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Profiling Demonstration

Profiling Demonstration. Murder victim: 26 year old, white female, single, 4’11” tall, 90 pounds Lived with parents Worked at a day care center On morning of murder, got up around 6:30, had breakfast, left for work. 8:20 a.m., teenager finds victim’s wallet in stairwell

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Profiling Demonstration

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  1. Profiling Demonstration • Murder victim: 26 year old, white female, single, 4’11” tall, 90 pounds • Lived with parents • Worked at a day care center • On morning of murder, got up around 6:30, had breakfast, left for work.

  2. 8:20 a.m., teenager finds victim’s wallet in stairwell • Teenager’s father goes to victim’s apartment to return wallet at 2:50 p.m. • Victim’s mother calls daughter at work, discovers that she never arrived at work • Victim’s mother, neighbor, sister search building and find body on roof

  3. Victim beaten in face • Strangled with strap of purse • Body mutilated (cut) after death • “You can’t stop me” written on body with felt-tip pen • Bite marks on body • Tied at wrists and ankles with her own nylons • Not raped

  4. Actual killer’s characteristics

  5. Profilers • Most profilers are not psychologists • Most profilers are trained by the FBI at their Behavioral Sciences Unit in Quantico, Virginia

  6. Goals of Profiling • Provide socio-psychological characteristics of offender, to assist in identifying the culprit • Provide psychological evaluations of belongings found in a suspect’s possession • Offer suggestions for interviewing suspects successfully

  7. Inferences made in profiling • Perpetrator’s age, race, educational level, occupation • Information about where perpetrator lives • Perpetrator’s psychological traits • Belongings likely to be in perpetrator’s possession (pornography, “souvenirs,” etc.)

  8. Methods of profiling • Collect all available information about crime scene, victim • Classify type of crime • Generate hypotheses about perpetrator • Construct a profile to share with investigators • Often most successful in serial crimes, where patterns can be discerned

  9. Assumptions made by profilers • Crime scene reflects personality of the criminal • Method of operation remains similar from one crime to the next • Perpetrator’s “signature” remains same from one victim to the next • Offender’s personality will not change over time.

  10. Success rates of profilers • Pinizzotto & Finkel (1990) study • Two real cases (1 murder, 1 rape) • Compared profiles created by expert profilers, detectives, clinical psychologists, untrained students • Profilers generated more predictions and more accurate predictions than any other group

  11. Pinizzotto & Finkel results: Mean number of accurate predictions

  12. DC Snipers: A case study • Wrong assumptions of profilers • There was only one killer • Killer had no children • Killer was local • Killer was employed, possibly as a firefighter or construction worker • Sniper was white

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