Criminal Profiling
Connor Corcoran
What is Criminal Profiling?
Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is a behavioral and investigative tool that is intended to help investigators to accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminal subjects or offenders.
Criminal Minds information
Data collected from the crime scene and victim
- Strangulations: Took too long
- Stab wounds: Secondary assault, cause of death
- 4 bodies
- Suggests of past criminal history-manipulating of the leads
- Victim's nails clipped showing that the unsub wants them to fight back, but not enough to harm him
- Most likely early 20's because of the arrogance with the dump sights and abduction sights
- Clothed body before dumping it: Suggest a sign of remorse
- Covers their eyes with duct tape: Suggesting the unsub doesn't want to be seen
- White
- Male: The violence used, with the lack of enough remorse
- Late 20's: Because of his organized arrogance, shoving his intelligence in the face of law enforcement
- Normal: Fits in enough to be able to trick the victims into going with him
- Blends in with any crowd
- Previous criminal record: The violence level
- Organized killer: Psychopath
- Good hygiene: Due to his order
- Smart: Able to commit a crime without leaving traces that are collected easily
- Mobile: Able to transport dead bodies without the worry of breaking down
- Car in good condition
- Most likely drives SUV or truck: The ability to go in off road situations with enough room in the vehicle for a dead body
- Car has tinted windows: He is transporting the dead bodies without being covered, suggesting he hides them through the tinted windows
- Sexual assault with no penetration shows unsub is sexually inadequate
- Paranoia stemming from childhood trauma, including his mother, because of the victimology
- Will inject himself in the investigation to try and keep himself away from being on the suspect list
How to Profile Criminals
- Provide law enforcement with a social psychological assessment of the offender
- Provide a psychological evaluation of belongings found in possession of offender
- Find interview strategies & process
Four main approaches
- Timing, location, geographical, etc.., needed to try to determine work place or home which are usually in or around the center of the offenses. Some are within a 10 or 15 mile radius.
- Determine characteristics of offender by presented offending behavior, style, and offense
- Specific characteristics of crime scene to then categorize the offender according to 'typical' characteristics
- Clinical approach to profiling in the psychiatry and clinic psychology field, which is used to determine whether the offender is suffering from mental illness or various psychological abnormalities
Procedural Steps in generating a profile
- Specific analysis of the type/nature of the criminal act, then compare to people who have previously committed similar crimes
- An in depth analysis of the actual crime scene
- Victim's background and activities are analyzed to find possible motives and connections
- Find possible factors for the motivation of the crime analyzed
- Description of possible offenders is developed, founded on detected characteristics, which were compared to similar cases
Things to pay attention to while profiling
- When Profiling someone pay attention to
- Slang: How comfortable they are with people around them
- Exaggerations: If they crave attention from others
- Sarcasm: Whether or not the situation could be serious
- Self-criticism: How the picture themselves
- Gossip: Whether they take interest in other peoples lives
- Body language: Whether they feel comfortable with the people around them
- Consistency in speech/story & actions: If they are telling the truth and don't change their opinion of certain topics. Watch for mistake, because if repeated often, the excuses are no longer valid
These characteristics can define the person you are profiling
- Statements and actions can help better understand:
- Their emotional style
- Self esteem
- Negative or positive directions
- Goals
- Easily adaptable or not
Things to remember when profiling someone
- Compare people to onions
- The skin: As people, we show & reveal our personalities and traits towards others without recognizing it
- People closer to you are allowed to comprehend you better due to the comfort levels and trust
- Relationship bonds create a locked sense of security between people
- Each person has a 'core' where thoughts and secrets aren't shared with anyone. This 'layer' is more psychological rather than anything
- Eliminate projection barriers around you
- Prepare to accept the truth instead of forcing oneself to believe something
- Many situations may result because of embarrassment, guilt, and insecurity that may blind us from acceptance
Criminal Profiling-Documentary
- Profiling data
A murder was committed and a special investigator that helped create criminal profiling was called in to help. Upon arrival he notices that all the victims were clothed when they were found. All victims were also sexually assaulted before being murdered. If the victims were to be dressed properly it suggests that the killer ordered them to get dress. If the killer could instruct them to dress themselves that data suggests that the likelihood of the killer being in control of their own senses is extremely high. If the victims were dressed improperly, the killer most likely dressed them after killing them.
- Chicago 1946: The first classified serial killer in America
- The killer bandaged wounds on victims which suggest that HE was ashamed of what HE had done.
- The investigators knew the suspect was male because of the anger & force used on the victims(known as overkill)
- Later, a 17 year old male was arrested and charged for all the murders after admitting he committed the crimes