Serial Murder, Criminal Profiling, Theory and Practice PDF

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Michelle Newberry lecture...

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28.02.2020

Serial Murder, Criminal Profiling, Theory and Practice Introduction ● In theory profiling can apply to any crime ● Many offenders are generalists - don’t necessarily fit into a typology ● Can be very simply categorised into FBI-style profiling and statistical profiling Origins of Criminal Profiling ● Individuals created behavioural assessments of an offender which later become known as profiles ● Bond (1888) provided a profile for Jack the Ripper based on crime scene info, previous reports and a post-mortem - considered the first recorded offender profile ● Langer (1942) wrote a report on Adolf Hitler - suffered from neurosis, hysteria, paranoia, Oedipal tendencies and Sz - believed to be very accurate ● Hitler believed to admire / envy his father’s masculine power and hated his mother’s submissive femininity ● Brussel (1956) ‘Mad Bomber’ of New York aka George Metesky profile was extremely accurate - accurately predicted that the offender was a single, middle-aged man living with a sibling, and that he was a begrudged former employee of the targeted company OP in the FBI ● Brussel’s profile was more specific than previous ones - highlighted the potential value of OPs to law enforcement ● Teten and Mullany largely credited to bringing OP to the FBI ● Looked at personality, behaviours, crimes and motivations Murder of Susan Jaeger ● 7 year old killed in 1973 ● No physical evidence or ransom demands ● FBI profile - young white man, above average intelligence, kills for sexual gratification and likely to keep body parts as souvenirs ○ Above average intelligence is a common trait of serial killers psychopathy ● David Meirhofer suggested as potential offender ● Some offenders contact the investigation team or people connected to the investigation - one year later Meirhofer called Jaeger’s mother and cried ● Not enough to convict ● Later received another phone call - then able to get search warrant ● Found body parts in Meirhofer’s home FBI Work ● Described at the time as a combination of intuition, brainstorming and

28.02.2020

educated guesswork ● Realised the need for research that was specific to offenders and their offences ● Developed classification systems - organised vs disorganised dichotomy, reactive vs instrumental Profiling Process ● Data assimilation - police reports, photos of the crime scene, witness statements, psychological signature etc ○ Availability of data is dependent on the context of the crime ● Signature reflects the characteristics of the offender - relatively fixed / unchanging ● E.g. Jack the Ripper signature includes piquerism, degradation and planning (Keppel et al., 2005) ● Crime scene classification - disorganised or organised - based on case file info and interviews with 36 convicted serial killers ○ Organised - highly intelligent, socially competent, evidence of planning, little forensic evidence left at the scene, inconsistent childhood discipline ○ Disorganised - average / below average intelligence, socially incompetent, harsh childhood discipline, lives / works close to the crime scene ● Crime scene reconstruction - events as a dynamic process, the sequence of events are important, what extent do the victim’s behaviour affect the offender ● Profile generation - hypotheses about the offender are generated referring to psychological characteristics, demographic variables, lifestyle and behavioural characteristics Criticisms ● Misrepresentation of psychological theories and concepts ● Lack of empirical evidence ● Methodological weaknesses ● Profiles can be vague ● Alison et al. (2003) 80% of profile claims were unsubstantiated or ambiguous Statistical Profiling ● Canter responsible for developing OP in the UK ● Found consistencies in how the offender approached their victims and how they were detained ● Provided a very accurate profile of the Railway Rapist (John Duffy) - was the only suspect out of 2,000 to live in the area that Canter had suggested ● Grounded in scientific, empirical research compared to the FBI approach ● Use of computer algorithms that prioritised suspects based on where they lived

28.02.2020

● Algorithms aka distance decay functions assume that the number of crimes decrease as the distance from home increases ● Buffer zone - distance between offender’s home and location of the crime ● Use of smallest space analysis - associations between characteristics of crime scenes on a diagram ● Common characteristics at the centre - least common on the outskirts Behavioural Investigative Advice ● OPs renamed as behavioural investigative advisors ● Help make informed decisions at different stages on an investigation ● Support crime scene assessment, hypothesis generation, offender background assessment etc ● Each recommendation has rationale behind it - ensures quality and transparency...