Practical Homicide Investigation. (Vernon J. Geberth) Quy trình điều tra

21. Criminal Personality Profiling

The purpose of this chapter is to provide the criminal investigator with practical information on the application of criminal personality profiling to the homicide investigation.

Introduction

The applications of clinical criteria and abnormal psychology to the investigative process are an integral part of criminal personality profiling and have been universally recognized and accepted as genuine and legitimate investigative techniques. Detectives and criminal investigators routinely employ these techniques in their investigation of violent crime on a case-by-case basis. From a practical standpoint, there are only so many ways to kill and only so many stories to tell as an offender attempts to explain the killings. After a while, a distinct pattern emerges, which encompasses a series of clusters of behavioral information and specific typologies of offenders. For example, human behavior is repetitive. Certain actions engaged in at the scene by certain types of personalities will tend to repeat themselves. In the assessment of these types of personalities, the FBI behavioral science researchers have identified two specific types: organized and disorganized. In this chapter, I will define these two types and provide a generic profile for each of them. Practically speaking, there will generally be a combination of profile characteristics and crime scene differences between organized and disorganized offenders.

I have provided you with worksheet tables (see Table 21.1 and Table 21.2), which list the characteristics of the organized and disorganized offender and crime scene dynamics in a column format. You can then identify the column with the most elements that appear similar to your case. This will suggest the type of offender with whom you may be dealing. I then direct you to the two generic profiles that appear under "The Organized Offender" and "The Disorganized Offender" sections.

This information will provide the experienced investigator with a frame of reference to apply to the investigative analysis of a specific type of crime or type of offender. The forensic evidence coupled with the actions of the offender in the scene and the specific activities he engaged in with his victim allows for the interpretation of "the signature" aspect and the ability to link events as referenced by "the linkage concept."

Clinically speaking, there is a behavioral distinctiveness in human sexuality. This unique aspect of our sexual arousal and response system accounts for why individuals differ in their sexual behaviors and engage in a specific series of behavioral patterns. In sex-related criminal incidents, the offender is oftentimes subconsciously "acting out" a sexually significant behavioral pattern, which reflects the underlying personality, lifestyle, and developmental experiences of the offender. (p. 756)1

The investigative goal is to interpret these actions and behaviors of the offender and then translate these psychodynamics into investigative reality.

History of Profiling

Profiling is not an entirely new concept. During World War II, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) employed a psychiatrist, William Langer, to profile Adolf Hitler.2 Furthermore, as I will explain, such cases as the "Boston Strangler" and the "Mad Bomber" of New York City were similarly profiled by a psychiatrist in the 1950s and 1960s.

Traditionally, however, psychiatrists and psychologists entered into an analysis of a crime only after the suspect was in custody. Their evaluations were usually aimed at determining whether the suspect was "sane" at the time he or she committed the offense.

An exception to this traditional role took place during the late 1950s and early 1960s when Dr. James A. Brussel, a New York City psychiatrist, provided law enforcement authorities with valuable information on such sensational cases as the Mad Bomber of New York City and the Boston Strangler of Boston, Massachusetts. In other important investigations he "profiled," the suspect based on the psychodynamics of an event and the psychiatric "clues" he deduced from the crimes he examined.