Criminal Offender Profiling: Definition, History & Types

Lecture Objectives

• Learners should be able to define Criminal/Offender profiling.
• Learners should be able to outline the history of offender profiling.
• Learners should be able to outline the roles of a criminal profiler.
• Learners should be able to state the qualities of a good criminal profiler.
• Learners should be able to explain the types of profiling.

Introduction

• Serious offences such as murder, rape, robbery, and other violent crimes are major public concerns.
• Often, offenders are not identified, and if they are, numerous legal hurdles must be overcome to convict them.
• Offender profiling has become a vital method for modern law enforcement agencies to identify criminals involved in serious offenses.
• Criminal profiling is constantly evolving due to technological advancement, and these advancements are used to create criminal profiles and predict future offenses.
• Despite increased media attention, the use of offender profiling is still not well understood by many, including law enforcement agents, trial offices, and lawyers.
• Some people view offender profiling as mystic, while others see it as fictional.

What is Criminal Profiling?

• Offender profiling has been defined in many ways by scholars based on their backgrounds.
• Offender profiling is known by various names, including psychological profiling, criminal profiling, criminal investigative analysis, crime scene analysis, behavioral profiling, criminal personality profiling, sociopsychological profiling, and criminological profiling.
• For this course, criminal profiling and offender profiling will be used interchangeably.
• Ainsworth defined offender profiling as utilizing all available information about a crime, crime scene, and victim to create a profile of the unknown perpetrator (2001:7).
• Geberth views a criminal personality profile as an informed attempt to provide investigative agencies with specific details about the type of individual who may have committed a certain crime (1995:46).
• The FBI defines criminal profiling as an investigative technique used to identify the major personality and behavioral characteristics of an offender through the analysis of the crimes they committed.
• Canter (1994) views offender profiling as 'criminal shadows' and emphasizes that a criminal leaves psychological traces and behavioral patterns that indicate the type of person they are.
• Criminal profilers use various methods to build a profile of the offender, including analyzing crime scene evidence, reviewing witness statements, and conducting interviews with victims and their families.
• A criminal profile is a mental sketch of the criminal, based on deductions from the crime scene, its accuracy depends on available information and profiler skills.
• Offender profiling is a complementary technique for when there are no physical traces at a crime scene.
• Offender profiling doesn't point to a specific offender but is based on the probability that someone with certain characteristics is likely to have committed a certain type of crime.

History of Criminal Profiling

• The term "offender profiling" was coined by the FBI in the 1970s to describe their criminal investigative analysis work (Canter, 1994).
• Research suggests that offender profiling existed before the FBI coined the term, with contributions from various criminologists.
• Giambattista della Porta, an Italian physician, developed a theory in 1558, suggesting physical appearance reveals personality and character; for instance, thieves were said to have large lips and sharp vision.
• In the late 1700s, Franz Gall introduced phrenology, assessing psychological characteristics through inferential techniques studying skull structure to determine mental capacity and personality.
• Cesare Lombroso (1876) authored "The Criminal Man," explaining criminal behavior on biological characteristics and heredity.
• Lombroso believed criminals could be distinguished from non-criminals by physical stigmata, like head size deviation, asymmetrical faces, eye defects, large ears, long lower jaw, flat nose, long ape-like arms, tattoos, and abnormal dentition.
• The first offender profile was created by London Metropolitan Police detectives on Jack the Ripper, a serial killer who murdered prostitutes in the 1880s.
• The killer strangled women, then cut their throats and removed internal organs, leading police to suspect anatomical or surgical knowledge.
• Police surgeon Thomas Bond performed an autopsy and analyzed medical/police reports.
• Dr. Bond decided to reconstruct crime scenes to find behavioral patterns and believed one person committed the five murders based on victim mutilations.
• In 1943, the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) commissioned Dr. Walter C. Langer to create a psychological profile of Adolf Hitler for military intelligence.
• Dr. Langer analyzed Hitler's speeches, book, and interviews with those who knew him, developing a psychodynamic personality profile.
• Dr. Langer made eight predictions, the last being Hitler might commit suicide, which proved accurate.
• Dr. James Brussel, an American Psychiatrist, is considered the father of modern offender profiling.
• In 1956, Dr. Brussel, former Chief of Neuropsychiatry in the US Military, helped New York City police investigate bomb explosions.
• Brussel's psychological profile led to the identification and arrest of George Metesky, the New York Mad Bomber, who caused 32 explosions between 1940 and 1956.
• Using crime scene details, photos, and letters, Brussel profiled the likely offender as a heavy, middle-aged, foreign-born, Roman Catholic, single man living with a sibling in a double-breasted suit, which proved accurate.
• Following Dr. Brussel's work, the FBI expanded offender profiling in the 1970s and established the Behavioral Science Unit at its Virginia training academy in 1974.
• Work in the Behavioral Science Unit centered on studying serial rape and homicide cases and examining a criminal's behavior related to pre-crime tendencies (circumstances and victim/location choices), manner of crime (how it was carried out and weapons used), and post-crime actions (interjecting into the investigation, influencing media, or revisiting the scene).

What does a Criminal Profiler do?

• A criminal profiler analyzes crime scenes to identify behaviors and link those behaviors to serial criminals.
• A criminal profiler makes connections between similar criminal types.
• A criminal profiler provides expert testimony in court to explain crime scene behavior and evidence.
• Criminal profilers develop profiles for offenders to guide law enforcement.
• Criminal profilers analyze evidence, crime scene reports, and witness and victim testimonies.
• Criminal profilers read and prepare reports for law enforcement.
• Criminal profilers advise police officers and investigators.

Attributes of a Good Criminal Profiler

• High attention to detail is needed to notice subtle patterns and details within the evidence.
• Analytical skills allow a profiler to dissect and interpret information effectively.
• Intuition is the ability to understand things without proof or evidence.
• Emotional detachment helps maintain objectivity and prevents personal feelings from clouding judgment.
• Curiosity drives them to explore and seek answers to complex questions.
• It is important that they can conduct research and investigations.
• Good communication skills for conveying findings and collaborating with law enforcement.
• Resilience is a crucial attribute that helps them bounce back from setbacks and handle emotionally challenging cases.
• Active listening skills for gathering and understanding information effectively.
• Teamwork skills for working effectively with law enforcement and other professionals.

Types of Criminal Profiling

• There are two main types of profiling: inductive profiling and deductive profiling.

Inductive Criminal Profile

• Inductive criminal profiling is generalized to a suspect from behavioral and demographic characteristics shared by other offenders studied in the past.
• This type of profile is strongly based on previous quantitative research on similar offenders.
• These characteristics are then generalized to one suspect.

Advantages of Inductive Criminal Profiling

• It is a relatively easy tool to use.
• It requires no specialized knowledge, education, training, or understanding of criminal behavior.
• Profiles can be compiled in a relatively short period of time.

Disadvantages of Inductive Criminal Profiling

• Statements are generalized and not related to a specific case.
• The samples used are often small and only include apprehended offenders.
• Due to generalizations, such a profile can implicate an innocent person.
• Environmental and contextual differences are not taken into account.
• It is assumed that behavior and motivation do not change within an individual over a period of time.

Deductive Criminal Profiling

• Deductive criminal profiling involves interpreting forensic evidence, including crime-scene and autopsy photographs, autopsy reports, and victimology.
• It reconstructs offender crime-scene behavior to deduce offender characteristics, demographics, emotions, and motivations.

Advantages of Deductive Criminal Profiling

• Deductive profiling is very useful for establishing the modus operandi and signature.
• Deductive profiling is useful for linking cases to one offender.
• Deductive profiling can accommodate changes in offender behavior over a series of crimes.

Disadvantages of Deductive Criminal Profiling

• It is not a quick fix and requires a great deal of effort and skill on behalf of the person compiling the profile.
• It is an intensive process, and it is emotionally exhausting.
• A deductive profile cannot point out a specific known individual unless that offender's unique signature is known and established.

Other Types of Profiles

Case Administration System (South African Police Service)

• In the SAPS, "profiling" refers to the process when a known suspect's name, identity number, or date of birth are entered into the Case Administration System (CAS), Home Affairs, Vehicle Registration System, Firearm Register, or any other databases that the SAPS has access to.
• All available information on the suspect is then sourced.
• This would include registered addresses, whether the suspect was previously the suspect in other cases and has any convictions, whether the suspect was the complainant in a case previously, what vehicles the suspect has owned, and any firearms licensed to the suspect.

Intelligence Profiling

• Intelligence profiling involves gathering as much data about a known person as is necessary to build up an understanding of the person and gain insight into their behavior.
• This might be to aid in the prediction of the person's future behavior, for example, assessing whether a person would be a likely candidate for recruitment as an intelligence source.
• Intelligence profiling goes beyond just calling up factual information and is more in-depth, providing hypotheses about the individual's behavior and personality.

Geographic Profiling

• Geographic profiling is a technique used to analyze the spatial patterns of crimes.
• By studying the location of the crime scenes, investigators can make predictions about the offender's residence or workplace.
• If a series of burglaries occur in a particular neighborhood, investigators can focus on suspects who live or work in that area.
• Geographic profiling has evolved to computerised mapping and spatial analysis techniques.
• Geographical Information Systems (GIS) enable a person to visualize patterns, relationships, and trends.