Week 1 – Chapter 1 – Introduction
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“Hollywood effect” – Information about profiling is mostly spread in popular
books intended for nontechnical use and inexpert audience, rather than peerreviewed professional or scholarly journals
The perfect profiler does not exist while media often makes them seem to be
quasi-mythical beings with special abilities which are always successful –
this is just not true
In response to criticisms of focusing on characteristics like race or ethnicity,
law enforcement agents look also at behavioral indicators
o Ex: TSA agents look for suspicious activity from the average passenger
Early Accounts of Profiling
 Has long history, perhaps as far as 500 years ago – Malleus Maleficarum
(The Hammer of Witches) from late 1400s – used to accurately identify,
interrogate and eradicate witches
o May be first systematic approach for profiling individuals
 Modern profiling possibly emerged from early literary works, like detective
novels
 First profiler may have been in Edgar Aleen Poe’s The Murders in the Rue
Morgue published 1841
o Detective C. Auguste Dupin solved crime through process of
“ratiocination” – put himself in the mind of the criminal
o Other ex: Sherlock Holmes
 IRL and more present – profiling used in Jack the Ripper investigation
(1890s?) by inferring personality characteristics based on the nature of the
wounds inflicted – believed that wound patterns could provide clues about
behavior and personality of offender
Origins of Modern Profiling
 Publicly acknowledged during New York manhunt of “Mad Bomber” in 1940s
and 50s
o Police contacted psychiatrist who offered clues to potentially identify
the bomber
o Questions of whether it was helpful, nonetheless is brough profiling to
the forefront
  Dr. James Brussel known as “father of profiling”
o Also served as consultant to the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI
created in 1972
 England: profiling soared in mid-1980s
o 1. Some psychologists (Paul Britton) began offering advice to police
similar to that by Dr. Brussel in the US (however Britton eventually
faded because he was involved in controversial conviction of suspect
that didn’t commit the crimes)
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o 2. Psychologist David Canter contributed to arrest of rapists John
Duffy and David Mulcahy – his approach was more statistically
oriented and he later established the 1st university program in
investigative psychology at the U of Liverpool in 1994
Profiling can be regarded as both an art and science, others see it as a sham,
other are cautious, but willing to acknowledge its potential; others are
supportive of its use
More calls for research on profiling techniques
Courts set criteria for allowing this expert testimony in hearings and trials
Must justify the scientific basis of approach – hard for many because they are
not prepared to reveal their methods for fear of criticism or being
imitated/copied
o Brussels called his method his own blend of science, intuition, and
hope, with no info on how he created this method
Mad Bomber Case
 1940-1956; 16-year span, targeting numerous locations, wrote letters to police
and media newspapers, halted bomb planting during WWII, first bomb
detonated in Grand Central Terminal in 1951, first injury in 1952 at
Lexington Theatre, never any deaths, but some serious injuries
 Seemingly random which baffled police, so they concluded the bomber was
probably eccentric and possibly “mad”
 Police believed bomber had been in the armed service because the postwar
bombs were sort of a military design
 Police used psychologists, one being James A. Brussel who gave most
comprehensive “profile” of bomber – within hours of being given access to
case, Brussel had an oral profile of the bomber:
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o Said it included his essential and major predictions
o Lone wolf, appearance of quiet, scholarly, middle-aged man
o Did not add more than what police already had theorized but it
validated their suspicions (thought bomber had a grudge against Con
Ed and that he could have been a current or past employee)
53-y-o George Metesky was arrested – smiled frequently and appeared in a
state of high self-satisfaction at being captured and wore a suit to be arrested
o He eventually confessed and could only be charged of his crimes after
March 1952
Motivation: September 5, 1931 he was working on generator wiper at Con Ed
when a broiler produced blast of hot gases, knocking him to the ground – hot
gasses filled his lungs causing serious and extensive lung damage and left
him disabled – 26 weeks of sick pay, but then lost his job
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o Developed pulmonary tuberculosis which is believed to be linked with
Con Ed incident
o Sought monetary compensation from Con Ed, but his claim was denied
since he waited too long to file it
o Became resentful and angry about never being justifiably compensated
 Why he signed letters with F.P. (fair play)
Metesky was never on trial for offenses, he was arraigned and sent to
Matteawan State Hospital for observation and assessment of whether he was
competent to stand trial – found to lack ability to understand his charges and
help in his own defense
Released in 1973 under the Jackson v. Indiana (1972) Supreme Court
decision – was not seen as dangerous and was not making progress towards
competency – lived 20 years after his release despite ill health
Brussel Legacy
 Mad Bomber case was 1st documented case in US where criminal profile was
sought by police and reported in media
 Public was fascinated by this new approach
 Brussel became recognized as 1st profiling expert in US history (father of
profiling)
 HOWEVER, Brussels profiles do not closely fit the description of Metesky
who was arrested
 His statements were often Barnum-like (general, easily applied to many) and
included a lot of info police had already revealed in new media which he had
likely been following
 His accounts also didn’t necessarily lead to the discovery of the bomber
 May have been Alice G. Kelly who reviewed compensation cases at Con Ed
labeled “troublesome” and uncovered Metesky’s file
 Brussel’s book Casebook of a Crime Psychologist (1968) held embellished
accounts of profiles he actually gave police – seemed to have a serious case of
hindsight bias
o tendency to change a previous judgement in the direction of newly
found information
o likely to occur when individual wants to protect their professional skill,
knowledge, or reputation – to present favorably
o not always a devious or deliberate attempt to mislead
 Brussel had a Freudian orientation (popular in psychiatry and psychology at
the time)
 Brussel also optimized his profile by using the strategy of making many
predictions – “he did not really understand the mind of the Mad Bomber –
only that if you make a great number of predictions, the ones that are wrong
will soon be forgotten, and the ones that turn out true will make you famous”
o Good when it helps lead investigation in a new direction
o Causes issues when it leads it to inconsequential ones (wild goose
chase) and waste time and money
The Boston Strangler
 June 14, 1962 – January 4, 1964: 13 single women were murdered by a single
serial killer or possibly several killers - at least 11 were considered victims of
the Boston Strangler
 All were murdered in their apartments, had been sexually assaulted and
positioned in a degrading manner; strangled with a piece of their own
clothing; no evidence of forced entry, which led police to believe the women
knew their killer
o First 5 women: 55-88 y-o. then a 21 y-o., then followed by younger and
older women
o Varied in age, occupation, education, interests and sexual assault
method was often different
 Brussel in his Casebook thought older women were to strike out his mother
(oedipal complex) which then let him respond sexually to younger women
 Also suggested he was a paranoid schizophrenic, muscular build, late 20s or
30s, average height, no distinguishable features, clean-shaven, neat, wellgroomed hair, unmarried (profile included a lot of Freudian concepts)
 DeSalvo was arrested for Green Man sexual assaults but matched many of
Brussel’s profile except he was married
 Ramsland criticized Brussel’s profile – unsophisticated and largely off-base;
never established that DeSalvo was Boston Strangler
The Five Areas of Behavioral Profiling
 Profiling encompasses range of investigations, methods, and assessments
 Profiling now goes by various overlapping names; law enforcement prefer
“behavioral analysis” to divert attention away from negative attention of
“profiling”
 Book will focus on one of the central processes of profiling – making
inferences about offender or potential offender
 Supporters of profiling stress that profiling is an activity, but only one under
the umbrella of behavioral analysis
 Profiling used a general term, that can be broken into 5 somewhat
overlapping categories:
1. Crime scene profiling
2. Geographical profiling
3. Psychological profiling
4. Suspect-based profiling
5. Equivocal death analysis (psychological autopsy)
Crime Scene Profiling
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Process of identifying cognitive tendencies, behavioral patterns, motivation,
emotional dispositions, and demographic variables of an unknown offender,
based on the characteristics and evidence gathered at the scene of the crime
“crime scene analysis” or “criminal investigative analysis” also used to
describe practice of developing offender descriptions based on the analysis of
the crime scene
This can rarely point directly to the person who committed the crime, rather
it helps develop reasonable set of hypotheses for determining who could be
responsible
May employ research-based typologies (rapist or batterer typologies) to offer
leads
If done incorrectly – can lead investigation astray
“linkage analysis” - common elements across crime scenes that may link
them to the same offender, used mostly in investigation of violent crimes
Geographic Profiling
 Identifying the area of probable residence or the probable area of the next
crime of an unknown offender, based on the location of and the spatial
relationship among various crime sites
 Help locate approximate area that offender lives, or by narrowing
surveillance and stakeouts to places where next crime is likely to occur
 Geoprofiler focuses on the location of crime and how it relates to the
residence or base of operations for the offender
o Ex: dump sites or where they are comfortable committing crimes
 Maps have long been used to identify “hotspots” of crime or follow crime trails
presumably committed by the same offender
Psychological Profiling
 Most often used to identify and predict dangerous individuals in society,
although could be used to identify positive traits
 Identity of person being assessed and predicted is usually already known
 Threat assessment
o Determine credibility and seriousness of a threat being carried out
 Risk assessment
o Often used to evaluate “individuals who have violated social norms or
displayed bizarre behavior, particularly when they appear menacing or
unpredictable”
o Goal is to assess probability that someone will harm themselves or
others
 Often want more than a statistical statement about chances of damaging or
violent act occurring; usually desire estimate of potential consequences and
what can be done to reduce or mitigate those consequences
 David Canter: psychological profiling is basically and offshoot of psychological
testing and assessment procedures
Suspect-based Profiling
 Or “prospective profiling”
 Refers to identifying psychological or behavioral features of persons who may
commit a particular crime
 Derived from systematic collection of behavioral, personality, cognitive, and
demographic data on previous offenders
 “develop correlations between specific criminal activity and certain groupbased traits in order to help identify potential suspects for investigation”
 Generally developed from statistical links between group membership
defined by certain traits and prevalence of criminal activities
o Assumes that rate of criminality of members of certain groups is
proportionately higher than found in general population
 Largely more actuarial since it uses statistical rather than clinical methods
 “General appearance” may refer to suspicious behavior, age, gender, manner
of dress, but also race, religion, or ethnicity
 Racial profiling continues to be a major problem in modern society
Equivocal Death Analysis
 Or “reconstructive psychological evaluation”
 Reconstruction of the emotional life, behavioral patterns, and cognitive
features of a deceased person
 Postmortem psychological analysis  why it’s often called psychological
autopsy
 Most often done to determine whether death was a suicide, and if so why the
person did it
 May be performed in insurance claim cases
 Also used to determine if the death was result of homicide or foul play rather
than suicide
 Many are conducted by military psychologists because suicide rates in
military personnel has risen so high in recent years
 Conducted to assure that self-inflicted harm (and not homicide) was the
cause of death
Summary and Conclusion
 Profiling isn’t a new enterprise, but scientifically based profiling is of recent
origin
 There is no universally accepted method of profiling, despite the various
programs available for training profilers or behavioral analysts
 Certification is now available to those who complete those programs, but they
are not equivalent in their approach or in the extent to which they are based
on research findings
Week 2 – Chapter 2 – Crime Scene Profiling
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Sexual murders are very rare (1-3% of all homicides) and homicides compared
to other crimes are rare
Crime scene profiling developed in the US in the 1970s by the Behavioral
Science Unit of the FBI to give investigative assistance to law enforcement in
serial homicide or serial rape cases
In 1984, National Center of Violent Crime (NCAVC) was created and within
it the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) and the Behavioral
Analysis Unit (BAU) – where most work in crime scene profiling is
o Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) & Child Abduction
Response Teams (CART)
 Number of stranger abductions per year is small (just over 100
nationwide) even though abduction is of great concern
FBI website: agents do not get “vibes” or psychic flashbacks walking around
crime scenes; rather it’s a world of investigation and research – indictive and
deductive reasoning; crime-solving experience; and knowledge of criminal
behavior, facts and statistical probabilities
Early FBI Profiling Origins
 J. Edgar Hoover (director of FBI in 1924) publicly had little use for
psychology or behavioral sciences in general – “soft sciences” were “back
room” endeavor
 Could be said he used psychology to his advantage, he didn’t support creation
of publicly recognized, psychologically oriented unit in the agency geared
toward help investigate crimes
 He had a controversial reign and maintained power because of the
incriminating information he had obtained
The Behavioral Science Unit and the NCAVC
 After Hoover’s death in 1972, restrictions on the use of psychology within the
agency became more relaxed
 New academy was opened in Quantico, VA and the BSU was developed – it’s
mission was to bring behavioral science into the training curriculum for
federal law enforcement officers
 Behavioral science was meant as an umbrella term for the social science
disciplines – criminology, psychology, and sociology – to understand human
behavior (criminal behavior) and social factors that influence it
o Also as a resource for state and local law enforcement for help in
solving difficult cases
 1984: NCAVC – primary mission to consolidate research, training, and
operational support activities for the express purpose of providing expertise
to any law enforcement agency confronted with unusual, bizarre, or vicious or
repetitive violent crimes
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Popular media has led to crime scene profiling is one of the best-known tasks
of the BAU
 Howard Teten, a pioneer of profiling at the FBI and taught Applied
Criminology at the FBI Academy
o Consulted with James A. Brussel (mad bomber and Boston strangler
profiler) and eventually made profiling a central theme of his course
which eventually changed to Applied Criminal Psychology
o Led him to the conclusion that we could learn about motives and
personalities of the offender by focusing on evidence at the crime scene
 Form of deductive analysis – case focused and intends to infer
characteristics of offender from analysis of evidence at the scene
of crime or series of crimes
 Drawing conclusion from what we already know
 Inductive analysis concentrates of statistical averages of
characteristics of the “typical” offender
 Making an inference from what we already know – not
certain about our premises so can’t be sure about our
conclusions
 Both essential to profiling
 Deductive more closely aligned with clinical approach, inductive
more close with actuarial approach
 Deductive – puts emphasis on discovering the reasons a
perpetrator committed the crime; assumes the offense-related
behaviors reflects specific motivations which will be associated
with specific characteristics of the offender
 FBI approach also relies on reasoning, experience, insight and
intuition of the profiler, making it clinical in orientation
Two Seminal Articles
 1980: profiling introduced to broader law enforcement community in US be
two articles in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin – early stage for profiling
as its conducted in the US today
 Ault and Reese (1980) – “A Psychological Assessment of Crime Profiling”
o Purpose to familiarize police community with concept of profiling and
underscore importance of considering psychological aspects of any
crime
o Authors and others in BSU believed the personality of the perpetrator
is especially important in the investigation of hard-to-solve crimes
o Profile may include the following info about the perpetrator: race, age,
age range, marital status, general employment, probable reactions to
questioning from police, degree of sexual maturity, likelihood
individual will strike again, possibility they committed a similar
offense in the past, possible police record
o “profilers are not the result of magical incantations and are not always
accurate”
o important for profilers to have wide exposure to crime scenes and
criminals who committed similar crimes
o Also outlined what officers or investigative teams should provide to
profilers who they are seeking evaluations from
 Hazelwood and Douglas (1980) – “The Lust Murderer”
o Described characteristics of individuals who commit heinous sexual offenses
o Lust murderer engaged in mutilation of the breast, rectum, or genitals
o Their conclusions based on case reports of lust murders, interviews of
investigative personnel and careful review of literature (& potential Douglas’
research on imprisoned sexual murderers at the time)
o Organized nonsocial offender
 Methodical, cunning, could be quite amiable, and usually carried out his
crimes at a distance from his residence
 Deliberate, cold, systematic scene
o Diagnosed asocial offender
 Lacks cunning, aversion to society, experienced difficulty maintaining
relationships, tends to commit crimes closer to residence where he felt
secure
 Chaotic, messy scene
 Table 2.1, page 43
o Organized/Disorganized (O/D) crime scene
 Table 2.2, page 43
o Acknowledged limits to profiling: useful investigative tool, but should not alter,
suspend or replace investigative procedure; “process is an art not a science”
The Douglas and Ressler Interviews
 While on the road training various law enforcement officers, they conducted informal
interviews with convicted murderers, including sexual murderers
 Douglas was instructor of Applied Criminal Psychology designed by Teten, but was not
satisfied with course content
 In his book – Mind Hunter, he complains it was useful but based primarily on theories
from academic world and not experiences and talents of the law enforcement world
 “for the first time we were able to correlate what was going on in an offender’s mind with
the evidence they left at a crime scene”
o Realized they were learning about the “criminal mind”
 Began working with Ann Burgess – professor of psychiatric nursing and leading
authority on rape and its psychological consequences – they agreed to work on more
systematic approach to the research with felons convicted of sexual homicides
 57-page questionnaire for Douglas and Ressler to use while interviewing inmates –
Patterns of Homicide Crime Scene Project
o 36 imprisoned sexual killers were interviewed about background, behavior at the
crime scene and post-offense behavior and their criminal records were reviewed
 Gaps in information because some offenders refused to answer some
questions
 Nonetheless created a core basis for profiling crimes based on
psychological framework
o Believed they found a pattern: some killers were well-organized and selfcontrolled in selecting and killing victim, while others were disorganized and
impulsive
Further Development of the O/D Dichotomy
 “Like a fingerprint, the crime scene can be used to aid in identifying the murderer”
 Fingerprint could be organized or disorganized
 Ressler, Burgess, Hartman, Douglas and McCormack (1986) used the interview data to
examine what extent these sexual murderers had been subjected to sexual abuse as
children/adolescents
o Prompted by requests for help solving “motiveless” homicides – FBI investigation
revealed that most of these motiveless murders had a sexual component
 Theory at the time: sexual offenders assaulted others because they had been sexually
assaulted themselves
 Researcher showed 43% of sexual killers said they had been abused as children (1-12)
and 32% reported being abused in adolescence (13-18)
o Concluded that for men who commit sexual murder, their cognitive process
appears to sustain and perpetuate fantasies of sexually violent actions
 Murder that appears to be motiveless is largely driven by sexual gratification propelled
by fantasies
 Sexually abused murderers began to fantasize about rape at a significantly earlier age
than murderers who hadn’t;
o And were more likely to mutilate victims (deliberate cutting, usually after death,
of sexual areas of the body – breasts and genitals)
 Found that sexually abused murderers life paths were characterized by a high level of
aggression towards children, peers and adults
 O/D distinction is one of the most widely cited classification systems of violent, serial
offenders, but there are critics
 3rd category from Douglas and colleagues: mixed offender
 Mixed crime scene – characteristics of both organized and disorganized behavior
o Planned carefully but deteriorated
 O/D has been extended to other crimes
 Organized: premeditated, planned, maintains control of themselves and victim, socially
and interpersonally skilled in handling victims, probably a verbal approach to obtain
victim, and selects them according to some personal criteria
o Ex: Ted Bundy
 Disorganized: probably no planning/premeditation, lives close to location, crime scene
reveals impulse or rage or even excitement, obtains victim by chance without specific
criteria; also assumed to be socially inadequate and unable to maintain personal
relationships; body is often found at scene of the crime
o Ex: Herbert Mullin
The Crime Classification Manual
 1992 (J. E. Douglas) and again in 2006
 A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes
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Compilation of offender profiling application and crime scene characteristics related to
variety of violent crimes
o Outline defining characteristics and is accompanied by a case study
o 2nd addition adds computer crimes, religious-extremist murder and elder female
sexual homicide and contains new information on stalking and child abductions
Includes victim characteristics – FBI: knowing why a particular person was target for
violent crim can lead to the motive
o Even if a crime seemed random, motive could be gleaned
o Victim might share characteristics with other victims of similar crimes
Attempts to standardize language, terminology, and definitions of these crimes
Crime Scene Profiling (CSP) Today
 Crime scene info attempts to tell profilers/analysts general characteristics of the offender
or possibly where and how the next crime may occur
 CSP most often used when investigators have few clues to solve the case and are making
little progress as to why may have committed the crime
 Behavioral consultant could be brought at the beginning of a case – likely if the case is
particularly heinous or if law enforcement have a working relationship with the expert
 Often used in rape and homicide investigations
o Especially if it seems they have been committed by a serial offender
o Or child abduction cases (when first few hours are crucial)
 CSP can rarely point directly to THE person, instead develops a manageable set of
hypotheses for identifying who MAY have been responsible
 Probabilistic process – requires lots of info about the offense
o Police reports, crime scene photos, witness statement, forensic lab reports and if
homicide – autopsy reports, if possible, profiler should visit crime scene and
victim info is important (lifestyle, background, physical characteristics)
 CPS if done correctly – can provide some statistical probabilities of demographics,
geographic patterns and psychological features of the offender
 3 stages:
o Police officers and detectives collect crime scene data
o Information is turned over to profiler/team who analyzes the data and offers an
“educated hypothesis” about important characteristics of offender
o The profile report, with predictions, is communicated to police investigating the
case
 Professional, responsible analysts are guarded and cautious with their
predictions, however, don’t always have that luxury of thoughtful,
deliberative assessment because of time sensitive factors (child
abductions)
Profiling Terminology
 Modus operandi (MO)
o actions and procedures offenders use to commit a crime successfully
o behavioral pattern learned as they gain experience in committing the offense
o subject to change – maybe in attempt to develop a more effective method
o investigators can make serious error if they place too much significance on MO
when linking crimes
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Personation
o Behavior that goes beyond what’s to commit the crime
Signature
o Personation when it is demonstrated by a serial offender
o Ex: if killer leaves evidence of repetitive, almost ritualistic behavior from crime to
crime (items left or taken from scene, symbolic patterns-writings/drawings,
threats, clothing, photograph, diary; body positioning, mutilation, other symbolic
gestures on the body that are primarily significant to the offender
o Thought to be related to the cognitive processes of the offender and because it’s
consistent in characteristics, it may be more informative to an investigator and
useful in the profiling process than the MO
o Thought to be sign of psychopathology – argued for years that profiling serial
violent offenders is most successful when the offender exhibits some form of
psychopathology at the scene (sadistic torture, evisceration, postmortem slashing,
cuttings, etc.)
 Because assertion is that mentally disabled persons demonstrate greater
consistency in behavior from situation to situation (kind of ironic but
makes sense since personality disorders are deeply ingrained and
persistent across settings) – open to debate since empirical research is
lacking
 So, not fully hypothesized out of research
Staging
o Intentional alteration of the scene prior to the arrival of police
o Believed to have 2 potential reasons:
 Redirect the investigation away from the most logical suspect, or
 To protect the victim or victim’s family from public embarrassment
o So could be done by perpetrator or by someone who discovers the victim or
evidence of a crime
Trophy
o Item taken from the scene or victim that symbolize the offender’s triumph over
the victim; usually represents the force used against the victim or victim’s
subjugation
 Dahmer – body parts and preserved them
 More ex: torn garments, photos, videos taken at the scene
Souvenir
o Meaningful item taken by offender to remember the incident, reminding the
offender of the pleasure gained from the crime
o Ex: jewelry taken from victim
o May seem more innocuous than a trophy, both represent attempt to
psychologically control the victim after the crime (either to taunt the victim if
they survive or their loved ones if they don’t)
o Distinction is important because they infer different things about the personality
or motives of the offender
Psychological undoing
o Behavioral pattern evident at the scene where the offender tries to psychologically
“undo” the crime
o Examples:
 distraught/upset offender placing the body on the bed, maybe rest their
head on the pillow, cover them with blankets; put them upright in a chair –
try to return them to a natural looking state
 Usually these offenders have a close relationship with the victim
 Others may try to dehumanize the victim by doing things to obscure the
victim’s identity (excessive facial beating)
 May objectify their victim by placing them face down
o Similar to staging, not to divert investigation, but more directed at making the
offender feel better about the offense
Case Linkage
 Method of identifying crimes that are likely to have been committed by the same offender
because of behavioral similarity across the crimes
 Most often used with stranger rape and murder, but also could be used for burglary, arson
and robbery
o Some evidence that different types of crimes are linked (violent and property)
 Correct linking is a valuable contribution to investigation and ultimately reduces the
number of suspects
 Incorrect linkage can lead to wrongful conviction
 Profiler can link crimes in 2 ways:
o Search for similar crimes among a database of crimes, without a preconceived
notion of who the offender might be; the discovery of the other crimes with
similar characteristics of victims, Mos, or signatures will SUGGEST that the
same individual could have committed them
o Profiler may search for other crimes highly similar to the crime committed by
someone who has already been identified
 Once profilers collect all relevant info, they compose a list of the behaviors
 Profiler may classify them as MO or ritualistic or signature behaviors
 MO are functionally significant, depend on the context of the crime and are necessary to
commit the crime
 The signature is psychologically significant, or ritualistic and not dependent on context
o Distinction requires subjective judgment from profiler
 Discovery of signature is extremely helpful, if not essential to case linkage
o Consistent, but distinctive behaviors for successful linkage
 Serial killer model – serial killers tend to be more consistent than not, though there is also
variability as their crimes progress
o Ex: may become more or less brutal, or choice of victims may broaden
o Overall though research indicates there is consistency in behavioral patterns
 Consistency not always (usually moderate consistency) found in offenders
MO – it may change according to situation and the effectiveness in prior
offending
Additional Research on Crime Scene Profiling
 Research largely preoccupied with development of offender typologies assumed to be
useful in profiling for violent crimes
 In contemporary psych, typology refers to system for classifying personality or other
behavioral pattern
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At least 16 have been applied to profiling – majority lack solid theoretical basis and
empirical validation
O/D dichotomy is a heavily researched typology – eventually added mixed crime scene
o Endorsed by many, but others other have concerns about validity/usefulness
Douglas: crime scenes are rarely as neat as portrayed in the typology/classification
system
Recent research indicates O/D typology may have limited usefulness as investigative tool
But original article was conceptual rather than empirical, not systematic research
36 inmates interviewed were convenient, probably leaving out or underrepresenting
certain behavioral characteristics; no non-serial killer control group
o Maybe better referred to as sexual murderers, not serial or repeat murderers
David Canter had concerns had issues with Douglas-Ressler interviews
o Reliability, validity, and manner in which conclusions about the offenders were
drawn
o They didn’t select a random sample, or even large one just whoever would agree
to talk to them
Offenders may more realistically fall along a continuum of organized/disorganized
o Canter: if most crime scenes are mixed, the dichotomy is little more than
theoretical proposal of no real utility
O/D typology gives temptation to assume the offenders can be labelled either a O/D
individual
o Amateur profiler might conclude these likely traits in their report
Canter & colleagues tested this model
o Did not find any support for FBI’s O/D typology – almost always a mixture, so
behavior is much more complex; being organized is typically of serial killers as a
whole
ICIAF – program that took over FBI training of behavioral analyst
Typologies and Profiling
 Typology – system for classifying personality or other behavioral patterns – 16 different
typologies have been developed for profiling purposes
o Include: murderers, rapists, child molesters, burglars, arsonists, and terrorists
 Sadistic murderers profile or child abuser profile – refers to characteristics
associated with those typologies
o Used to clarifying wide assortment of behaviors into more manageable set of brief
descriptions – useful, but should be used guardedly
 Using typologies infers that those people’s behavior is consistent across time and place
o Up for debate, some argue behavior differs across situations
o Temporal consistency – consistency across time is acknowledged
o Highly similar situations – people will likely respond the same way over their life
o But when situations change, behavior is likely to change
 Mischel & Peake – behavior is dependent on nature of situation or social environment
and that human discriminate between situations and act accordingly
o Cross-situational consistency is critical issue of typologies
 Must be guarded in drawing conclusions from clues at scene

Kreppel & Birnes – although typologies have descriptive value, they consistently failed
to provide investigators with elements necessary for crime scene assessment
o Very few investigators use typologies found in the CCM by Douglas
o In general, homicide investigators have found that typologies and other crime
scene classification systems have given little assistance in solving a particular
murder
Clinical Versus Actuarial Profiling
 Profiling enterprise supported by FBI is largely clinical orientation, but in recent years
there’s been a move toward more actuarial approaches
 Clinical – experience-based, expert knowledge, and training interspersed with intuition
and subjectivity – preferred by most profilers, BUT leaves room for cognitive biases and
inaccuracies
 Actuarial method – based on how groups of individuals with similar characteristics have
acted in the past; use data of prior instances to estimate probability of particular outcome
o Base rate – statistical prevalence of a particular behavior in a given group over set
period of time, usually one a year
o Commonly used by insurance companies, but permeates criminal law &
enforcement
 Gary Copson – calls method clinical method of profiling – try to identify a wider and
more sophisticated range of subliminal behavioral signals than used in other approaches –
not necessarily the case
 Profilers/analysts with US gov. have favored more clinically based than actuarial to
combat major crimes
o Heavy reliance on experience and training, encourages intuition and subjectivity
o Key features: What happened? How did it happen? To whom did it happen?;
crime scene visit; inference of motive – starting point for development of
significant characteristics of offenders
o Searching for signs of cognition and affect – emotions, mood desires; themes of
anger, power and control-overt and implicit; obsessionality; and underlying
psychological influence
o There is also a exchange of ideas between profilers and law enforcement before
the report is finalized – officers value this (possibly the most)
o Recommends that profile be custom made, directed at level of sophistication of
the police investigators for understanding psychological principles
o Should view profile as flexible, evolving, reflexive process
o Should include list of inferred characteristics of offender, and some provide range
of observations, predictions, and recommendations; advice; may be asked for
interview strategies, crime linking and witness evaluation
Training and Characteristics of Profilers
 Initially responsibility of the FBI Police Fellowship Program (1966-1991)
 1992 program was terminated, but FBI still trains its own agents, but are formally called
profilers – no such job title;
o ICIAF began training and accreditation – remains the only organization that trains
and certifies profilers

 No evidence that ICIAF members are better profilers
Profiling is not yet a regulated profession in the US so anyone can legally call themselves
a profiler
Accuracy and Usefulness of Crime Scene Profiles
 Even a reasonably accurate profile, may not be useful (or cost-effective) to law
enforcement
o May have been able to arrive at the same conclusions on their own
 Research indicates that group profiling may be more effective that one single profiler
 Profiling rarely provides specific identity of the offender, nor is it intended to – tries to
narrow the field to manageable number of potential suspects
 Difficult to know accuracy of profiling, but its real value may be the introduction of new
thoughts in difficult cases
The Psychological and Cognitive Pitfalls of Crime Scene Profiling
 Profilers don’t approach their task with an empty mind
 Bund or limited rationality – humans have a limited mental capacity to make sense of the
enormous complexity of the world; we construct a simplified mental model of the world
and works within it
o Without this model, we would have little to anchor down our senses, perceptions,
beliefs, and thoughts – we all have our own versions of the world
o “world making” – Nelson Goodman – unique version of the world on basis of
experience and distinct mental structure
o Hard to “put yourself in the mind of the serial killer” because you will be strongly
influenced by your own mental model, biases and version of the world
Memory and Cognitive Biases
 Kocsis: “all models appear to assume that the mental assimilation of case information,
presumably via memory, is an integral component of the mental processes involved in the
accurate constructions of a criminal profile”
o The better the memory of the profiler, the more accurate the profile
o Memory consists of their experiences, training, knowledge, and values
 When constructing a profile, new info of the case is compared with their own
experiences, usually previous cases
o Working memory – continually being reconstructed as new info is gained and old
info is partially forgotten
 Belief persistence or perseverance – experienced profilers are convinced the info
embedded in their memory from years of experience allows them to perceive patterns in
crimes and make inferences that are beyond the reach of other individual investigators;
once formed, its resistant to change even when evidential basis of these beliefs is
discredited or refuted
 Tendency to use simplifying cognitive templates and constructs when making complex
judgments – can be damaging to investigations
Confirmation Bias
 Tendency to gather evidence that confirms our existing expectations or beliefs while
failing to acknowledge contradictory evidence/information
 Prevalent in subjective interpretations of a profile and in its creation

Likely that experienced profilers who hold firm to their working memory and cognitive
template, selectively search, recollect or assimilate info in a way that supports their
traditional way of thinking
 Led to hypotheses not being based on facts of the case, but on the expectations of
investigators
 3 conditions that likely promote confirmation bias:
o Law enforcement agents usually work under time pressures to solve the crime –
timelines for strategic decisions
o Police culture is characterized by norms that encourage decisiveness – often
influenced by significant individuals in the organization who expect results in a
timely manner (especially if there is a serial killer or rapist on the loose)
o Many pivotal decisions entail a specific commitment on behalf of the responsible
investigator
 Also influence the report and accompanying recommendations of the
profilers
Self-serving Bias
 Tendency to interpret event that assigns credit to oneself for any success but denies
responsibility for any failure
 Form of self-deception to maintain high self-esteem
 James Brussel’s memoirs (from Ch. 1)
Fundamental Attribution Error (or Bias)
 Tendency to explain another person’s behavior in terms of dispositional or personality
(internal) factors rather than situational or environmental (external) factors
o Behavior reflects who they are, not their environmental circumstance
 Common when we know the person very well
 Traditional FBI approach is susceptible to this bias because it assumes relationship
between offending behavior and personality traits (also crime scene behavior)
 Overestimation is what causes problems and lead to misleading conclusions
o Ex: Douglas and Olshaker – homicidal triad: “bedwetting, cruelty to animals and
fire setting” – research doesn’t support full triad – it’s an assumption –
fundamental attribution error – that has not been documented in criminology
research, though it may be intuitively appealing
 These above principles help understand why some crime scene profilers may miss the
mark in the assertions they make
 Clinical profiling is particularly susceptible to cognitive bias, but others are too
Week 4 – Chapter 3: Scientific Approaches to Crime Scene Profiling
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Page 71
o Misconceptions about profiling
72:
o Ways we acquire beliefs
o Method of tenacity
o Belief persistence
o Confirmation bias
o Method of authority
o A prior method
73
o Method of science
o Karl Popper – Logic of Scientific Discovery
o Verifiability and falsifiability
74
o Beginnings of scientific crime scene profiling
o Scientific began in the UK, clinically based began in US in BSU
75
o Origins of investigative psychology
o David Canter
o The railway rapist
77
o Metropolitan police service (UK) commissioned a research project to study
usefulness, reliability and validity of offender profiling – no formal standards or
training with exception of FBI endeavors
o Rachel Nickell
o Paul Britton
o Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)
o Behavioral investigative analyst - BIA
o Richard Kocsis
78
o Investigative Psychology Today
79
o Clinical versus actuarial profiling
o Clinical approach by FBI – critiqued by Canter – skills reside in profiler not
product of systematic social science
o Alison and Canter
o Subjective opinion informed through experience
o Recent years – profilers have endorsed more scientific approach, but still have a
long way to go
o “holy grail” of practice – Lee Rainbow
o Police psychology v. profiling
80
o Process of profiling is unique from traditional psychological assessment in 2 ways
o 1. Material on which inference and evaluation is based is restricted to what is
available during the investigation
o 2. Evaluation of suspected offender must connect directly with behaviors and
characteristics that police investigators can actually act on – where they live,
potential next victim characteristics, where they may strike next
o Research questions
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81
o
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4 research questions that must be addressed before profiling can be a solid science
Behavioral features
Base rate
Hicks and Sales
82
o Distinguishing Between Offenders and Crimes
o DC sniper case
o Inferring characteristics
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83
o Offenders style of criminality is an integral, natural part of the offender’s general
lifestyle, not some special, atypical aspect of it
o Understanding what the offense is about psychologically
o Linking Crimes
o ViCAP
o RCMP
o ViCLAS
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84
o Basic goal of crime linkage
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85
o Psychological signatures
o Douglas and Munn
o “calling card”
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86
o Crime scene signatures
o Psychological signatures
o Future research should focus on intrinsic psychology of the offender rather than
intentional behaviors that
o Situational factors
o The person-situation debate
o Anamnestic prediction – based on how a particular person will act in certain
situations
o Actuarial prediction – based on how groups with similar characteristics will act
 These 2 based on observational and statistical data
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87
o Clinical or experiential prediction – relies heavily on knowledge obtained by
clinician in their practice; more intuitive and subjective
o Goodwill-Allison filter model
o A  C Equation
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88
o What’s in a profile report? – Fig 3.3
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89
o
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Behaviroal Investigative Analysis in the UK
BIA
ViCLAS
SIO – senior investigating officer
o
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o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Contemporary theories in criminology
Hicks and Sales (2006)
Developmental pathway theory
Socio-emotional theory
Deficient interpersonal skills
Peer rejection
Psychopathy
Robert Hare
Table 3.2 – Implications of Crime Theories for Profiling
Developmental pathways in offending patterns
90
91
o Terrie Moffitt
o Life course-persistent offenders (LCPs)
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92
o Application to profiling
o Developmental and Maturation changes in offenders
o Way a person commits a crime changes over time – MO changes, life situation,
developmental changes
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93
o Deficient Interpersonal skills and peer rejection
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94
o Offending patterns of criminal psychopaths
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95
o Psychopathic sex offenders
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96
o Potential error problems in scientific profiling
o Heuristics – mental shortcuts
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97
o Availability heuristic
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o Base rate fallacy (or neglect)
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99
o Expressions of uncertainty
o Statistical probabilities
o Subjective probability judgments
Week 5 – Chapter 4: Geographic Profiling and Mapping
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102
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Geographic mapping
Geographic profiling
Crime mapping
Hot spots
History of crime mapping
Ecological criminology
Environmental criminology
Park and Burgess
Chicago Group
Concentric circle theory
Zonal hypothesis
Hot beds
Transition
Social disorganization
Immigration
Chicago Area Project
Influences of environmental criminology
Crime pattern theory
Routine activities theory
Rational choice theory
Distribution of opportunities
Distance decay
Brantinghams
Contemporary Crime Mapping
Geographic information system (GIS)
Street geocoding
Predictive policing
Geographic profiling – focuses on single or small group
To provide info on likely base of operations of someone thought to be committing
serial crimes
o Highest peak
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107
o Theoretical foundations and early history
o Routine activity theory
 Criminals learn of possibilities for crime or seek them out as part of the
daily activities of potential victims
 3 factors need to be present: motivated offender, suitable victim, absence
of guardian to protect the victim (without one, crime is unlikely to occur)
 Action space or activity space is familiar for legal and illegal activities
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108
o Space awareness paths
o Rational choice theory
 Humans have free will and make conscious decisions about whether to
engage in criminal activity
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109
 Cost-benefit analysis
 Modern – rational being, constantly analyzing costs and benefits of crime
 Deterrence plays large part in this theory
 Cornish and Clark
 Risks and costs and apprehension
o History of geographic profiling
o Center of gravity or centroid
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Geographic profiling software
3 main software programs
Rigel
CrimeStat
Dragnet
Rossmo
What does the location of the crime say about where the offender might live?
Criminal Geographic Targeting – CGT
111
o Rigel and Rigel Analyst software
o CrimeStat
o Dragnet
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112
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Measures of accuracy
Search cost/hit score
Top profile area
Profile accuracy
Illustration of profile error distance – figure 4.4
Key concepts in geographical profiling
Distance decay
Buffer zone – less than a quarter mile
115
o Mental maps
o Quantitative (objective) and qualitative (subjective) components
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116
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117
Cognitive maps
Internal representations that help us find our way around
Canter and Hodge (2008)
Domocentricity
o Cognitive scripts – mental images and plans for how one will act and react in
certain situations
o Canter and Youngs (2008)
o The circle or centrality theory
 Spatial patterns of many serial offenders will approximate a circle around
their homes or anchor points
 Marauder
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118
o Commuter
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120
o Expressive crimes
o Instrumental crimes
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121
o Canter and Larkin
o Windshield wiper effect
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122
o Geographic hunting grounds – Rossmo - 4
 Hunter
 Poacher
 Troller
 Trapper
o 3 primary victim attack methods
 Raptor
 Stalker
 Ambusher
o Target patterns influences
o Rossmo – geographic profiling and crime scene profiling should be combined for
maximum effectiveness
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123
Basic assumptions of geographic profiling – 6
Case linkage
Tactical crime analysis
Many offenders often change their MO overtime as a functional of situational and
learning factors
 So should be cautious when linking crimes by MO
o 2 behaviors display sig consistency and distinctiveness – spatial and temporal
behavior (distance between offense locations and time between offenses)
o
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124
o
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Linkage as a function of multiple offenses
Should be at least 3 to 5 crimes
Knabe-Nicol and Alison (2011)
High level of consistency in geographic MO – return to same type of place
125
o Relatively even distribution or wide dispersion of offenses
 3rd basic assumption
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126
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Single, stable base of operations
Happy face killer
Relatively short time interval between offenses
Harries and LeBeau – crimes should cluster in time and space
Crime series must occur continuously over time
127
o Displacement
o Offenders return to location of crime – surveillance
 Serial rapists
o Recent research on geographic profiling
o 2 stages: linking a series of crimes to the same offender and developing a
geoprofile that estimates approx. area of offender’s residence or place of
operations
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128
o Simple heuristics may be better than computer programs
o Snook and Canter
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130
o Even without training many police officers made predictions that were as accurate
as those provided by a computerized geographic profiling system
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131
o Computer models try to get better through Bayesian methods
Week 7, 8, 9, & 11 – Chapter 5: Profiling Applied to Specific Crimes
Profiling in Child Abduction Cases
 National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC): more than 200,000
children are abducted by family members every year
o Additional 58,000 are abducted by nonrelatives, primarily for sexual motives
 Registered child sex offenders are rarely the problem –accounted for less
than 1% of the child abduction cases in 2010
 Caution when using the figures above because it’s difficult to obtain accurate information
on child abduction for many reasons
o Highly publicized stranger abductions cause heightened social concern and yield
overestimation of these rates
o National statistics often combine many different types of abductions due to wide
range of definitions
 David Finkelhor & associates: 2 important definitions at work when
people think of child abductions – legal definition and popular media
definition of abduction they called stereotypical definitions
 Legal definition: person is guilty of child abduction if they unlawfully
lead, take, entice, or detain a child under a specified age with intent to
keep or conceal the child from their parent, guardian or person having
lawful custody
 Stereotypical definition: draws imagery from notorious or tragic cases of
abduction or presumed abduction (cases in which the victim is kept for
long periods of time or is killed soon after abduction) – these are scary,
but rare
 Popular stereotype refers to severe kinds of cases where strangers are the
offenders and the child was gone overnight or transported over 50 miles or
was killed or ransomed or the perpetrator intended to keep the child
permanently
o Regardless of whether cases meet the legal or stereotypical definition, its not
unusual for law enforcement investigators to begin questioning parents or
caretakers of the child as suspects
 US has 4th highest rate of child murder by a parent among 21 developed
countries
o Because most cases happen around the home or other private locations, there are
usually no identifiable witnesses outside of family members
 Rest of the section will concentrate on cases of stereotypical abductions since these are
ones investigators most often seek profiler’s advice (also restricted to completed
abductions, not attempts)
The Numbers
 Finkelhor found that 200-300 cases met criteria for the stereotypical abduction (SA) of
children in 1988
 In 1999, a 2nd study estimated 115 were victims of SA
 Researchers speculated that the difference was primarily due to differing methodologies
and measures in the 2 studies or reflection of the 10 year difference and the public being
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more attuned to child abduction and early warning systems like Amber Alert being in
place (despite questions of its effectiveness by researchers)
The 1999: 115 is consistent with the FBI estimates and seems more reflective of reality
o Even though this is a small number, they nature of the crimes have traumatizing
effects on communities
o These abductions receive considerable publicity and are highly influential in
molding public opinion about the risk and frequency of stranger abduction
homicides
Because of seriousness and duration of child abductions, federal law enforcement it
typically involved, putting its Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) teams into
action (Focus 5.1)
o Also Child Abduction Response Teams (CART)
o Becoming commonplace in law enforcement community
o Consist of variety of professionals within a community that may be involved in
the immediate response to a missing, abducted or endangered child incident
 Police officers, social service workers, teachers, day care providers, or
recreational officials, etc.
o Typically trained by the US Department of Justice and offered police academies
or on college campuses
 Includes general information – prevalence and forms of child abduction;
strategies tailored to specific needs of team members
 Includes info on investigative strategies, legal issues, and pointers on
dealing with the media in these unfortunate cases
 Receive info on where to obtain resources, and they often hear from
families of murdered and/or abducted children to gain victim perspectives
 Often includes mock incident
o Since stereotypical abductions are rare, majority never have to apply what they
have learned to an actual situation
o FBI first deployed its CARD teams in March 2006 and by December 2007 there
were 26 deployments in 18 states
 11 teams (42%) – the missing children were recovered alive
 13 (50%) – children were recovered dead
 2 (8%) – children remained missing
 Ages ranged from 4 days old to 17 years old
o FBI CARD teams consist of special agent with experience in conducting
investigations of child abductions in multi-jurisdictional settings
o Once deployed the team members must travel to the crime scene and serve as
technical consultants to the law enforcement agency leading the search
o Intention of the teams is not to take over, but to assist with investigation
o FBI divides child abductions into 3 classifications:
 Child abduction without ransom (nonparental abduction)
 International parental kidnapping
 Domestic parental kidnapping
 Cases with ransom demands are handled by the National Violent
Crimes Unit
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Only 10% of SA last 24 hours or more; 40% of all SA, the victims were killed and in
another 4% the victims were still missing
 Data suggests – approx.. 1 child abduction murder for every 10,000 reports of a missing
child
o When the child is killed, its usually within the first 24 hours and statistics indicate
that the first 3 hours are most critical
 Another 32% of SA victims received injuries that required medical attention 2/3s of
serious stranger abductions result in a child without serious physical injury
 Some research suggests 3 hours are most crucial since the majority of abducted children
(74%) who are murdered are dead withing that period
o 44% of the case, the victims are dead within the first hour
 Nearly half are killed before they are even reported missing
AMBER Alert
 Family and media often complain about the slowness of law enforcement when a case
occurs  as response AMBER Alert was created
 Inspired by abduction-murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman in Arlington, Texas in
1996 – killer was never found
o Because there were witnesses, people believed if the info about her abduction had
been quickly publicized she may have been rescued
 Based on the belief that more rapid official response is necessary to save an abducted
child’s life
 Griffin and Miller say slow response doesn’t lead to death, the perp’s inclination to kill
ensures that any response will be too slow and that victims die quickly in these cases
because the offenders execute their crimes with cruel rapidity, preventing stereotypical
child abduction-murders from being amenable to any simple solution
 However AMBER Alert provides comfort and hope to family members that the info is
being publicized and that someone could come forward with helpful info
 US Department of Justice (2008) – Amber Alert has help rescue hundreds of children and
continues to have near-unanimous support of the public, policy-makers and law
enforcement and say it has become part of America’s public landscape (in all 50 states)
 Inspired by and designed for stranger abductions when child is taken for purpose of
serious harm and/or sexual exploitation
 Can be activated when investigating law enforcement has reasonable cause to believe:
o 1) an abduction of a child has occurred
o 2) the child is believed to be in danger of serious bodily harm or death
 Some believe the system have been commonly used for reporting “abductions” by noncustodial parents or family members that generally don’t meet criteria for AMBER Alerts
 Precise number of stranger abductions each year is difficult to determine and there has
been little research on the topic
o Available data suggests ¼ are abducted by nonfamily members, often include
boyfriends, ex-boyfriends and close acquaintances
o Griffin (2007) – in 275 AMBER Alerts, 20% involved abductions by strangers or
acquaintances
o National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (2010) – 29% of total
AMBER Alerts involved nonfamily members, including boyfriends and exboyfriends
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2009: 9 children were recovered deceased that were involved in AMBER Alert
o 4 involved family abductors, and the identity of the remaining cases couldn’t be
determined
o  even family abductions can pose a serious danger to the child
 Even though non-custodial parents are rarely motivated by a desire to
harm the child, but there are always exceptions
 AMBER Alert system is not a perfect one, but it has support from law enforcement
community and public, so will likely continue
 Possible improvements
o May be more effective if more than one photo of the child is publicized and if
they show them in more ways than well-groomed and smiling because if abducted
they will probably not have this same appearance
The Victims
 Most stranger-abduction victims are of opportunity and in most cases the abductor was
not actively looking for a particular child at the time of the abduction
o “Killers-in-waiting” – given the right opportunity with an available child, they are
more likely to act, changing from a chronic hunter to occasional predator to an
episodic killer
 Usually victim isn’t selected because of some physical characteristic like hair color, body
type or race, BUT gender is very important
 Age:
o Children 6-14 are most likely to be abducted by strangers for sexual gratification
(preschoolers are rarely targeted)
o School aged females are 3x more likely to be abducted than same age males
o Average age of female abductee is slightly over 11 – find them mature enough to
be sexually desirable and vulnerable enough to be easily controlled and exploited
 Where:
o Most abductions of elementary school age happen around their home and majority
within ¼ mile of their residence
o Middle school children tend to be taken from more distant locations –
playgrounds, malls, other recreational areas
o Children are rarely abducted from school grounds
 Bodies
o Elementary aged children’s bodies are usually found within a mile of the
abduction site
o Older children (middle school) usually found within 5miles
o Disposal site is usually close to the murder site, so search of area is critical for
identifying forensic evidence
o Offenders usually familiar with disposal sites, suggesting it might be close to their
residence or work
o Generally try to hide the bodies, but rarely buried
o Offender also tries to dispose of them quickly for fear of detection
o 15% keep the body longer than necessary, but keep it in convenient/accessible
place so it can be concealed or moved quickly
o In most cases the killer keeps the body in his residence
o 69% kept the body in possession for less than 24 hours
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o Those who kept it longer treated the body as a trophy or to stimulate sexual
fantasies
Implications for these spatial relationships are that if the initial contact is not identified, it
will likely be more difficult to find the body of the child
About 25% of the abductor killers return to disposal site and 20% leave town
o Many return within 3 days for various reasons (make sure nothing incriminating
was left behind, see if body has been discovered) unless they know it has been
found
The Offenders
o Almost all kidnapped children are taken by men (98%) and 2/3 of stranger
abductions involve female children
o Average age of killer of abducted children is 27 years old and majority are under
30
o 10% older than 30
o Predominantly unmarried (85%), either live alone or with their parents (51%)
o Usually display poor social skills, have marginal work habits, few friends
o Most have less than high school education
o Half are unemployed and those that do work are in unskilled/semi-skilled labor
jobs
o “not integrated, personally or socially, into the kinds of relationships or activities
that produce or sustain effective self or social controls”
o Move frequently and don’t stay long  rarely have ties to local community
o Inability to interact effectively may persuade them to obtain victims by
abductions usually forcibly
o Often described as “strange”
o Have alcohol and drug problems are frequent
o Often reside, work in, or frequent the area they commit their crimes
o About 2/3 have prior arrests for violent crimes, most for violent sexual crimes
against children
o Large number are likely to be found in active law enforcement files or
correctional system
o 67% follow the same MO in each of their crimes (more than any other types of
murders)
Law enforcement usually under heavy pressure to solve these abductions and many states
have special teams to react quickly – similar to CARD teams
CARD teams of 4-6 are deployed to provide on-the-ground investigative, technical, and
resource assistance to state and local law enforcement
o In 2009, FBI CARD teams were deployed in 7 AMBER Alert cases, compared to
55 in 2006
o Unknown the extent to which these teams are helpful in solving more serious
cases of abducted children
Profiling in Serial Murder Cases
The Numbers

US DOJ estimated there were about 35 to 40 serial murderers active at any time in the US
during 1970s and 1980s
 Though there is no accurate data on prevalence and number of serial murderers active at
one time in the US or internationally, only estimates
 It’s equally difficult to gauge the annual number of serial murderer victims
 Many serial murderers are adept at hiding their victims
The Victims
 Many serial killers select victims who apparently are not missed by others, and if missed,
are given up as runaways or adults who have left on their own volition
 Killers prefer the group of people offering easy access, transience, and the likelihood of
disappearing without seeming to cause much alarm or concern
 Victims are often prostitutes, street runaways, young male drifters, and itinerant farm
workers
 But even serial killers who focus on sex workers will not necessarily choose victims from
only that group
 Young women on or near a university/college campus or the elderly and solitary poor
appear to be the next preferred victims
 Young victims are more likely to be reported missing
 Strongest determining factor in victim selection is their vulnerability or easy availability
o Ex: serial killers rarely break into victim homes
 However, serial killers usually begin these careers with highly vulnerable
victims but as they continue and may gain confidence, they target more
challenging victims, so changes in MO like this are not unusual
 Unlike single murderers, victims of serial murderers are often strangers, and there is not
apparent consensual relationship between the offender and the victim – although there are
exceptions
o Sex workers willingly accompanying them, so initial relationship may be
consensual, they were still strangers and consent likely shifts quickly
o Godwin (2000) – 90% of victims were strangers to their serial killer
o This makes identifying suspects especially difficult
 Preferred method of killing is often different for single-victim murderers and serial killers
o Serial killers often prefer more hands-on killing (strangulation or beating with
hands or feet) while single-victims killers prefer firearms
 Single-victim killers often kill out of anger or lack of control stemming from
interpersonal conflict, while serial killers often murder with thought-out plans, which are
frequently sexually predatory in nature
o Not typically precipitated by an interpersonal disagreement
o Exhibit more planning by moving the victim from one location to another by
using restraints, and disposing of the body at a site which they are very familiar
 More skillful in disposal
 Jenkins (1993) thinks that the popular image of a serial killer (white male who kills for
sexual motive) is inaccurate
o Argues that ack of victimological perspective encourages confusion and distorted
information about serial murder
o Suggests our current knowledge about serial killers is strongly influenced by 2
factors:
o 1) availability of the victims
o 2) attitudes of law enforcement agencies to those victims
 Rather than strictly focusing on individual and personality attributes of
offender, he believes we should examine the social opportunity to kill
 aka - what we know about serial murder may be strongly influenced by the
nature and type of the potential victims
 must be open to the possibility that what we know about serial
killers is not always accurate and they can disguise themselves
(intentionally or not) to look as separate murders or not even
murders at
The Offenders
 may come from all ethnic and racial groups, but accurate data are hard to establish
 however there is a widespread belief that only whites are serial killers and blacks or other
minorities don’t commit these crimes – myth
o Walsh: approx.. 22% of serial killers in the US have been black and was able to
document 90 black serial killers during the post WWII era
o Research on Latino and other minorities is basically nonexistent
 Number of victims the black killers admit to is not significantly different than the amount
of victims from white killers
 We may have assumed serial killings are perpetrated almost only be whites because of
how serial murder is identified and investigated
o Law enforcement agencies may be less prone to investigate African American
victims as casualties of murder if found in a rundown complex in poverty
stricken, crime invested areas
 Under these circumstances LE are more likely to conclude the victim is
another fatality in the never-ending violence there, not as result of a serial
murderer
 We may also have believed this myth because of disparity in media coverage of white
serial killers and black or other minority serial killers
o Similar disparity in media has occurred, often with reference to the race of the
victim
 Not unusual to see broad coverage of disappearance of white child, but
little attention to similar disappearance of a black child
 Another problem is possibility of attributing more blame because of one’s race
o Black killers are more harshly treated
 Criminal Background
o Serial killers are a product of their genetic makeup, upbringing, social
environment and ultimately the developmental path myriad circumstances
influence
o No single identifiable causal factor for the development of a serial killer
o Motives appear to be based on some combo of psychological rewards such as
control, domination, media attention and personal or sexual excitement rather than
financial gain
o Very large number of serial murderers (75-80%) have a persistent history of
criminal convictions, often involving violent crime


Additionally, these are often predatory in nature (rape or residential
burglary)
o So it’s wise for investigators to look for suspects in data bank of previous
offenders
o Serial killers are especially drawn to murders that attract media interest and create
fear and many of the atrocities they commit are incomprehensible to the public
and sometimes they seem to “toy” with the media (write letters, create
signatures/names, send codes, etc)
o Data indicates serial killers rarely kill on basis of some compulsion or irresistible
urge, rather more result of opportunity and random availability of suitable victim,
probably during their routine activities
o Shouldn’t be assumed these killers are social misfits, they may often have
families, gainfully employed, appear regular and even religious members of the
community
 Many blend in really well, so they are overlooked by LE as suspects
o Cognitive processing and values of serial killers may be considered aberrant when
it comes to empathy, concern, and sensitivity for their victims, but a vast majority
of them fail to qualify as seriously mentally disordered in the traditional
diagnostic categories
o Most commit their crimes in their geographic comfort zones and ”buffer zones”
where they do not operate
 Comfort zones can extend a few miles beyond their domicile
o Tend to find their victims, do their killings and dispose of the bodies near their
residence, work or places of entertainment and recreation
 As they become more skillful and confident, they may kill outside of these
immediate comfort zones (most do not)
 Rarely do they move state to state
 Those who do, usually travel in their line of work
o Some experts believe that extensive travel provides
extended comfort zones for their killing activities
Serial Killer Typologies
o Canter and Youngs (2009) note that when profiling serial murder cases, most
experts and profilers rely on motivational and psychopathological aspects they
infer from information gathered at the crime scene
o Fox and Levin distinguish 5 types of motivation for serial murder: power,
revenge, loyalty, profit, and terror
o Holmes and DeBurger propose a motivation-centered typology that has received
some research attention (heavy psychological approach)
o Typologies typically overlap and are rarely independent and separate from one
another- a problem
 Difficult to place killer into one category
 Some can fit into two or more
 And placing them into categories is based on the questionable assumption
that their behavior is consistent across both time and place
o They are still useful though in highlighting the complexity of human behavior and
the variety of motives and scripts

The Holmes-DeBurger Serial Killer Typology
o 4 main categories (some of which are further subdivided into additional groups):
1) Visionary
 Driven by forces or visions that demand a particular group be destroyed
(prostitutes, college students, gay men, women, derelicts)
 Often operates on what he believes to be directives from God or other
perceived higher authority
 Driven by delusions or hallucinations
 Usually very disorganized in killing methods
 They think this killer is “psychotic” and suffer from a break with reality –
which is atypical because serial killers are not usually mentally disordered
 Probably the most difficult to understand for investigators and the public
 Chaotic crime scene with an abundance of physical evidence like
fingerprints and even the murder weapon
 May be divided into subgroups depending on who or what is advocating
the killing (common subgroups: demon mandated and God mandated)
 Usually commit crimes well within his comfort zone so geoprofiling
would be very useful tool for detection
 However unlike most serial killers, they have no ideal victim type (IVT) –
rarely any common characteristics
 Usually spontaneous and little planning
 Victim is just in the wrong place at the wrong time (and belong to the
specific group the killer wants to destroy)
2) Mission-oriented
 Determines on their own that there is a type of group/people who are
undesirable and must be destroyed
 No voices or forces command them
 Self-imposed duty
 Victims may be similar to visionary and may also be members of a
particular religious, racial, or minority group
 Doesn’t demonstrate any discernible mental disorder
 Generally functions on a daily basis without exhibiting observable
psychological behaviors
 Less disorganized in killing method compared to the visionary type and
has characteristics of both disorganized and organized behavior – mixed
classification but more towards disorganized pole
3) Hedonistic
 Strives for pleasure and thrills and perceives people more as objects for
their own enjoyment
 Gains considerable pleasure from the act of murder itself
 Primarily motivated to induce pain or terrified reaction
 Highly stimulating for the killer
 Method of killing is often more organized, but still a mixture
 3 subtypes based on primary motive: lust, thrill, and comfort
1. Lust: primary motive is sex, even if victim is already dead; always seeking
the IVT that is sexually appealing to them
4)
o
o
o
o
o
o
2. Thrill: primarily motivated to induce pain or terrified reaction; usually has
no relationship with the victim although they may have followed them for
some time and base their victim selection on physical characteristics to
feed into his fantasies
3. Creature-Comfort: to acquire activities (business interests) or objects
(money) that provide a comfortable and luxurious lifestyle and the victims
presumably stand in the way of achieving this; the act of murder is
incidental to the pursuit of material gain and a comfortable lifestyle;
dispose of their victims when they have identified a new “mark”; resemble
criminal psychopath; some point out that female serial killers often fall
into this category (women who kill husbands for funds to move on without
them to other victims)
Power/Control
 Endeavor to obtain satisfaction by having complete life-or-death control
over the victim
 Sexual components may or may not be present
 primary motive is total power and control over the helpless and restrained
victim
 Tend to seek specific victims who appear especially vulnerable and easily
victimized like children
 Demonstrate organized killing methods throughout the murder
These 4 typologies were further developed by Holmes and Holmes in their book
Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool (2009)
 They assert that the O/D dichotomy can be useful when the crimes involve
sex as a primary motive
 Offenders who commit sexually motivated crimes are particularly
amenable to organized nonsocial or disorganized asocial offenders
 Picquerism refers to the rare phenomenon of obtaining sexual pleasure
through repeated stabbing, cutting, or slicing the body of another person
with a sharp object (Jack the Ripper believed to have demonstrated this as
primary motive for his murder)
Typologies are fascinating and seem to help us make sense of something that is
otherwise incomprehensible, but they are often overlapping/not mutually
exclusive and latching onto a typology can lead a profiler astray
Typology of motivations without empirical foundations usually provide little
assistance in process of profiling
Canter and Young (2009) think the motivational-based approach is filled with
problems which result is little usefulness or successfulness of the profiles
Canter argues one of the best approaches for the development of helpful profiles
is to examine the offending style or dominant theme that can be found in the way
of the offender interacts with the victim and the role the offender assigns to the
victim
In order to understand the killing, you have to understand they chain of events
that led up to the offender-victim interaction
 Was victim specifically targeted? Of opportunity?
 Discover their criteria


Also perhaps of even greater importance is the manner in which the
offender treated the victim before and after the victim’s death
Role of the Victim
o Profilers are more attentive to the role played by the victim in the crimes and how
the offender treats their victims
o Not saying the victim plays an active role, but rather the role assigned by the
offender
o Canter and Youngs (2009) serial may treat the victim in 3 ways: an object, a
vehicle, or a person – consider these to be general themes of a serial murder 
 Object theme
 This will be apparent from examination post mortem
 In extreme forms, the body would be destroyed through
dismemberment and decapitation
 May dehumanize the victim (before and after death)
o Reduce humans to level of nonhuman creatures or
inanimate objects by denying them a sense of dignity
 Injuries are often multiple and severe, involving various body parts
 Sees victim without human qualities, to be explored and played
with
 Overall appears with a lack of empathy
 Vehicle theme
 Most apparent in actions that are emotional attacks on or
exploitations of the live victims
 Victims considered a vehicle of expression of the offenders desires
and anger
 But seen as more than a just body
 Victims frequently carry a special meaning to the offender by what
they represent and signify in their life
 Though they may still engage in cruel, direct exploitation through
torture, use of blindfolds, props, specialized offending kits
containing items they use to carry out their crimes
 Usually opportunistic or spontaneous
 Extreme forms result in obliterating attacks on the victim, their
belongings, but these will fall just short of dehumanization
 Person theme
 Many violent offenders see their victim as human
 This role is seen in offender actions that indicate attempts at some
distorted form of intimacy and recognition that the victim is a
person with an identity
 Bite marks are consistent with this interpretation and occur in 5%
of murder cases
 Offenders who interact with them as a person often use reassuring
language and display knowledge about the victims and where they
live



Extreme variants of this theme is making an effort to obscure the
identity of the victim of who they recognize as a human being
These are probably soon to have subtypes as more research occurs
This model is important because it’s likely that one serial killer will adopt
the same approach to all his victims
Profiling in Serial Arson
-The Numbers
 Arson is defined as any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without
intent to defraud, dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal
property of another, etc.
 2010: nearly 60,000 in the US; estimated 8,806 arrests for arson (40% were under 18,
23% younger than 15)
 Further estimated that many arsons are set by serial arsonists: individual who
intentionally set three or more separate fires
 Hard to estimate how many are active at any one time, but if recidivism rates of
convicted arsonists are an indication, the number is large
 Many arsons by serial arsonists go unsolved
 US Fire Administration (2011): many communities in the US are experiencing significant
increase in serial arson-related fires
-The Victims
 Hundreds of lives are lost to arson-related fires each year and thousands suffer burns and
serious injuries from them
 Financially costly to victims as well and to the community as a whole
 No one is immune from being victimized
-The Offenders
 Little reliable info to guide investigators or profilers in their search for serial arsonists
 Some research says those who persistently and repeatedly set fires are often involved in a
variety of other antisocial and criminal behaviors
 Also suggests many arsonists have a variety of mental disorders
-Firefighter Arson
 among serial arsonists, there’s a small percentage of firefighters who intentionally set
fires they are dispatched to put out
 a sign that a firefighter might be setting these fires is a sudden increase in nuisance fires
within a company’s “first due” area
 Firefighter arsonists tend to be relatively new to the department (like less than 3 years)
o Primary motive seems to be excitement of wanting to be a hero to fellow
firefighters and the community
o Usually begin by setting nuisance fires- setting fire to grass, brush, Dumpsters, or
trash piles- then move to abandoned vehicles and unoccupied structures
o May be the first to arrive and may appear very eager
o They are the exception rather than the rule for serial arsonists

More likely to be juveniles, young adults, or emotionally disturbed
individuals
-Juvenile Firesetters
 Icove and Estepp (1987): vandalism was the most frequently identified motive for arson –
accounted for nearly half the firesetting
 Most fires set by juveniles appear to be motivated by the wish to get back at authority,
desire to gain status among their peer group or the urge for excitement
 96% of vandalism fires were set by juveniles who often set a fires within a 1-mile radius
of their homes
o Not unusual for them to have been maltreated
o Primary motive is anger directed at those who maltreated them
o Usually accompanied by a friend/peer group
o About half remain at the scene to watch the firefighter activity
 Firesetting is strongly related to family dysfunction, history of abuse, school difficulties,
antisocial traits (impulsivity and hostility) and co-occurring delinquent behaviors
 Firesetters 18-35 tend to engage in multiple forms of antisocial behavior – cruelty to
animals, robbery, forcible rape, assault, aggravated assault, and weapon use
 Prevalence of lifetime firesetting in the US was 1%
-Serial Arsonists
 Highly dangerous if they have a history of setting multi-point fires and using fuel and
other accelerants
 Serial adult firesetters (over 18) tend to be young, single and have started criminal career
early and have typically spent more time in prison and have extensive history of other
property crime
 Canter and Fritzon (1998) developed classification scheme of arsonists based on info
gathered from arson investigations
o Based on behavioral and motivational indicators instead of just firesetting motive
which previous typologies were based
 This would be much more valuable to LE agencies as an investigative tool
than a classification system based largely on motives
o Majority of the time motives are determined after the arrest of the firesetters and
police investigators are more likely to narrow their search with a thematic
approach
o Their view is consistent with general conclusion that firesetting has a number of
psychological origins
 Some are a consequence of deviant lifestyle, being used as a criminal tool
for people who have little other intellectual or physical resource
 For others arson may be the product of ineffectual way of dealing with
interpersonal conflict
 For others, may reflect self-destructive tendencies – troubled individuals
seeking attention
 The Canter-Fritzon classification scheme: 4-themed model classifying arson according
to its target and the motivations underlying the firesetting behavior.
 They learned that arson could be distinguished according to two basic motivational and
behavioral features: (1) expressive and (2) instruments






o 1) Expressional motivating theme – offender is driven to express anger ot other
emotions
o 2) Instrumental motivating theme – the offender is driven to achieve certain goals,
such as financial gain or to hide another crime
Behavior component is identified by the characteristics of the target it the firesetting
which can also be instrumental or expressive
o Target may be an object with which the firesetter doesn’t have any personal
identification or a person who is part of the offender’s personal or social identity
o Combination of the 2 motivating sources and the nature of arson targets provides
4 hypothesized forms of firesetting
o These motivation sources that are of an instrumental nature have the direct
objective of achieving goals
Overall they say targets could be differentiated according to whether they were objects
(schools, vehicles, institutions, businesses, or residences) or specific people who were
significant to the arsonists
Motivation distinctions could be classified according to whether an obvious instrumental
outcome was desired (revenge or to conceal a crime) or whether the act was expressive in
that it drew attention to some underlying emotional problem (symbolic, emotional
significance)
Thankfully most firesetters choose uninhabited buildings or residences
o Suggests they aren’t attempting to injure anyone, but they do enjoy watching the
fire, firefighting activity and accompanying excitement of other watchers
Their study also produced information pertaining to arsonists’ personal characteristics
o Demonstrated that instrumental-object behavior was highly characteristic of
juvenile and young offenders
o expressive-person theme was associated with persons with a psychiatric history of
emotional problems and who used firesetting to draw attention to their problems
o expressive-object behavior was characteristic of serial arsonists as well as those
with a psychiatric history
o instrumental-person firesetters set fires in reaction to failed relationships, and
firesetting represents their dominant way of expressing anger and frustration

Actional system model – based on systems theory; goes beyond describing only arson
behavior; intended to include other types of criminal behavior like taking hostages; 4
themes are slightly different but still correspond to Canter-Fritzon
1) Expressive Theme – tend to be serial arsonists or other offenders who regard their
illegal behavior as the best way to deal with others; choose targets with some
symbolic, emotional significance
2) Integrative Theme – have history of mental disorder and suicide attempts; might
engage in attention-seeking behavior that could endanger both their own lives and
others
3) Conservative Theme – use fire, property destruction, or hostage taking as a way
of affecting a person significant to them (ex: prompted by failed relationship,
desire for personal revenge)
4) Adaptive Theme – similar to integrative theme; use their crimes as a means of
getting attention, however, typically don’t display mental disorders (severe
depression) in the usual psychiatric sense; in most cases they have a delinquency
or criminal record and exhibit behavioral problems in school or at home; an
arsonists who uses fires to hide evidence can be seen as adaptive firesetters

Pyromania
 “presence of multiple episode of deliberate and purposeful firesetting”
 An intense fascination with fire and an irresistible urge to light fires
 Not done for any apparent motive, but is characterized by high levels of emotional
arousal before the act, followed by relief or reduction of arousal when firesetting
 In psychological and psychiatric literature it is referred to as an impulse control disorder
 The concept has existed for approx.. 100 years in clinical literature, but has very little
empirical research to support its existence
o If it does exist as its own diagnostic category, its very rare
o Difficult to determine how useful the concept of irresistible urges to set fires is in
the profiling process
o It is clear though that the vast majority of serial arsonists don’t meet criteria of
being irresistible impulses to set fires
Week 11 - Profiling in Serial Rape Cases – pg. 52
-The Numbers Estimated 84,767 forcible rapes reported in 2010 in the US (FBI)
o Total arrests: 15,586; arrestees under age of 18: 2,198
o Does not reflect the actual number of rape or rape offenders in the US
o Also only counted cases where the victim was female
 In 2012, Holder (attorney General) said males would now be counted
 Estimated that between 64-96% of all rapes are not reported to authorities
 Majority of rape cases reported are never prosecuted for rape
o Especially for acquaintance rape
 Figures also fail to estimate serial rapists who go undetected
 Lisak and Miller (2002): conducted one of the few studies to obtain estimation of
undetected serial rapists –
o of 1,883 men, 120 (6.4%) met the criteria for having committed rape or attempted
rape;
o of these 76 (63.3%) admitted to repeated rape of either multiple victims at
different times or more than once against the same victim
o the 76 admitted to total of 439 rapes (about 5.8 each)
o also admitted to large number of other interpersonal violent attacks (battery,
physical abuse, and/or sexual abuse of children)
o non-rapists committed mean of 1.41 acts of violence compared to 3.98 for singleact rapists and 13.75 for serial rapists
o 4% of total sample were serial rapists, but they were responsible for 28% of the
violence
o Study had limited data: only one urban university, but based on this data, it can be
estimated that prevalence in the US is 4% and suggests that majority of rapes are
part of a series of such offenses committed by one individual, but more research is
needed
 McWhorter and colleagues (2009) replicated the Lisak-Miller: 1,146 newly enlisted male
Navy personnel – identified 144 (13%) men who had committed a sexual assault; of this
103 (71%) reported committing more than one rape – an average of 6.4 each similar to
the previous study
o This study also demonstrates that a sizable group of undetected serial rapists exist
in other populations besides college males
o Discovered tendency for serial rapists to use the same specialized method and
select similar targets over the course of offending
 Some offenders consistently made certain the victim was intoxicated or
drugged before the assault
-The Victims Rape victims (survivors) can be found in any social class, occupation, race, age,
geographic location, etc., so generalizations are unwarranted
 Serial rapists (like serial killers) may have cues for finding victims by are vastly different
and can range from age to mode of travel
 Some rapist “types” do look for vulnerable victims or ones they associate with socially or
otherwise interact with on a frequent basis

The behavioral interaction between the offender and victim are also important – reported
by victim: how they offender treats the victim during the crime
 Although rape is always a violent crime, some offenders display MOs that are distinctive
from others
-Victim Selection The process in which an offender chooses or targets a victim
 Research has shown that each offender has their personal selection criteria that enter into
the somewhat rational decision-making process in committing a crime
 Serial rapists make decisions and choose how to proceed with victim on perceived
characteristics, but also based on situational characteristics at the time
 Deslauriers-Varin and Beauregard (2010): “previous studies have shown that the target
selection processes of sex offenders depend heavily on the social, physical and
geographical environment as well as the victim’s behaviors and location prior to the
victim”
 Likely that offenders will use the same selecting victims approach to be targets of his
other assaults, so profilers should always be alert to cues that indicate an offenders
method of selection
 Deslauriers-Varin and Beauregard (2010) identified 3 target selection scripts based on the
victim’s activities prior to the crime:
1. The home
 Intrusion track
 Invited tract
2. Outdoors
 Noncoercive track
 Coercive track
3. Social scripts
 Onsite
 Off-site
 Home intrusion track
o rapist breaks into victim home and sexually assaults and adult female victim while
she is alone; often uses a weapon to control them; category of victim selection is
considered “rational” in the sense that the benefits will usually outweigh the risk;
offender will look for cues that the woman is alone and will enter the home
through entry point undetected
 Home invited track
o Rapist will likely become acquainted with the victim until she invites them home,
in this case he is easily identifiable by the victim and relies on the fact that the
victim is unlikely to report the crime
 Outdoor script
o Victims are usually outside when approached; serial rapist will spend good
amount of time preparing for crimes and selecting victims
 Outdoor noncoercive track
o Approach without violence; ex: gradually gain trust and invite victim to their
home or other location; she may then consent when then he commits the crime;
similar to home-invited track except that the victim does not invite them to her
home

Outdoor coercive track
o Situation where serial rapist waits outside for an opportunity and then attacks the
victim; often they will kidnap the victim; involves higher risk for the offender
because the attacks occurs outside and the victim’s resistance may draw attention
o Good illustration is the “Teardrop Rapsit” – clear pattern of offending – victims
were walking alone, generally early morning, and were attacked by man holding a
gun or knife who pulled them into a wooded area
 Social script
o Used with targets engaged in social or recreational activities prior to the assault,
such as at a bar, pool, concert, shopping mall, theater or ski area; these rapists will
travel to specific recreational locations to identify suitable victim, most often with
planning the crime or selecting victim ahead of time; rapist will frequently use
coercion to control the victim and often act directly, without any initial
interaction, having waited for the best available opportunity to attack
 Social onsite rape
o Characterized by rape happening indoors, like shopping mall restroom or pool
changing room
 Social off-site target
o Distinguished by encounter and attack outdoors when the victim is alone, similar
to outdoor coercive track; often the offender will move the victim to a different
location for the commission of the crime
 Researchers also have suggested that some serial rapists tend to show a “crime
switching” or “crossover tendency”
 Crossover sexual offenses – those which the victims are from multiple age, gender, and
relationship categories
 many offenders don’t select only one type of victim – especially true of opportunity
rapists or those that don’t plan their crimes and target their victims but instead take the
opportunity to assault when presented (might select male children or younger or older
women)
 Heil et al. findings suggest that opportunistic, malleable nature contradicts traditional sex
offender typologies – especially the case of typologies based solely on victim
characteristics
o By combining findings: coercive, onsite, and offsite tracks are most likely to be
associated with the crossover offenders
-False Allegations Vast majority of serial rapists remain undetected
 Over half maybe up to 90% are never reported to police and this is conservative
 However some that are reported are false allegations
 Lisak (2010) found that these represented 6% of the 10 year data they examined
 Rape awareness programs often use the 2% statistic – drawn from the FBI’s Uniform
Crime Reports – most studies have found that false allegations range from 2-10% of toal
reported rapes
 Canter and Youngs (2009) – determining truthfulness of victim’s allegations in rape cases
is an important task for police  psychologists and behavioral analysts consulting for
police should inform investigators of available research in this area
 Lonsway (2010) – 3 possible explanations for false allegations:
o Alleged victim may be suffering from mental or cognitive disorder
o Or have suffered from some emotional and interpersonal disruption
o Or person may be desire attention and sympathy from others being attacked
 Canter and Youngs report that 18% of false cases fall into the later category
o In other cases, the alleged victim seeks revenge and retaliation against a rejecting
male (27%)
o They think the majority fall within a 4th explanation offered by Kanin (1994) –
alleged rape provides an “alibi” of sorts – complainant searches for explanation
for suddenly foreseen unfortunate, consequences of a consensual encounter
usually sexual with a male acquaintance
o Kanin believes many false allegations represent impulsive and desperate attempts
to cope with personal and socially stressful situations (ex: young woman consents
to sex with acquaintance then realizes that her boyfriend would find out  alleges
it was not consensual)
 They can be devastating to accused person, but it should be emphasized that they are a
small number compared to total number of reported rapes which are themselves a small
percentage of the true prevalence of this crime
 Coverage perpetuates the notion that it is more common than it actually is and obscures
the reality that the great majority of rapes go unreported
-The Offenders Serial rapists tend to target strangers
 Data from US and UK suggests serial rapists on average commit about 5 or 6 rapes and
average age is about 26
 Younger rapists (20-23) offend close to home (approx.. 2-mile radius) & older rapists
travel farther (approx. 5-mile radius)
o Young rapists tend to be marauders
 Single rapists usually rape impulsively but serial rapists often prepare in detail
 Many rape typologies have been proposed including one used by the FBI: Nagayma-Hall
typology and the heavily cited Nicholas Groth typology
 Most research-based typology is the Massachusetts Treatment Center’s (MTC), which
has drawn attention and now is on its 3rd revision
o The limitation at least for behavioral profiling is that it focuses largely on the
psychological characteristics of the offender
o Think it’s more helpful if crime scene info concerning how the rapist treats the
victim is also included – it highlights how the offender interacts with others in his
life
 Canter and colleagues – stranger rapes can be distinguished according to the interaction
 Behavioral and motivational classification systems are permeated with problems and
drawbacks
o One obvious problem is that individuals don’t usually fit neatly into a discrete
category
-Massachusetts Treatment Center Classification System Rough framework for conceptualizing and simplifying behaviors and motives for sexual
assault
 Classifies rape into 4 major types and 9 subtypes

Opportunistic Rapists (type 1 and 2)
 Impulsive or opportunistic
 Engage in sexual assault simply because the opportunity to rape presents itself
 Driven by more situational factors and opportunity than internally driven sexual fantasy
 Might occur within context of another crime (robbery/burglary)
 Prominent characteristics: impulsivity and lack of self-control and forethought; lack of
self-regulation leads to pervasive and enduring lifestyle of impulsive irresponsible
behavior  extensive criminal career
 View victims as sexual object and not concerned with their fear or discomfort
 Must exhibit:
o Callous indifference to welfare and comfort of the victim
o No more use of force than necessary to obtain compliance
o Evidence of adult impulsive behavior (fighting, vandalism, other impulsive-driven
antisocial behaviors
 Subdivided based on social competence and developmental state at which their lack of
self-regulation is noticed
o Type 1: high social competence and highly impulsive in adulthood
o Type 2: low social competence and highly impulsive in adolescence
Pervasively Angry Rapists (type 3)
 Displays high levels of anger that pervades all areas of his life – and directed at a wide
range of people
 Actions are capricious and randomly violent, directed at whoever gets in his way at the
wrong time and place
 Violent and aggressive behaviors do not show sexual arousal, and the attacks often inflict
considerable injury
 Relatively stable work history and often reveals some level of success
 Perceives himself as strong, athletic, and masculine
o Occupation is most often “masculine” in nature – truck driver, carpenter,
mechanic, electrician, plumber
 Described by others as having a quick and violent temper
 Must show following characteristics to qualify for this classification:
o Presence of a high degree of non-sexualized aggression or rage expressed through
verbal or physical assault that clearly exceeds what is necessary to gain
compliance of the victim
o Evidence of adolescent and adult violent and anger-driven antisocial behavior
o Carries out attacks that are usually unplanned and unpremeditated
 No subtypes identified so far
Sexually Motivated, Sadistic Rapists (type 4 and 5)
 Presence of sexual or sadistic fantasies and cognitions that strongly influence assaults
 Either overt (type 4) or muted (type 5) depending on whether their sexually aggressive
behaviors are directly expressed in violent acts (overt) or are only fantasized (muted)
 Muted shares similar characteristics to the overt sadistic rapist except they inflict less
damage to the victim
 Muted’s motive is the victim’s fear or some violent fantasy that aids in his sexual arousal
– victim’s fear excites him or he relies on some rehearsed sexual fantasy to excite him
 Overt: both sexual and aggressive features; victim’s actual pain and discomfort are
prerequisites for his sexual excitement; believes his victims enjoy being abused; assault
may begin as attempts at seduction, but with increasing resistance from the victim,
aggressive behaviors are increasingly prominent
o Usually married, but little commitment, extensive antisocial background from
truancy to rape-murder; on occasion engages in sexual sadism that is so extreme
the victim may be murdered
 To qualify, they must exhibit:
o Level of aggression or violence that clearly exceeds what is necessary to force
compliance of the victim;
o Explicit, unambiguous evidence that aggression is sexually exciting and arousing
to the offender. Can be illustrated either by indications that the offender derive
sexual pleasure from injurious acts to the victim or by the fact that injurious acts
are focused on parts of the body that have sexual significance;
o Aggression or enough force to gain compliance;
o Evidence that sexual fantasies or violence or the victims fear excite him.
Sexually Motivated, Non-sadistic Rapists (type 6 and 7)
 engages in sexual assault because of intense sexual arousal prompted by specific stimuli
he perceives in the targeted victim
 Aggression or violence is not a significant feature of the attack but rape by definition is a
violent act
 Fundamental motivation is the desire to prove his sexual prowess and adequacy to the
victim
 Often live in a world of fantasy oriented around themes of how victims will yield eagerly
under an attack, and be impressed by the offender’s skill and performance
 They fantasize that they will be able to prove their masculinity and sexual competence to
themselves and victims
 In their sexual attacks, they are described as being highly sexually aroused and displaying
obvious disturbances involving lack of control and distortions of reality
 Victim is usually a stranger but the offender has probably watched and followed the victim
for sometime
 During the attack he will display low levels of aggressive behavior
 Sometimes is successful the offender may contact the victim at a later time and ask about
her well-being or even ask for a date
 These offenders usually confine his criminal behavior to sexual assault and aren’t usually
involved in other forms of antisocial behavior
 Requires the following behavioral indicators:
o Presence of verbalizations aimed at self-reassurance and self-affirmation;
o Behaviors that reflect an attempt at establishing an amorous relationship with the
victim;
o Expressions of concern for the victims welfare, comfort and enjoyment during the
sexual experience
 May be at least 2 subtypes similar to the subdivisions of the opportunistic offender
o Type 6: described as quiet, socially inadequate, and submissive; although
dependable workers, their poor interpersonal skills and low self-esteem prevent
them from succeeding at career advancement
o Type 7: depicted as more interpersonally competent and achieves more career
advancement and professional success; classified as highly social competent
Vindictive Rapists (type 8 and 9)
 Driven by his anger towards women
 Uses act of rape to harm, humiliate, and denigrate women
 In their view violent sexual assault is the most humiliating and dominating act possible
 Victims are brutally assaulted and subjected to sadistic acts such as severe biting, cutting,
or tearing of body parts
 Victims are strangers in most cases
 Along with the physical abuse, the offender will use a great deal of profanity and emotional
abuse like threats
 Most of these offenders are married, but their relationships with women are distinguished
by periodic abuse and domestic violence
 Save women as demanding, hostile, and unfaithful individuals who need to be dominated
and controlled
 Select their victims based on some characteristics they perceive as indicating assertiveness,
independence, or professional status
 His attacks usually follows some precipitating event with another woman that he interprets
as demeaning to him personally
 The vindictive offenders can be subdivided by their degree of social competence although
in this situation they are divided into low and moderate rather than low and high
 The following behaviors must be displayed to qualify:
o Clear evidence, and verbalization or behavior, of the intent to demean, degrade, or
humiliate the victim;
o No evidence that the violent behavior is eroticized or that sexual pleasure is
derived from the injurious acts;
o The injurious ask her not focus on parts of the body that have sexual significance
-Canter’s Levels of Violation and Themes of Rape Canter and colleagues recognized importance of MTC-R3 in the investigation of stranger
rapes, but believed that it didn’t go far enough
 Proposed stranger rape can be investigated from 3 levels of violation and well as 4
underlying themes of the offense
 3 increasing levels of violation: personal, physical, and sexual
 1. Personal level:
o Offender may apologize to the victim, force the victim to participate verbally, or
imply that he knows the victim
 2. Physical level:
o Includes verbal violence, anal penetration, demeaning the victim, signs of
multiple types of violence, tearing the victims clothing, and binding, gagging,
and/or blindfolding the victim
 3. Sexual level:
o Includes fellatio, expectation of victim participating in the act, cunnilingus, and
kisses; may also expect the victim to make complementary comments about his
performance
 Important to take levels violation into consideration because of serial rapist is app to
display the same level and his various rapes
 “themes” that correspond to the 3 roles of victims discussed in the serial murder cases
earlier in the chapter: the victim as a person, vehicle, and as an object
o Terminology is slightly changed when applied to rape cases, but descriptions
remain similar
 Canter et al. introduce the term “control” when they rapist uses the victim as an object,
“hostility” when the rapist uses the victim as a vehicle and “involvement” when the rapist
uses the victim as a person; researchers added a fourth: “theft”
o Terms are treated as “themes”
 1. Control theme:
o offender regards victim as an inanimate object that must be trussed and coerced,
but the attacker will not try to demean the victim
o control is used because the overall theme is to demobilize the victim – methods
may include binding, blindfolding, or gagging the victim; weapon is often used
o offender has no empathy for the victim and experiences no remorse for his crime
 2. Hostility theme:
o Verbal violence, insulting or demeaning language, tearing victim’s clothing, and
general tone of violence toward victim
 3. Involvement theme:
o Offender’s desire for social contact and intimacy
o Victim is treated as reactive, living person, rather than just sexual object
o Offender may kiss the victim and expect them to make sexual comments; may
also compliment her appearance
 4. Theft theme:
o Rape occurs during the commission of other crime such as burglary, carjacking or
robbery
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o The offender is using the opportunities presented by the crime for some future
instrumental goal, not just for the immediate gratification of the rape
Canter proposed that 3 levels of violation and 4 modes of interaction will provide a
composite model of stranger rape that will help in the investigation and profiling of the
offender
Canter: study of 112 stranger rapes – concluded that 73% could be assigned a clear and
dominant theme; specifically 26% could be classified as hostility, 10% as control, 5% as
theft, and 32% as involvement
o Suggests that stranger rapes may be explained more in terms of hostility and
involvement (pseudo-intimacy) than power and control factors
o Also control offenses tend to be predominantly physically violating, theft rapes
are mostly personally violating, involvement cases are mostly sexually violating
and hostile offenses tend to be a combination of all 3 levels of violation
Canter et al. concluded that sexual and physical aspects of the rape do not usually offer
the best clues for distinguishing rapist from other rape offenders – distinguishing features
are more likely to be found in the styles of the interpersonal interaction that are typical of
the assault
o “Rape can be distinguished in terms of the mode of interaction between an
offender and his victim”
Identification of behavioral themes in rape attacks open up the possibility that it might
not be specific behaviors an offender demonstrates during the crime that are important,
but rather the function these behaviors serve
Far more important to identify dominant theme, not only in burglary but in other serial
crimes too, focusing on detailed consideration of specific actions
Crime scene themes provide valuable clues about how the offender lives his daily life,
particularly in relation to how he treats others, including his family
More research is needed, but the Canter method combined with MTC offers the best
research approach and beginning data for profiling stranger rapes to date
Week 13 – Chapter 7: Suspect-Based Profiling
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