What is Criminal Profiling? - An Introduction

OVERVIEW

Shows like Mindhunter and Criminal Minds have showcased criminal profiling and other investigative techniques, but, in reality, what is it? Criminal profiling is a technique used to identify an offender by evidence found at the crime scene, including victimology. In this case, victimology is the study of the victims. This could include their lifestyle, events leading to the offense, physical attributes, risk factors, etc. This can help to find a link between the victim and the offender, making it much easier to create a profile and identify the offender. Criminal profiling has come a long way since it first gained public attention. Though used as early as the Whitechapel Murders, more commonly known as the Jack the Ripper killings, it was only officially acknowledged in the 1970s. In this article, we will briefly examine the early history of profiling and basic terminology.

HISTORY

Profiling is quite an old technique. While it only gained popularity a few decades ago, early forms of profiling have been used since the 19th century during the Jack the Ripper killings. However, the most prominent early case in which profiling was used was New York City’s Mad Bomber case in 1956, in which Dr. James A. Brussel worked a profile that helped catch George Metesky. For 16 years, Metesky bombed public areas such as movie theaters and libraries. Growing increasingly frustrated, local authorities contacted the psychiatrist. Brussel made an incredible profile of the bomber. He deduced that the bomber was unmarried, between his 40s and 50s, a “textbook” paranoid, neatly dressed, and foreign-born. When police were able to locate Metesky, he fit almost every part of Brussel’s profile. In shocking fashion, Brussel even predicted that Metesky would be wearing a buttoned double-breasted suit. After his arrest, Metesky was found to be legally insane and unable to stand trial.

In recent years, the FBI has officially acknowledged profiling as an investigative procedure. In the early 1970s, serial killings were on the rise. Killers such as Son of Sam, the Manson Family, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy were all at their peaks during the 70s. Patrick Mullaney and Howard Teten of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit taught their profiling skills to students at the FBI Academy, where John Douglas took note of these techniques. He and his partner Robert Ressler used their time to interview offenders convicted of violent crimes, such as Charles Manson, Edmund Kemper, and David Berkowitz, in hopes of having a greater understanding of their motives. Douglas and his colleagues interviewed 36 separate serial killers resulting in a well of newfound knowledge. Criminal profiling continues to develop as research into the behaviors of criminal offenders expands. Though it has a pervasive history, it is still relatively new, and it may take a while to combat the controversy surrounding profiling. Still, the future looks hopeful with the growing interest in this investigative technique.

ORGANIZED V. DISORGANIZED

These terms are used to classify the characteristics displayed at the crime scene. You may have heard these terms before while watching crime shows or even in school, but what do they mean? In short, an organized offender is an individual who planned the crime before it was committed. This type of offender displays control and is more likely than not to have a thought-out plan for hiding the body and avoiding capture. Organized offenders often have a high intelligence level.

On the other hand, a disorganized offender most likely committed the crime impulsively and is going by opportunity rather than having a clear pattern of victims. These types of offenders, more often than not, leave a messy crime scene without much pre-planned thought to the crime. A disorganized offender often commits the crime spontaneously, commonly known as a “blitz attack.”

Examples of organized offenders include:

• Ted Bundy

• John Wayne Gacy

• Dennis Rader (BTK Killer)

• Joel Rifkin

Examples of disorganized offenders include:

• Jeffrey Dahmer

• Edmund Kemper

• Jack the Ripper

However, it is possible for offenders to possess both organized and disorganized traits, making them much more challenging to profile and identify.

WHAT IS VICTIMOLOGY? WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO PROFILING?

We briefly discussed victimology in our overview, but it is a vital aspect of profiling, especially when it comes to organized offenders. Victimology is the study of the relationship between the victim and the offender. An essential element of this relationship is the victims’ risk level. The victims’ risk levels can span from low to high depending on the factors that affect the probability of criminal interaction and criminal victimization. A low-risk victim is a victim who didn’t have a high chance of being targeted due to personal factors such as occupation, residence, community crime rate, etc. A moderate-risk victim is a victim who didn’t have a high chance of victimization. Still, at the time of the offense, their probability of being targeted was elevated due to behavior, drug/alcohol use, or other factors that would elevate their chances of being targeted circumstantially. A high-risk victim is a victim who has a very high probability of being targeted. (Morton et al., 2014)

Identifying how the offender chooses their victims and their relationships with the offender is crucial to criminal profiling. Many things can be understood about the offender because of their chosen victims. Things such as hatred for a particular group of people, victim attribute preferences (hair color, eye color, hair length, height, etc.), beliefs, and things of the like can be discovered because of the chosen victims. Offenders mainly select their victims based on three things, according to the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime of the Federal Bureau of Investigation:

1. Availability - How easy their victims are to attack or approach.

2. Vulnerability - This goes back to victims’ risk factors. It means how easy it is for an offender to take advantage of a victim(s). A high-risk victim is more vulnerable than a low-risk victim without situationally elevated chances of victimization.

3. Desirability - Desirability has many different meanings for different types of crimes. When it comes to crimes with a sexual motive, desirability means the perceived attractiveness of a victim to the offender. When it comes to other crimes, a victim’s desirability is based on other needs deemed “necessary” by the offender.

CONCLUSION

Criminal profilers are experts in their field, working with teams in law enforcement and using their knowledge to apprehend offenders. Profilers can predict future criminal behavior by studying the crime scene and applying psychology to investigative techniques. Now that profiling is, for the most part, welcome in law enforcement and forensics teams, profilers can now make more reliable inferences with evidence-based methods. Though it is still expanding, profiling has apprehended many offenders making the future of criminal profiling look promising.