Criminal profiling methods and five-stage FBI investigative process

Behavioral Profiling

Behavioral scientists and investigate often rely on criminal profiling to narrow down the list of possible suspects in a crime scene or in a potentially threatening situation. This is primarily done by matching personal traits and behavioral patterns of criminals to the way in which the crime was committed and that can help in shrinking the large pool of suspects to a few which makes it relatively easier to solve the crime. (Douglas, J.E., Olshaker, M., 1986). Profiling has often been a target of intense debate by people who feel victimized by the process, however, it must be understood that profiling can never lead to one specific person. It can only help in providing leads to possible suspects and that too by means of their personality traits and behavioral past. In other words, a person who has not committed crimes and doesn't have suspicious behavior or personality traits need not worry about possible victimization even though there have been few cases. We can however say with some degree of confidence that pros of criminal profiling outweigh some of its cons. It is mostly like a police sketch that gives law enforcement personnel an idea of how the person may look but doesn't really pinpoint a single individual.

Criminal profiling has also been useful in pooling together various community resources. By the help of such profiles, police can make people aware of the potential threats and people possibly linked to those threats. That way community can help the police in providing leads if they see someone that matches the description provided by law enforcement. (Douglas, J.E., Olshaker, M. 1999).

Since the field of criminal profiling is vast and there are plenty of ways in which it can be done, it is must to rely on some of the most often used strategies. In my case for example, I would want to use the same strategy that FBI commonly uses to develop criminal profiles.

According to Douglas, Ressler, Burgess and Hartman law enforcement agencies would normally take five steps to develop a criminal profile which helps in the arrest of the right person or at least in the identification of the right suspect. These five stages are:

1. Inputs: data collection

In the very first step, all basic information about the crime and criminal are collected. These are not placed in any specific order but police focuses on collecting as much information about the crime scene as possible including physical evidence, eyewitness statements, crime scene details like photographs, time at which it possibly occurred, profile or place and collection of past records connected with victim. At this stage, it is important not to develop a profile right away because this is a preliminary stage which is collection of raw information and profiling at this stage can be wrong as it may bring personal prejudices and views into play.

2. Decision making or process stage

In the second stage, like all expert profiles, I as an investigator will also need to put the information in some logical order. In other words, this is the stage when information in given some meaning by focusing on patterns that might emerge and raising questions about the crime. In this stage it is important to ask questions like what kind of crime it was: possible suicide, homicide, robbery etc. Then primary motives for crime are identified: was it a hate crime, a revenge crime, a serial killing etc. Was the victim being threatened, what happened before or right after the crime? Who were the people present at the crime scene when police arrived? Was the body found, if yes; in what condition? These are some very important questions which must be raised and answered in order to correctly identify the criminal through profiling.

4. Criminal profile

This is a critical stage as were the previous ones but here the investigator formally develops a profile of the suspect. In this profile, he first focuses on the general demographics such as criminal's race, age, and sex. Then experts will try to figure out other details such as person's marital status, employment past and any criminal records he may have plus his religion, belief system and psychological history. Other details are also used to develop as thorough and extensive a profile as possible. This information is thus checked against the information collected and organized in the second stage to make sure no new additions were inadvertently made.

5. Investigation

The last major stage is the actual investigation when a report is written which includes information on possible suspects that match the profile developed by the investigator. It doesn't include final arrest but apprehension is based on the information presented in this report.

Many violent crimes can be solved with the help of criminal profiling and hence it is a valuable practice. The investigator however needs to be someone with great deal of experience and thorough knowledge of the process because lack of expertise can lead to faulty profile which may be more a waste of time and resources than anything else.