THE PROFILING STRATEGY

Commonly, profiling strategy is divided into five stages, with a final sixth stage being the arrest of the correct suspect:

• PROFILING INPUTS

  The first stage involves collecting all information available about the crime, including physical evidence, photographs of the crime scene, autopsy reports and pictures, witness testimony, extensive background information on the victim and police reports. The profiler does not want to be told about possible suspects at this stage because such data might prejudice or prematurely direct his or her profile.

• DECISION PROCESS MODELS

  In this stage, the profiler organises the input into meaningful questions and patterns along several dimensions of criminal activity: What type of homicide has been committed?; what is the primary motive for the crime: sexual, financial, personal or emotional disturbance?; what level of risk did the victim experience, and what level of risk did the murderer take in killing the victim?; what was the sequence of acts before and after the killing; and how long did these acts take to commit?; where was the crime committed? And was the body moved, or was it found where the murder had taken place?

• CRIME ASSESSMENT

  Based on the findings during the previous stages, the profiler now attempts to reconstruct the behaviour of the offender and his victim. Was the murder organised (suggesting a killer, who carefully selects victims) or disorganised (indicating an impulsive, possible psychotic killer)?; was the crime staged to mislead the police?; what motivations were revealed by such details as cause of death, location of wounds, and position of the body? For example, as general profiling rules: (1) brutal facial injuries point to killers, who know their victims, (2) murders committed with whatever weapon happens to be available reflect greater impulsiveness than murders committed with a gun and may reveal a killer, who lives fairly near the victim and (3) murders committed early in the morning seldom involve alcohol or drugs.

• CRIMINAL PROFILE

  Here profilers formulate an initial description of the most likely suspects. The typical profile includes the perpetrator’s race, sex, age (which is one of the toughest points to nail down in a profile because emotional or experiential age does not always match chronological years), marital status, living arrangements and employment history, psychological characteristics, beliefs and values, probable reactions to the police and past criminal record, including the possibility of similar offences in the past. This stage also contains a feedback loop whereby profilers check their predictions against stage two-information to make sure that the profile fits the original data.

• INVESTIGATION

  A written report is given to the investigators, who concentrate on suspects matching the profile. Often, the police have already talked to a likely suspect but did not have reason enough to seriously doubt the suspect’s testimony. If new evidence is discovered at this stage, a second feedback process is initiated and the profile will be revised.

• APPREHENSION

  The arrest of the right suspect is the intended result of the above procedures. The key element then is interview technique. A thorough interview of the suspect could furthermore help to assess the influences of background and psychological variables.

  From a medical point of view, various scientific studies suggest that criminals may share a significant number of common medical or psychological patterns. These include evidence of soft and hard signs of brain damage resulting from injuries or other physical trauma; severe chemical imbalances brought about by chronic malnutrition and substance abuse; a possible genetic defect; the absence of a sense of self; which is the result of often consistently negative parenting, non parenting, or sexual abuse and; an almost hair-trigger violent response to external stimuli with no regard for the physical or social consequences. Furthermore, one of the most significant common psychological behaviour patterns in violent offenders seems to be a failure to perceive punishment as a deterrent to their actions and a fascination with the police pursuing them. Such factors should be taken into consideration when suspect backgrounds are researched. However, it is important to state that not every individual showing several of the above characteristics will automatically become a criminal. In combination with other factors or evidence, however, they may provide a useful clue.