Various types of profiling
Criminal Profiling
Geographic Profiling
Criminal Profiling (or Offender Profiling or Psychological Profiling - for further differentiation see the references on the scientific articles page).
A few words of caution: There are many more differentiations, e.g. behavioral, statistical, and geographical profiling; crime scene profiling, psychological profiling, and offender profiling; etc. Here, until there is some agreement on models and definitions, the term criminal profiling encompasses both the FBI approach, crime scene analysis, and the British approach, psychological profiling with a more empirical/statistical background. Geographical profiling is viewed as an additional tool, to be used after various crime scenes have been linked.
Methods
Overview of the profiling method(s): introduction, synopsis (recommended first reading)
Psychogenic Inventory, developed by Benjamin Karpman, M.D., in 1954. At the time, he was Chief Psychotherapist at Saint Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C.
The Role of Criminal Profiling in the Development of Trial Strategy by Brent S. Turvey (external link)
John Douglas on his recent book The Anatomy of Motive
Deutsche Seiten/German Sites:
Kriminalpsychologie: deutsche Seite, mit Artikeln im Volltext (mit bestem Dank an Jens Hoffmann) (externer Link)
Spuren, die zum Charakter des Mörders führen: Interview von Peter Brock mit Profiler/Kriminalpsychologe Thomas Müller, Berliner Zeitung, 29.12.1999.
Geographic Profiling
Geographic profiling is an investigative aid that predicts the offender's most likely location (i.e., home, work, social venues, travel routes). It can be employed in cases involving serial sexual assault, serial homicide, serial arson, serial robbery, serial break and enter, serial bombing, predatory crimes (sexual homicide, child molesting), multiple location crimes (telephone calls, credit cards, exposings) and missing bodies. A minimum of five crimes or related sites are required for a complete profile, however some forms of analysis can be done with less.
This investigational tool was developed as a result of seven years of study and research by a Vancouver police officer, Detective Inspector Kim Rossmo, at Simon Fraser University. See also ECRI Canada.
The relationship between criminal profiles and geographic profiling is an important one in that they compliment one another. Criminal profiling plays a very important role in determining the probable life and mind set of the offender and consequently is of great value when constructing a geographic profile, particularly in those cases where there is a minimum amount of spatial information (i.e., only a few relevant crime locations).
The first practical use of this technique occurred in 1990. It was then called "Criminal Geographic Targeting". Geographic profiling was specifically designed to assist in cases of violent serial crime as an investigative support technique; and assist with prioritizing the overload of information that serial crime cases generate by serving as an information management strategy.
The process is based on an analysis of the locations of a connected series of offences, the characteristics of the neighbourhoods in which they have occurred, and the psychological profile of the offender, in an attempt to determine the most probable areas in which the offender might reside or work.
Geographic profiling is best understood as an information management strategy that can be used to help focus an investigation. It will assist with prioritizing suspects and locations, and then can be utilized to develop investigative tactics that can be deployed in the area defined by the "geoprofile." These strategies have been found to compliment traditional investigative methods by providing a geographic focus that optimizes the search for the offender.
Suggested reading materials
Alston, J. D., The serial rapist's spatial pattern of target
selection. Unpublished master's thesis, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC 1994
Block, C. R., Dabdoub, M., & Fregly, S. (Eds.), Crime analysis
through computer mapping. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 1995
Boots, B. N., & Getis, A., Point pattern analysis. Sage university
paper series on scientific geography, 8. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1988
Brantingham, P. J., & Brantingham, P. L. (Eds.), Environmental
criminology (1991 reissue). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1981
Brantingham, P. J., & Brantingham, P. L., Patterns in crime. New
York: Macmillan, 1984
Brantingham, P. L., & Brantingham, P. J., Nodes, paths and edges:
Considerations on the complexity of crime and the physical environment.
Journal of Environmental Psychology 1993, 13, 3-28
Brantingham, P. L., & Brantingham, P. J., Criminality of place:
Crime generators and crime attractors. European Journal on Criminal Policy
and Research: Crime Environments and Situational Prevention 1995, 3(3), 5-26
Canter, D., & Gregory, A., Identifying the residential location of
rapists. Journal of the Forensic Science Society 1994, 34(3), 169-175
Canter, D., & Larkin, P., The environmental range of serial rapists.
Journal of Environmental Psychology 1993, 13, 63-69
Canter, D., & Tagg, S., Distance estimation in cities. Environment
and Behaviour 1975, 7, 59-80
Capone, D. L., & Nichols, Jr., W. W., Urban structure and criminal
mobility. American Behavioral Scientist 1976, 20, 199-213
Clark, A. N., The New Penguin dictionary of geography. London:
Penguin Books, 1990
Clarke, K. C., Analytical and computer cartography. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990
Clarke, R. V., & Felson, M. (Eds.)., Routine activity and rational
choice. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1993
Cohen, L., & Felson, M., Social change and crime rate trends: A
routine activity approach. American Sociological Review 1979, 44, 588-608
Cornish, D. B., & Clarke, R. V. (Eds.), The reasoning criminal:
Rational choice perspectives on offending. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1986
Davies, A., & Dale, A., Locating the stranger rapist (Special
Interest Series: Paper 3). London: Police Research Group, Home Office
Police Department, 1995
Eck, J. E., & Weisburd, D. A. (Eds.), Crime and place: Crime
prevention studies, Vol. 4. Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press, 1995
Felson, M. (1994b). Crime and everyday life. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge
Press
Figlio, R. M., Hakim, S., & Rengert, G. F. (Eds.), Metropolitan
crime patterns. Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press, 1986
Forst, B., Evidence, probabilities, and legal standards for the
determination of guilt: Beyond the O. J. trial. Representing O. J.: Murder,
Criminal Justice and Mass Culture. Ed. G. Barak. New York: Harrow and
Heston, 1996, 22-28
Gabor, T., Crime displacement: The literature and strategies for its
investigation. Crime and Justice 1978, 6, 100-106
Gabor, T., & Gottheil, E., Offender characteristics and spatial
mobility: An empirical study and some policy implications. Canadian Journal
of Criminology 1984, 26, 267-281
Georges-Abeyie, D. E., & Harries, K. D. (Eds.), Crime: A spatial
perspective. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980
Godwin, M. & Canter, D., Encounter and death: The spatial behavior
of U. S. serial killers. Policing: An International Journal of Police
Strategy and Management 1997, 20(1), 24-38
Goodall, B., The Penguin dictionary of human geography.
Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1987
Gould, P., & White, R., Mental maps (2nd ed.). London: Routledge, 1986
Hakim, S., & Rengert, G. F. (Eds.), Crime spillover. Beverly Hills:
Sage, 1981
Harries, K., Geographic Factors in Policing. Washington, DC: Police
Executive Research Forum, 1990
Haynes, K. E., & Fotheringham, A. S., Gravity and spatial
interaction models. Sage university paper series on scientific geography,
2. Beverly Hills: Sage 1984
Helms, D., The use of dynamic spatio-temporal analytical
techniques to resolve emergent crime series. Paper presented at the
conference of the Crime Mapping Research Center, Orlando, FL., December 1999
Jakle, J. A., Brunn, S., & Roseman, C. C., Human spatial behavior: A
social geography. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1976
Kind, S. S., Navigational ideas and the Yorkshire Ripper
investigation. Journal of Navigation 1987, 40, 385-393
LeBeau, J. L., The journey to rape: Geographic distance and the
rapist's method of approaching the victim. Journal of Police Science and
Administration 1987, 15, 129-136
LeBeau, J. L., The methods and measures of centrography and the
spatial dynamics of rape. Journal of Quantitative Criminology 1987, 3, 125-141
LeBeau, J. L., Patterns of stranger and serial rape offending:
Factors distinguishing apprehended and at large offenders. Journal of
Criminal Law & Criminology 1987, 78, 309-326
LeBeau, J. L., Four case studies illustrating the spatial-temporal
analysis of serial rapists. Police Studies 1992, 15, 124-145
Lowe, J. C., & Moryadas, S., The geography of movement. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1975
MacKay, R., Geographic profiling: A new tool for law
enforcement. The Police Chief, December 1999, 51-59
Monmonier. M., How to lie with maps. Chicago: University of Chicago
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Pilant, L., Crime mapping and analysis. The Police Chief, December 1999,
38-47
Rando, J., How spatial decay affects store performance.
Business Geographics, August 1997, 38
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demand and competition. Business Geographics, September 1997, 42
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behavior. The Pennsylvania Geographer 1975, 13(2), 10-18
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Criminology 1999, 37(2), 427-445
Rengert, G. F., & Wasilchick, J., Suburban burglary. Springfield,
IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1985
Reppetto, T. A., Residential crime. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1974
Reppetto, T. A., Crime prevention and the displacement phenomenon.
Crime and Delinquency 1976, 22, 166-177
Rossmo, D. K., Fugitive migration patterns. Unpublished master's
thesis, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, 1987
Rossmo, D. K., Target patterns of serial murderers: A
methodological model. American Journal of Criminal Justice 1993, 17(2), 1-21
Rossmo, D. K., Geographic profiling: Target patterns of serial
murderers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Simon Fraser University,
Burnaby, BC, 1995
Rossmo, D. K. (2000). Geographic profiling. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press
Sherman, L. W., Gartin, P. R., & Buerger, M. E., Hotspots of
predatory crime: Routine activities and the criminology of place.
Criminology 1989, 27 (1), 27-55
Stea, D., The measurement of mental maps: An experimental model for
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Taylor, P. J., Quantitative methods in geography. Prospect Heights,
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Tomlin, C. D., Geographic information systems and cartographic
modeling. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990
van Koppen, P. J., & DeKeijser, J. W., Desisting distance decay: On
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Warren, J., Reboussin, R., & Hazelwood, R. R., The geographic and
temporal sequencing of serial rape (Federal Bureau of Investigation).
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1995
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Trumbetta, S., Crime scene and distance correlates of serial rape.
Journal of Quantitative Criminology 1998, 14(1), 35-59
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