Psychology & Crime

Offender Profiling

Offender ProfilingOffender profiling is not exactly what you see on the telly!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WToUQ5aT1uA&feature=related

Its success is debateable.

Even though it is a fascinating topic we need to keep an open mind as to the effectiveness of profiling.

Real Profiling Fictional Profiling

Duffy; 1988

Hardman; 2002

Wright; 2008

Some profiles have been successful and others not

Colin Stagg; 1992

Definition

Offender Profiling refers to the process of using all the available information about a crime, a crime scene and a victim in order to compose a profile of the (as yet) unknown perpetrator

(Ainsworth, 2001)

On your white board right down as many of the aims of profiling as you can remember

WHAT IS OFFENDER PROFILING?

Holmes (1989) suggests that the aims of profiling are:

To reduce the scope of an investigation by providing basic information in relation to the social and psychological variables of the offender’s personality

To allow some prediction of future offences and their location

To provide a psychological evaluation of belongings found in the offenders possession

To provide strategies for interviewing offenders which take account of individual differences.

“What does a criminal reveal about himself by the way he commits a crime?...as well as material traces, he also

leaves psychological traces, tell-tale patterns of

behaviour that indicate the sort of person he is” Canter,

(1994)

What are the 2 main types of profiling known as ?

There are two major approaches to profiling

The British take a BOTTOM UP approach to profiling which involves

Attempting to produce a description of the perpetrator(s) of a criminal offence on the basis of the analysis of the characteristics of the incident and other background information.

The Americans favour a TOP DOWN approach

The process is basically a method of helping to identify the perpetrator of a crime based on analysing the nature of the offence and the manner in which it was committed. This is then fitted to an existing typology.

Geographical profilingA field of investigative psychology, the type of profiling method used in the UK, which involves generalising from the locations of linked crime scenes to the likely home /work/social base of the offender.

The assumption is that most offenders like to operate in areas they know well - many offenders have a crime range of as little as 2 miles (Canter & Gregory, 1994).

A distinction has been drawn between marauders who like to commit crimes in their own neighbourhoods,

and commuters who travel to commit their crimes.

David Canter is the well-known geographical profiler in the UK and he argues that this method is built on psychological theory:

People store information about their lives in schemas/mental maps, these are organised knowledge of our experiences.

Each person’s mental map is highly individual and the location of crime scenes can be used to infer where the offender is based and also other information about the offender’s likely interests, employment and relationships.

A surveillance area for the next crime can then be set-up.

According to Canter, the following three characteristics are important

1. Interpersonal Coherence in behaviour, e.g. amount of abuse,

and similarity between victims, e.g. all

students, 

2. Time and Place – spatial factors

3. Forensic Information

Geographical profiling

The geographical technique uses a computer system called Criminal Geographic Targeting. Spatial data are analysed to produce a three-dimensional model known as a

jeopardy surface. The codes produced are then superimposed onto a map where the crimes have taken place.

Now we have recapped it’s your turn…………..

Can you profile as well as the FBI?

Soon after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, letters laced with anthrax began appearing in the U.S. mail. Five Americans were killed and 17 were sickened in what became the worst biological attack ever waged.The ensuing investigation by the FBI and its partners—code-named “Amerithrax”— was one of the largest and most complex in history.

On the 18th of September 2001, 7 days after the twin towers were hit, a hand printed letter was sent to “NBC TV –Tom Brokaw”. It was postmarked Trenton, NJ (New Jersey). On the same day a similar letter was sent to “NY Post” (New York) and was also postmarked Trenton, NJ. Inside the letters was a “coarse brown granular material looking like Purina dog food”

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/anthrax-amerithrax/the-envelopes

Robert Stevens, a journalist was the first person to contract and die from inhalation of anthrax spores, in total at least 22 people developed the infection, five of these died of the infection, including the aide of Senator Daschle and two postal workers who had handled the letters.The FBI were called in to investigate to case and issued a profile of the possible offender/s.

Time to look at the evidence

Subsequent to the letters being sent the following information became available.

The Anthrax in the second set of letters was more sophisticated and refined than that first used. Although of different grades the Anthrax was derived from the same bacterial strain.

This strain had been originally researched at Fort Derrick, U.S.A. and distributed to fifteen bio-research labs within the U.S. and six overseas. The strain had been cultured no more than two years previously.

On the 9thMay 2002 the New Scientist reported that “The DNA sequence of the anthrax sent through the mail in 2001 has been revealed and confirms that the bacteria originally came from a US military Laboratory”

In August 2002 investigators found Anthrax spores in a mailbox at 10 Nassau Street near Princeton University, New Jersey.

The suspects.......

Steven Hatfill: A virologist and ex-green beret

Dr Philip Zack: A microbiologist working at Fort Derrick, accused of leading a hate campaign against muslim co-workers

Dr Bruce Ivins: Worked in the bio-defense labs at Fort Derrick for 18 years. Committed suicide on 1stAugust, 2008.

Dr. Irshad Shaikh, the health commissioner.

Dr. Masood Shaikh, who ran the lead-abatement program.

Asif Kazi, an accountant in the finance department.

Kenneth M. Berry, an emergency room physician with a strong interest in bioterrorism threats.

Perry Mikesell, a microbiologist in Ohio

When he came under suspicion he began drinking heavily and later died. Once he was being investigated by the FBI, his marriage fell apart and his practice suffered.

His two Pakistani brothers in Pennsylvania were briefly under scrutiny, and they eventually had to leave the country to find work.

The FBI were accused of hounding Dr Bruce Ivins as a suspect in the Anthrax attacks and were responsible for his suicide.