Analysis of violent crimes

¶ … Violent Crimes

Criminology

Crime analysis and crime investigation are the methods by which criminologists study and prevent crime. Violent crimes pose multiple dangers to the public. Violent crimes are often complex and require resources to understand how the crime was committed. Criminology studies not only how crimes are committed, but also the study of the criminal behaviors and personalities of the criminals who commit violent crimes. Criminology has been made exceptionally popular in the late 20th century and early 21st century in many television dramas. The increase in attention to criminology and criminologists has influence the interest in criminology as well as influence the development of criminologists' tools and methods. This paper will examine the violent crime of murder briefly and offer insight as to methods by which the crime can be analyzed.

Criminologists studying murders and murderers absolutely use prescriptive interviews. Interviewing murderers has become part and parcel of the analysis of violent crimes, particularly when it comes to murder. Criminologists rely on interviewing when dealing with murderers for several reasons. The interview provides insights to the murderer's behavior, the murderer's perspective or disposition, and the murderer's methods. In this way, as more and more murderers are interviewed, criminologists can compose profiles. Snyder interviews Manson as a way to understand him and use his experiences to help the audience reflect upon their own characters. If the author were applying prescriptive interviewing to Manson, the primary use of the interview would be to understand Manson's background and how it influences or manifests itself in his current criminal behaviors. Manson is an extreme and rare case. He is infamous and he is willing to speak to the media. The information gathered in interviews with Manson undoubtedly influence future classification of crimes, criminals, and legislation toward such crimes and criminals. Manson is a criminal legend to both criminals who emulate him and to criminologists who study criminals like him.

Criminals of all sorts share similar backgrounds and character traits. Therefore, interviewing murderers helps criminologists provide databases of criminal behaviors, backgrounds, and traits. This database of profiles can assist criminologists studying current, open cases as well as cases that have been long since closed. Furthermore, hopefully, the profiles based on prescriptive interviews can help deter crime or catch criminals before they progress into murderers. Criminologists also interview any surviving victims of the criminal, as well as close friends, family members, and any relevant associates of the murderers. This gives the profile and the interview of the criminal itself a context within which to understand, interpret, and predict the criminal's behaviors.

In addition to interviewing murderers and persons in their lives, criminologists would analyze the scene of the violent crime itself. There are many roles in crime scene investigation. The crime scene tells the criminologists the circumstances under which the crime was committed. The crime scene tells the criminologist what materials were used to commit the crime. The crime scene also provides insight into the mindset of the criminal. Whether the crime scene is left in disarray or whether the crime scene was left immaculate can be details that are exceptionally revealing about the criminal. These kinds of details give the criminologists the information necessary to prevent the next crime, arrest the criminal, and influence policy related to that specific violent crime such as the classification of the crime or the penalties for committing the crime.