groups. In behavioral Analysis, evidence is studied as well as the crime scene in order to make a profile. This method focuses on the physical evidence in order to discover the characteristics and behavior of the offender. After obtaining all of the physical evidence, as well as gaining as much information as possible from the crime scene, a profile is then created for the offender (types of criminal profiling).
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).
...ifferent crime patterns and thought processes of criminals. The reasons can only come from these theories and will help the justice systems become more prepared to react towards different crimes. However, with adding some enhancements, projects and experiments these two theories have the potential to change the criminology realm forever.
Classification systems need to be tested prior to implementation and after implementation, in addition, the system needs to be regularly monitored and re-evaluated to check for effectiveness, without staff training and monitoring components, the system will fail to perform and will have issues with reliability. Some jurisdictions do not test the systems reliability and validity compared to the agency’s offender population, instead, they use the classification system without it being correctly designed and tested. The classification staff and anyone else who is involved in the scoring process must be professionally trained and tested on their scoring skills otherwise the system in unreliable.
Criminology is the study of crime and criminals. In criminology, crime data is gathered in many different ways. All of these ways are part of the National Incident-Based Reporting system, which is a program that collects data on each respond crime incident (CITATION). There are Primary Sources of collecting crime data, and Secondary Sources of collecting crime data. Under the Primary Sources of collecting crime data are the National Crime Victimization Survey, Self Report Surveys, and the Uniform Crime Reports. These reporting surveys and official records gather information for Criminologists about all types of crimes. Some examples of these are homicide, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, arson, burglary, and larceny. Criminologists use these also to measure the nature and extent of the crime, along with behavior and personalities of the offenders. Secondary Sources of collecting crime data are Experimental Research, Observational and Interview Research, Data Mining, Crime Mapping, Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review, and Cohort Research. These gathering techniques gather informatio...
Description of offender’s psychological history and functioning at the time of the offence is based on statistical approach which involves the analysis of behavioural and other relevant information found at the scene of crime in order to infer ...
Over the last few decades classification systems for offenders have been used for a variety of organizational purposes. Over time these classification systems have evolved, not only as a whole in the criminal justice system, but also varying between different organizations. Classification systems that create models based on the risks and needs of offenders are most popular. Throughout the years these models and the purposes for their use have been in a state of change, as well as the way their effectiveness is gaged.
The process of using behavioral evidence left at a crime scene to make inferences about the offender, including inferences about personality characteristics and psychopathology is called criminal profiling. Around the country, several agencies rely on the minds of criminal psychologists to lead them in the right direction to finding the correct offender. Criminal profiling provides investigators with knowledge of the appearance and behavior of a potential criminal.
Winerman, L. (2004). Criminal profiling: The reality behind the myth. Monitor on psychology, 35(7), Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/criminal.aspx
Geographic profiling uses information that relied on a management system that primarily demonstrate the methodology that evaluates where the crimes occurred in the area, to find the exact location of the criminal hotspot. It has many strengths and weakness that can be used to target a wanted criminal, however it needs precise accurate information to be valid in capturing the offender. It can be greatly helpful in many crimes such as rape, homicide, arson, terrorist activity, robbery, and kidnapping. It is a theoretical crime model that focuses on the individual profile that matches him with who the offender associates with, his profession, and where residence is located. Every individual has precise movements and this model directly attacks their patterns or activities.
Due to the complexities of investigative psychology these methods have been scrutinized. In order for these methods to be admissible in a court of law, they must pass the Daubert standard for empirically based evidence. The use of such standards has sparked an array of studies. For example criminal profiling has been under a magnifying glass for several years. Snook et al. (2007) found that there is inadequate empirical evidence that suggest whether criminal profiling is an effective method (Snook, Eastwood, Gendreau, Goggin, & Cullen, 2007). However, Kocsis, Middledorp, and Karpin (2008) reported that expert profilers are more accurate at prediction of unknown offender characte...
Using evidence collected from the crime scene and victimology, the police are able to create a criminal profile
The methods used to predict criminal behavior are: actuarial approach, prior history and clinical evaluation. An actuarial approach calculates the patterns of behavior with those with similar characteristics. Prior history assumes that if someone has committed many crimes in the past this behavior will continue in the future. The final method is clinical evaluation. An expert
As the years passed, a certain process or procedure was developed which created steps on how to create a profile. This became known as the “criminal profile generating process”. In this process, there are five different primary stages, with one extra stage for when the suspect is captured. The stages in order are: the profiling input state, the decision processing stage, the crime assessment stage, the offender profile stage, the investigation stage, and the final one is the apprehension stage (Criminal Profiling from Crime Scene
A large misconception of criminal investigative analysis is that there is a difference between profiling and criminal investigative analysis. Criminal Investigative Analysis is the same tool as criminal profiling and there is no true difference. A survey was done by Torres and the survey consisted of a couple of questions about profiling and about criminal investigative analysis asked to mental health professionals with profiling knowledge. The following table contains the results from the
According to the book, the discipline of criminology is constituted by subareas such as criminal statistics, sociology of law, theory construction, criminal behavior systems, penology, and victimology. The statistical subarea “involves calculating the amounts and trends of criminal activity” (Siegel 5). This means that with the help of statistics, a profile of criminal behavior can be created with the help of research methods, and measuring the results. The criminologist will “formulate techniques for collecting and analyzing” information, develop surveys, and create a database in order to test their theories (Siegel 5). This field is detrimental to formulate a profile that the law enforcement can use to deal with criminals. Another subfield mentioned earlier is sociology of law or sociolegal studies. This field is used by the criminologist to understand how the criminal acts have evolved throughout history. How and when is law originated and under what circumstances. For example, how a criminal act become punished by the law, when maybe a few decades ago was socially accepted such as the legal age of drinking,