DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CRIMINAL PROFILING INFORMATION SYSTEM

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CRIMINAL PROFILING INFORMATION SYSTEM

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Criminal Profiling is an investigative tool used by law enforcement agencies to identify likely suspects (descriptive offender profiling) and analyze patterns that may predict future offenses and victims (predictive offender profiling).[1] Offender profiling dates back to 1888 and the spree of Jack the Ripper.[2] Current applications include predictive profiling, sexual assault offender profiling, and case linkage.[2] Offender profiling is also known as criminal profiling, criminal personality profiling, criminological profiling, behavioral profiling, or criminal investigative analysis. Despite a lack of scientific research or evidence to support its usefulness in criminal investigations, usage of profiling by law enforcement has grown since the 1970s.[3][4] More recent attempts at research into profiling's effectiveness have prompted researchers to label it as pseudoscientific.[4] Malcolm Gladwell of The New Yorker compared profiling to astrology and cold reading.[5]

According to the FBI, criminal profiling can have advantageous implications for multiple aspects of an investigation. The initial profile can give investigators a starting point into the lifestyle, motivations and future behaviors of the suspect. This information can then lead to potential locations or identification of the offender. A profile can also render hard evidence by providing necessary information to validate a search warrant. Criminal profilers can help investigators achieve better answers in the interrogation process of a suspected offender. A specialized approach or interview environment may change the course of the information received, allowing law enforcement to benefit from the keen ability of a profiler to understand the personality, motivations or triggers of the suspect. Because criminal profilers can utilize hard evidence with their comprehensive psychological outline of the offender, they can offer comprehensive expert testimony during a trial, evaluate the likelihood of another crime or assist with prosecution and cross-examination strategies. Criminal profiling may also be used to analyze the validity of threats from potential offenders. Evidence may be used in the case of threats to determine whether ability exists to carry them out.

There are three leading approaches in the area of offender profiling: the criminal investigative approach, the clinical practitioner approach, and the scientific statistical approach. The criminal investigative approach is what is used law enforcement and more specifically by the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) within the FBI. The BAU "assists law enforcement agencies by their review and assessment of a criminal act, by interpreting the offender's behavior during the crime and the interactions between the offender and the victim during the commission of the crime and as expressed in the crime scene."[7] The clinical practitioner approach focuses on looking at each case as unique, making the approach very individualistic. One practitioner, Turco, believed that all violent crimes were a result of the mother-child struggle where female victims represent the offender's mother. This is also recognized as the psychodynamic approach. Another practitioner, Copson, outlined some principles for profiling which include being custom made, interactive and reflexive. By following these principles, the profile should include advice that is unique and not from a stereotype, should be easy to understand for all levels of intelligence, and all elements in the profile should influence one another.[7] The Scientific approach relies heavily on the multivariate analysis of behaviors and any other information from the crime scene that could lead to the offender's characteristics or psychological processes. According to this approach, elements of the profile are developed by comparing the results of the analysis to those of previously caught offenders.[7] Wilson, Lincon and Kocsis list three main paradigms of profiling: diagnostic evaluation, crime scene analysis, and investigative psychology.[13] Ainsworth[14] identified four: clinical profiling (synonymous with diagnostic evaluation), typological profiling (synonymous with crime scene analysis), investigative psychology, and geographical profiling.[15]  Five steps in profiling include analyzing the criminal act and comparing it to similar crimes in the past, an in-depth analysis of the actual crime scene, considering the victim's background and activities for possible motives and connections, considering other possible motives, and developing a description of the possible offender that can be compared with previous cases.[16] One type of criminal profiling is referred to as linkage analysis. Gerard N. Labuschagne defines linkage analysis as "a form of behavioral analysis that is used to determine the possibility of a series of crimes as having been committed by one offender."[17] Gathering many aspects of the offender's crime pattern such as modus operandi (MO), ritual or fantasy-based behaviors exhibited, and the signature of the offender, help to establish a basis for a linkage analysis. An offender's modus operandi is the habits or tendencies during the killing of the victim. An offender's signature is the unique similarities in each of the kills. Mainly, linkage analysis is used when physical evidence, such as DNA, cannot be collected.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CRIMINAL PROFILING INFORMATION SYSTEM

Chapters: 1 - 5
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