Criminal Profiling and Psychological Autopsies

Chapter five on criminal profiling and psychological autopsies explained both processes and how the development of each process affects the broader legal system. As the book pointed out Profiling is defined as the attempt to draw inferences about a particular criminal’s behavior, motive, characteristics, and so forth. The classic “Hollywood” portrayal that is utilized to express these methods is star shows such as “criminal minds.” which attempt to catch serial killers. Profiling is used to seek out a specific signature of the criminal that significantly defines the personality of the criminal. However, although it works relatively well in terms of a drama show, or T.V episode, it becomes relatively ineffective in execution.
As the chapter pointed out several factors and problems with the profiling specialty are addressed. Firstly, it takes into account the relative question of the characteristics of a serial killer. Specifically, it defined the difference of the organized, versus the unorganized killer. Essentially, the terms speak for themselves as that one classification depicts the perpetrator as thoughtful, careful and planned,. were as the other unorganized killer is sporadic, spontaneous, and randomized. Although these polarized differences seem helpful as a basic level, they are relatively useless. This is because there is no list of classifications that defines every serial killer. Variations of the same crime between two different criminals results in an impossible ability by law enforcement to state that specific criminals fit specific crime scenes every time.
As a result the chapter concluded that due to lack of research and scientific basis that profiling usually is very ineffective when actually solving the case. This is due for that fact that the overall general terms, the ambiguous nature, and the stereotypes used by the profiler often help very little in the investigation. Consequently, profiles usually lead to a sense of tunnel-vision, attempting to investigate individuals who best match the profile, diverting the investigation from plausible suspects and allowing criminals further time to allow the case to go cold.
These aspects all relate to the attempted psychological profile. On the contrast there is also a geographic profiling system as well. (Although again due to lack of solid research, is relatively infective.) In terms of actual practice, geographic profiles do have real investigative implications. They can determine were to set up undercover investigations, and were criminals may be in terms of an anchor point, and a buffer zone. With a large amount of data logical statistical inferences about a criminal’s activity can be made, but again they usually are far from accurate.
Although profiling looks rather discerning, profiles in terms of psychological autopsies can be helpful. Before reading this chapter, I knew what autopsies were; however was relatively not aware of the psychological implications involved in determining cause of death. In this case, figuring out the state of mind during death can be beneficial. In terms of psychology examining possibilities of mental health issues, foul play, and the coherency of the individual (specifically helpful when determining possible suicide) actual can be beneficial. The thing in which I found interesting was the legal use of these autopsies. I discovered judges usually allow them in civil cases, but not so much in criminal cases. I thought this was a bit counterproductive as that criminal cases usually would be the ones were autopsies were needed, were as civil cases not so much. However, this is again a result of the larger fact that much more research on the profiling process and its effectiveness is needed.
Overall my relative view on the profiling process has not really changed. I always had looked at it as a generalized asset by means of which a list of suspects could be derived. However, it was always my impression, which was then affirmed after reading the chapter that in theory is very hard to deduct a specific suspect from specific characteristics. The chapter addressed this fact as well stating law enforcement saw it as slightly helpful, but normally criminals are caught due to investigation and mistakes by the criminal. Hence is why general individuals including myself in the criminology field praise the fact that the general criminal eventually is going to make a mistake.

Terms: profiling, psychological autopsies, characteristics of serial killer, unorganized/organized killer, tunnel-vision, anchor point, buffer zone, mental health, competency, coherent, civil cases, and criminal cases.

In chapter 5 the text explains that profiling is the process of drawing inferences about a certain criminal’s personality, behavior and other characteristics based upon what is found at a crime scene. Using techniques known as retro classificaiton or criminal investigative analysis, FBI agents have been able to train many law enforcement officers and therefore aid them in the capturing and prosecution of serial killers. Serial killers are murders who kill more than one victim (specifically more than 3) in separate events using some sort of signature to distinguish them apart from other killers. A signature is a personal aspect of the crime that reveals something about the personality of the killer. While profiling is highly accepted in television shows and in Hollywood it is something in the scientific world that viewed as unsystematic and very inferential.

Despite profiling being viewed as unsystematic and inferential by the science community, it is still used today as the most notable way to find and catch serial killers. Due to research on serial killers we have revealed certain reoccurring patterns within them. Many have brain injuries or have endured some form of abuse as a child, are white males, and dominate their victims before killing them. They also tend to select victims of a particular race or age for all of their crimes. There are typically two types of serial killers; organized and disorganized. Organized killers typically are described as people who take careful part in selecting their victims and planning what they will do to them while stalking them. They will wait for the right opportunity to strike and then when they are finished they will show great patience and clean up all evidence after the murder. Disorganized killers on the other hand will typically be impulsive pick their victims at random out of a fit of rage. They will use whatever weapon is available to them, usually leave it at the crime scene and are likely to use the body for sexual purposes post mortem. There are more specific ways to classify killers other than organized or disorganized. These include visionary types, mission-oriented types, hedonistic types and power oriented types. Visionary types in short are usually psychotic. They have visions from whom they believe to be god or other spiritual beings that tell them to kill certain people. Mission-oriented types are motivated by the desire to right the wrong in the world by killing the people they view as bad or evil (like in the show Dexter). Hedonistic types are the ones who kill just for the thrill or fun of it. They take great pleasure in sadistically torturing their victims. Lastly, Power Oriented types like to capture and control their victims before killing them. While these are very specific types of killers and at times these tendencies will allow for a positive identification of a killer, tunnel vision can occur which diverts investigators attention away from people who do not fit a certain profile. Tunnel vision can be a problem for investigators because they often become stuck on one particular profile and can overlook minor details causing misleading profiles. Misleading profiles then in turn enable criminals to get away due to the focus being diverted away from them. While psychological profiling often relies on instinct and inference, there is another type of profiling that is a little more systematic; geographic profiling. Geographic profiling relies on maps and mathematics to record key locations that are associated with serial crimes as well as places where bodies have been dumped or where suspicious activity seen by witnesses have occurred. This data allows investigators to compute data and estimate the general vicinity of a criminal’s home, place of work or the potential location of his next crime. It is safe to say based on patterns seen by criminals that they are likely to stay within a certain geographic comfort zone. The technology behind geographic profiling heavily on key terms to help determine different kinds of locations on the map. The term “anchor point” is used to visualize where attacks are likely to happen and “buffer zones” are the areas around a criminal’s home where he or she is less likely to commit a crime. The geographic profiling system also operates on a principle called distance decay; the probability of a crime happening decreases as the distance from past crime locations increases.

Psychological autopsies refer to the process of figuring out and examining the psychological state of a person before his or her death. There are equivocal death which in other words means the cause of why the death happened is unclear. Using the NASH system we are able to distinguish four types of death; natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. The evidence for a psychological autopsy relies heavily on direct sources of evidence. There is no way to really psychologically examine a corpse but by finding records left behind by the deceased like letters, emails, journal entries and talking with family members, friends, co-workers as to the emotional state prior to death, we are able to gather inferences about the deceased’s intentions right before he or she died. This can help distinguish between the four types of death that were previously mentioned.

Terms: Profiling, retro classification, criminal investigative analysis, serial killers, brain injuries, abuse, organized, disorganized, Tunnel vision, geographic profiling, psychological autopsies, natural, accidental, suicide, homicide, emotional states,

Chapter five is all about criminal profiling, or drawing conclusions about a criminal’s personality based on the crime scenes and other evidence. This job is a very unique job in that only a handful of FBI agents specialize in these techniques. They are sometimes referred to as the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU). The most famous cases the BSU handle are those involving serial killers. A few examples would be: Jack the Ripper, a man who strangled and slit the throats of at least five prostitutes in the East End of London. The Olympic Bomber, a man who notoriously set of a bomb during the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. And The Mad Bomber, a man who planted, and sometimes detonated, bombs in locations across New York City. They all have their own signature, or distinctive, personal aspect of the crime that reveals the personality of the killer.
There are different types of serial killers. There are organized killers; these killers carefully select and stalk their victims and plan what they do with them. On the opposite end are the disorganized killers. These killers tend to be impulsive, they pick their victims at random acting with rage and following commands from the voices in their head. The visionary types, who are usually psychotic; they believe they hear voices from God instructing them to kill certain types of people. Mission-oriented types who are motivated by a desire to kill people they believe to be evil or unworthy. Hedonistic types kill for the thrill or to take a sort of sadistic sexual pleasure from torturing their victims. And the last type, power oriented. These killers get satisfaction from capturing and controlling their victims before the kill them.
There can be some problems with profiling. Not all crimes can fit into the categories listed above; they can have mixed and intertwined types. Not only can they not fit into a category, but the criminal’s behavior may can across time. One must look at the case linkage in order to determine how the criminal changed or if he did at all. Another problem could be what investigators refer to as tunnel vision. This is where they focus only on the profile and do not divert from it or even consider other suspects. This could be a problem if the profile said it was a man around the age of 30 and the investigators do not even question suspects who are around the age of 40. Another problem could be if people start racial profiling of even use stereotypes.
Another important part of criminal profiling is the psychological autopsies; this is where professionals would dissect and examine a body to determine a person’s psychological state prior to his or her death. The investigators can learn so much about the deceased by doing these autopsies. They can determine their personality, thoughts and lifestyle. This could possibly help tell if the death could have been self-inflicted.
I watch a lot of “Criminal Minds” it is one of my favorite shows, so none of this information was really surprising to me, but it is all so interesting. I love learning about all of this. I knew a lot of it because most of it is mentioned from time to time on the show. I think criminal profiling is so cool and this reading has just proved to me that it is an amazingly cool job and a very prestigious one. I wish I could one day become one, but I know that I would never be able to live with knowing everything humans are capable of doing to others.
Terms: Profiling, Serial Killers, Signature, Organized Killers, Disorganized Killers, Visionary Types, Mission-Oriented Types, Hedonistic Types, Power-Oriented, Case Linkage, Tunnel Vision, Racial Profiling, Psychological Autopsies.

The chapter starts off by talking about the movie The Silence of the Lambs, and how one of the main characters was able to determine what the suspect was up to, in other words, criminal profiling. It talks about criminal profiling, and how one can detect and understand a suspect of a crime. Profiling has been defined as the process of drawing inferences about a criminal’s personality, behavior, motivation and demographic characteristics. These techniques are used all over the world. However, there are very few FBI agents who specialize in criminal profiling. Also, criminal profiling is most used in cases involving serial killers, because they look to see the suspect’s motives and what they may do and think in the future. Profilers emphasize the importance of the signature in serial killer cases, which is the distinctive, personal aspect of the crime that helps reveal the personality of the killer. Profilers look at “who, where, and why?” when dealing with these cases to see what is the motivation behind the killing, and if any of the victims have any connection to one another. In the media, they often portray the profilers as a hero, which in a sense is true. However, it does not often show the hardships that profilers face, and show real evidence of effectiveness.
There are three famous profilers listed in the book. The first is of Jack the Ripper. “Jack the Ripper” lived in London and strangled and slit throats of many prostitutes, and killed on public streets, Dr. Bond, the profiler looked at the autopsy and concluded that the person was a man of great physical strength, with a great coolness and daring, and his appearance was quite normal and nothing out of the ordinary along with many other characteristics. He looked at how the women were harmed, and the surroundings. The second profiler was the “Olympic Bomber”, dealt with an explosion that occurred at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. The police initially looked at the wrong man who seemed to fit the characteristics of the criminal, but later found they were wrong. If they had used more evidence they would perhaps have realized earlier that they were after the wrong suspect. The “Mad Bomber” dealt with an unexploded bomb on the window seal of a building, and eventually put many all over New York City. The bomber left letters, and so the police consulted a psychiatrist who helped them discover that the suspect was more than likely between 40 and 50 years old, foreign born, suffering from a paranoia and had a connection to the company. This information helped police track down and convict the criminal. Information such as this is important to find out in criminal cases, because it can help narrow down the possible suspects.

There are many different characteristics that a serial killer can have. Profilers often separate serial killers into two different categories which are organized killers and disorganized killers. Organized killers are often smart and act pretty normal, and often plan what they are going to do, they controlled the crime scene, hide the body, no weapon present and seem to cover up the crime pretty well. On the contrary, disorganized killers are not as intelligent, and usually not as competent and skilled. They usually have more sporadic activity, random scene, body is left at scene and does not try and cover up crime too well.

Holmes and colleagues put serial killers into four separate categories. The first is the visionary types who are usually psychotic and have visions and voices telling them to commit a crime. The second is mission-oriented which are less likely to be psychotic and are motivated to kill people who are evil or unworthy. Hedonistic kills for thrills and sexual pleasure. The last type is power-oriented get satisfaction by capturing the victim before killing them.
There has been research done on profiling. Profiling has really only been helpful in 2.7% of all cases, because there are often many inconsistencies and inaccuracies. A lot of this also has to do with bias, and how the profiler feels. Many studies have been done to look at the effectiveness of profiling. One study looked and found that graduate students were more likely to look and accurately describe a criminal’s physical attributions, but was unable to describe their train of thought, motivation, and personality. It is really difficult and nearly impossible to get a lot of accurate characteristics about a criminal, but it is still helpful overall.

Some problems that deal with profiling are assumptions, cross-situational consistency, the utility of inferences and persistent problems. Assumptions deal with the fact that characteristics are not ever really put into a particular category, but rather on a continuum. You have to look at all of the characteristics and not expect all of your predictions to be accurate. Cross-situational consistency deals with the consistency of the behavior of an individual criminal are across crimes. Although personality is generally stable over time, it often depends on our situation. So a criminal may act different at the time or situation of a crime then they would every other day. The utility of inferences is about how we nearly draw conclusions based on a certain type of crime, or what the scene was like. We draw conclusions based on our past experiences and inferences, and not by the actual evidence. Finally, the persistent problem deals with the fact that we often think the same way and nothing out of the ordinary. This is hard to overcome because profilers do often not have special training. We often think in tunnel vision we think about what makes sense and not the possibility of anything after that.

Geographic profiling is when profilers look at where the crime occurs, the suspects track and where they are going. This is good to help determine future events, and what they may be up to next. Anchor point is what profilers look for as kind of a starting point to branch outside of that to find where the suspect is going next, which is called a buffer zone. Distance decay is when the probability of an attack decreases when the criminal gets further away from their starting point. Behavioral investigative advice stresses the role of offering advice to investigators on how to use the media, what questions might be asked during police interviews with suspects and whether a crime may be connected a series of crimes.

Probative evidence provides information that is useful is assessing whether a person committed a crime or not. This is helpful in getting more precise answers and to avoid stereotypes. A psychological autopsy is when a profiler looks at the person’s psychological mental state during the time of the crime or incident. This is helpful in court to declare a person’s sanity or insanity.

All in this entire chapter talks all about criminal profiling, and what profilers do. All of this stuff is important, because it can help find the criminal, and prevent future problems. It can also help in court by having this information. I found this chapter interesting, and realized the importance and difficulties that profilers face.

Key Terms: Profiling, serial killers, signature, organized killers, disorganized killers, visionary type, mission oriented, Hedonistic, power oriented, assumptions, cross situational, consistency the utility of inferences, persistent problems, Geographic profiling, buffer zone, Distance decay, tunnel vision, Anchor point, Behavioral investigative advice, Probative evidence, psychological autopsy

Chapter five of the “Forensic and Legal Psychology” was a very interesting chapter. Right off the bat, the chapter captures you’re attention with a story. The story is about the movie “Silence of the Lambs.” It is a scene from the movie where the main character uses the technique of profiling to describe the criminal that had been committing the crimes. This was a very interesting way to start off the chapter. The chapter goes on to talk about serial killers and their signatures. Signatures are the things that they leave behind or take. For example, a serial killer might always take a lock of hair from the victim. The chapter next talks about three examples of serial killers and how profiling was used to capture them. The three individuals was Jack the Ripper, The Olympic Bomber, and the Mad Bomber. It goes into great detail about how profiling was used in the case. In the example of Jack the Ripper; it was said that he is probably an ordinary looking man because he is able to escape the crime scene without being detected. Another thing that they said about him was that he was probably a man of great strength because he was able to take down his victims really fast. However, Jack the ripper isn’t the best example of the use of profiling. The Mad Bomber was the best example of profiling out of the three because the profiler was so good that he even stated that the man would probably often wear button ups. When he was arrested, he changed from his bath robes into a button up. However, the kicker was the fact that the profiler was able to say that he would be a man that would probably be living with sibling and be an ex employer of the company. This all turned out to be true and was very interesting. The chapter continues on to talk about the characteristics of serial killers. The chapter claims that there are two basic types of killers. There are the organized killers and the disorganized killers. Organized killers tend to be people who think out their crimes and stalk their prey. Disorganized killers tend to be those people who don’t plan the crime and tend to be very sloppy when it comes to the crime itself. The chapter continues on talking about the research behind profiling. However, the research doesn’t tend to come up with a concrete answer that yes profiling works. In a couple of studies, it showed that people with professional training tended to give more detail reports about things that the control group wouldn’t (in the case of this chapter, the control group was college students). However, other studies showed that even untrained professionals were sometimes able to guess the right profile of the individuals that they were committing the crime. The all leads to the next point of the chapter that profiling is based on assumptions. The chapter continues on to talk about one of the problems with profiling in the utility of inferences. Basically what the chapter is talking about is that a profiler can give investigators information, but can they really use that information to capture the criminal. What the book is talking about is the fact that a profiler can come up and say that the suspect probably has a problem with women, he is probably a lone wolf, probably likes to watch porn and finally, that he might be married however he is probably divorced. How can an officer possibly narrow down suspects with these broad definitions? Basically, the investigators are left with broad descriptions of the criminal that can sometimes be hard to narrow down. Imagine yourself in the shoes of the investigators, having to find a culprit with broad definitions such as he likes to watch a lot of porn. The chapter continues on talking about the geographic profiling and raps up talking about the legality of psychological autopsies. What I found interesting was when the chapter talked about a lot of things that I had never thought of before. One of these things included the use of profiling in criminal cases. I had no idea that they actually used profiling in criminal cases to help officers solve crimes. Another thing that I found interesting was the chapter’s talk about serial killers and their signatures. Another thing that I found interesting in the chapter was the two different kinds of killers. According to the book, there are two different kind of killers; organized killers and disorganized killers. Another thing that I found interesting was the geographic profiling that was described in the book. The book gives the example of a killer that was caught because they found out that he was attacking near railroad crossings and investigators soon realized that he was hoping from train to train. The final thing that I found interesting in the chapter was when it talked about the utility of inferences. It is very interesting when you actually think about how investigators can actually use this information that they are given. If you think about it, it is really hard to figure out who is actually committing the crimes when given such broad definitions to go off of. These were all things that I found interesting in chapter five. All the information that I learned is stuff that I had no clue about before reading the chapter. I had no idea that a profiler could be used to help investigators solve a crime. The thing that I say that surprised me was the use of geographical profiling and how it was used to solve a crime. I had no idea that investigators could look for patterns within the areas that the crimes were being committed and actually tell that something happened there. That was something that I didn’t know before reading the chapter. My views on profiling are really mixed after reading this chapter. The reason that they are mixed are because of the fact that sometimes profilers are dead on and sometimes they are just dead wrong. In the chapter, it talks about how profiling is just based on assumptions. Also, how useful are those assumptions to investigators? These are all things that have to be asked when it comes to looking at the usefulness of profiling. However, we have seen cases where profiling was dead on. In the case of the Mad Bomber, it was a dead on match from what the profiler told police. However, as said in the book, most of the times, the criminal is caught because they screw up, rather than a profiler’s description; however, it is very useful information that can be used to sometimes describe what a criminal could look like. I have never heard of psychological autopsies. However, after reading this chapter, I can now tell you that they are very important. What a psychological autopsy is an effort to dissect and examine the psychological state of the person prior to death; the chapter in the book talks about the NASH System (Natural, accidental, suicide, and homicide) to describe how the person was killed. If it wasn’t clear, they turn to psychological autopsies to explain what happened. This, like an autopsy, focuses on details. These details could include letters, emails, journal entrees, and cell phone records left by the individuals before they were dead. Psychological autopsies also have a check list that can be used to examine a person or things. Such as evidence of self inflected wounds, the state of mind before death. These can all be found by looking at the list of information provided above. For example, if the individual was constantly calling an ex before the time of the crime, investigators could look into the ex. Or if the person was writing about how depressed they were in their journal, this could make investigators look at that for clues. However the use of psychological autopsies in court can be a little hard to do. The example given in the book is a mom forcing her child to strip for money; the child didn’t want to and committed suicide. Is the mother liable for that, she claimed that she wasn’t and that the information given by the psychological autopsy shouldn’t be used in her case? So after learning about psychological autopsies I can say that they are very important.
Psychological Terms: psychological autopsies, utility of inferences, disorganized killers, organized killers, signatures, serial killers, legality of psychological autopsies, geographic profiling, assumptions, profiling

Chapter 5 starts off by defining profiling which is the process of drawing inferences about a criminal’s personality, behavior, motivation, and demographic characteristics based on crime scenes and other evidence. The techniques used in criminal profiling were created by the FBI, and are now used by almost all law enforcement. The FBI applies retroclassification/criminal investigative analysis to cases involving serial killers, which are murderers who kill 3 or more people in separate events. The FBI also says the signature is an important part of profiling a crime. The signature is a distinctive, personal aspect of the crime that may reveal the personality of the killer. Profiling has been made to seem easy due to Hollywood, but in real life profiling is very difficult and is based on moving from “what?” to “why?” to “who?”.

Next, the chapter describes some real criminal profiles. Jack the Ripper went through the East End of London killing prostitutes and mutilating their bodies. The doctor that did the autopsies suspected that Jack was a man of great physical strength, that he was of great coolness and daring, and that he would probably be a quiet, inoffensive man who looked middle-aged and neatly and respectably dressed. Jack the Ripper was never caught, so the accuracy of the doctor’s profiling can’t be made. The second actual criminal profile is about the Olympic Bomber who set off a bomb during the 1996 Summer Olympics. The FBI decided to focus their attention on a white middle class male with an interest in police work. They would eventually catch the right man after ruining another man’s reputation. The third criminal profile is the Mad Bomber who planted bombs in locations across New York City. The criminal profile included looking for a man between 40 and 50, Roman Catholic, foreign-born, single, and living with a brother or sister. The profile was spot on, and the most important information suggested was that the Mad Bomber was a former employee at the building he promised to bring justice against.

There is not a set list of characteristics to describe every serial killer, but there are a couple of patterns that reoccur. Most suffer from some sort of brain injury, and have experienced physical, sexual, or psychological abuse during their childhood. Profilers classify serial killers as organized or disorganized killers. Organized killers are known to be careful when selecting and stalking their victims, and planning out what they will do to them. They do this by showing patience and self-control. Disorganized killers are usually impulsive, like picking their victims at random, or following commands to kill from voiced in their heads. Ronald Holmes came up with a classification scheme that found that most serial killers could be grouped into on of four types: visionary, mission-oriented, hedonistic, and power-oriented. Visionary types are psychotic, and believe they hear voices or have visions telling them to kill certain types of people. Mission-oriented types are motivated by a desire to kill people they see as unworthy/evil. Hedonistic types kill for the thrill of the experience and sometimes even get sexual pleasure from torturing victims. Power-oriented types get pleasure from controlling the victim before killing them.

Cross-situational consistency refers to how consistent the behavior of an individual criminal is across crimes. It has been found that our behavior is strongly determined by the situation we are put in. Sometimes investigators come to the conclusion that since two crime scenes are so similar that the same person must have committed them. They also find that when two crime scenes are so different that two different individuals probably committed them. This process is called case linkage. One alternative to intuitive psychological profiling is called geographic profiling, in which this profiling relies on maps to scope out locations that have dealt with crime. Psychological autopsy is an attempt to determine the psychological state of a person prior to his or her death. The goal is to put together the dead person’s emotional state, personality, thoughts and lifestyle. In criminal cases, courts are usually unwilling to allow testimony based on psychological autopsies.

Before reading this chapter, I never knew that someone had come up with a table of characteristics based on organized and disorganized crime scene. These characteristics vary from both forms of crime scene. For example, someone who commits organized murders is most likely average in intelligence, sexually competent, controlled mood during crime, and high geographic mobility. Someone who commits disorganized murders is most likely below average in intelligence, sexually incompetent, harsh childhood discipline, and lives/ works near crime scene. My views about criminal profiling have not really changed. I knew what it was before reading the chapter, not every detail but a good idea. Before reading this chapter I had never heard of psychological autopsies. They are important because they give useful clues in solving crimes or making sense of an equivocal death.

Terms: profiling, serial killers, organized killers, disorganized killers, visionary types, mission-oriented types, hedonistic types, power-oriented types, case linkage, geographic profiling, psychological autopsies, equivocal death

A technique called criminal profiling has been used with many different criminal cases; most of those surrounding serial killers but now criminal profiling has been moved to arson, rape, bombing, etc. Criminal profiling is pretty much a set of characteristics that detectives follow to find the bad guy; even though there is no actual set of characteristics that are on a piece of paper in list form there are some things that detectives look at when capturing a bad guy. They look at psychological differences such as mental impairments that a lot of criminals have. Like stated on page 102 many suffer from some type of brain injury that can impair a person’s judgment and reasoning which can cause them to have irrational thoughts about life.

Chapter 5 goes into detail about different kinds of killers such as organized and disorganized killers, it also talks about the four types of killers; the ones who have visions or think they are being spoken to by God himself are the visionary killers, people who are motivated to kill those who are evil are the mission-oriented types. The other two types of killers would be put in a category I would like to call crazy killers just because they kind of are crazy, these types would be the hedonistic killer, a person who believes it is fun and enjoying killing, like they get some kind of thrill from it. The last type of killer would be the one who like to dominate and control their victim before killing them, this would be called a power-oriented killer, and those people are quite creepy.

Another huge thing that is discussed in this chapter is psychological autopsies. These types of autopsies are not to figure out how the person died but to figure out how their state of mind was prior to their death; so it is kind of like a bodily autopsy but just with the mind and not the whole body. This type of autopsy has to be linked to the evidence that was left behind by the person, a lot of times this can come from letters, emails, text messages, recordings etc.
In the end I really had no idea what any of this was about so reading it was a great eye opener for me. I did not know how much actually went into criminal profiling I thought it was simple and when in reality it is quite difficult. My views on criminal profiling has changed quite a lot, since I did not have a view on it before it really sent a message to me. That all serial killers are alike in some way shape or form, it is quite crazy and scary actually. I have never heard of psychological autopsies before reading this, but they are important because they can give us some insight of what the person might have been like. If he or she was a complete wacko or if they were just a plain Jane before and it just clicked with them that they needed to kill someone or something.

KEY TERMS: Organized Killers, disorganized killers, mission-oriented killer, visionary killer, hedonistic killer, power-oriented killer, psychological autopsies

Chapter 5 mainly talked about different forms of profiling and if those forms of profiling were actually credible in investigations or not. Despite what most people think most profiling is full of inaccuracies despite a few guesses being right in the profile.
So first the chapter talks about the process of profiling. Now this is apparently purely psychological and dependent on the person who is doing the profile. It is the process of drawing inferences from a certain crime scene and prior knowledge to make a summary about what the culprit is like, wether that be physical or mental. Now this kind of profiling is largely and mostly depicted in serial killer cases. The reason being is that serial killer cases usually has recurring themes in regards to the murders. Serial killers usually have a “need” that needs to be fulfilled due to some psychological problem. This usually results from a problematic This need mostly involves sexual acts. Now a basic profile of most serial killers is White, and male. And a reason profiling is a little “easier” in serial killer cases is because they leave “signatures”. Meaning they leave something at every crime scene and its usually something to do with the “need” they are fulfilling. However a lot of profiling cases (while including those facts) usually get a lot of things wrong as well. The problem that can lead from this is obviously if your searching for a profile of one person and it doesn’t match the actual person you will never find them based on that alone. Usually people get caught because of hard police work or a slip up from the criminals.
The book describes 3 famous cases and the profiles that were given for them. Jack the ripper, The Olympic bomber, and the mad bomber. Now with these 3 cases a profile was given for each one. In Jack the rippers case he was given a profile but since he was never caught it cannot be validated if it is accurate or not. The Olympic bomber case a profile was given and they suspected the wrong person. The problem with this was they plastered over the media they had caught the guy based on this profile when in actuality they didn’t. Not only does it make it more difficult to find the real culprit but then the psychological damage for the individual who was innocent would be devastating. This as I will mention later can cause law suits for prejudice and is a fairly big problem in society now a days. The final case, the mad bomber, the psychologist giving the profile was fairly accurate in certain areas including what the guy would wear. However, being a psychoanalytical theorist he made some assumptions regarding this guy and the sexual fantasies regarding his parents that were completely unfounded and not remotely true.
Now there ARE certain charecteristics found from research that most serial killers exhibit. I mentioned that most are white and male earlier however there are others. There is research to find that most are of average intelligence as well. Now researchers sought to define the criteria for most serial killers and at first broke them into two groups. Those being their crimes were either organized or disorganized. They found that while most crimes were still somewhere in the middle or exhibited traits from both you could depict certain traits based on those criteria. For ex. Organized crime is probably planned, disorganized is more often spontaneous. Usually organized serial killers are a bit more intelligent than disorganized. Now there are other factors that could go into those (drugs, drinking, psychotic disorders etc) but it set a sort of baseline. Later another person would break those 2 into 4 groups. Visionary, Mission-orientated, Hedonistic, Power orientated. Visionary are your serial killers who believe they were told to commit the crimes or they had visions. Mission-orientated are less likely to be psychotic and kill people they find to be evil(book gives abortionists as an example). Hedonistic types kill because they are sadistic and they revel in the kills. And power-orientated like the feeling of capturing killing/torturing their victims. Again not all serial killers fall into those categories. This would be an area of psychology that would probably be researched by either behavioral psychologists or Clinical psychologists as it has to deal with behavior and psychotic disorders.
Now the book states that while there is a huge interest in profiling there hasn’t been much credible research done on the topic. Most research that has been done cant be credited well as there aren’t very many participants and there are a huge number of factors when setting up an experiment in this area. Those being What kind of training, what kind of motivation you have for this area, among others.
Another issue brought up is Cross-Situational Consistency. In most crimes the culprit wont commit the exact same crime time and time again. There will be differences, ex. Victims, tools, place, etc. Now profiling can be problematic because if you decree that the crime is the probably by the same person who committed a similar crime you could be leading the police off the trail of a suspect. At the same time you might think that a criminal couldn’t have committed two crimes because they are two different. Determining if two cases are involved in each other is called Case- Linkage.
Most inferences that are made by profilers are also very vague. The book lists some of the profile statements made about the BTK killer. A lot of them could be speculated to mean very many different things. Or he said things that would be very difficult to look for making it not needed in the case. (such as immature sexual history).
Now a problem I mentioned a little bit earlier but didn’t name is Tunnel Vision. Its when you focus entirely on something that you miss out on the bigger picture or details. If you hear a profile from an expert a police officer is likely to search for that profile. But that profile could (and statistically is) be wrong. If it is you will not be searching for the right kind of person. Police officers without some psychology background will find themselves probably more likely to fall into that.
One kind of profiling that is a bit more accurate than the rest is Geographic profiling. This allows someone to punch data into a computer and it will give a map of an area that the culprit operates and is likely to live. Now that’s still not 100% but it can help in a lot of cases.(commonly rape or serial killer cases)
Another problem I mentioned earlier is improper profiling such as racial profiling. This has caused huge amounts of stress in todays society as there are certain kinds of people that are more commonly suspected than others. Most people pulled over are African American for example. Its not ethical or right to base these profiles off of race, gender, etc because if your wrong you singled out a certain kind of person wrongly. Probative evidence is useful as it allows a judge to know if certain things should be allowed in court. If someone does fit a profile is it ethical to allow it as evidence if it was a negative profile based on bias for example.
Now psychological autopsies is something I had heard of but I didn’t know much about. It is commonly deaths where the cause or motive is unkown. If a death cant be ruled to be natural, suicide, murder, etc. then its good to look at the psychological aspect of the person to see what would be the most likely cause of death. If someone is depressed and going through tough times then it may be more likely that it was suicide rather than others. Now if someone was in debt to a few different people you could argue that it would be either murder, or suicide as it could swing both ways. But its helpful in many cases to look at the psychological autopsies to better resolve a case often in civil cases regarding wills or insurance. Now it is entirely up to the judge to allow this sort of evidence but it seems to be a pretty widely accepted form of evidence.
Now I did not know that profiling was as innacurate as it actually is. Mainly due to large media portrayal of it being widely used in cases. However its not very accurate at all. My views towards profiling has changed in that I would be a lot more skeptical if someone gave me a profile and I would look into what factual evidence they were basing that profile off and try to see it was all just “intuition”. Its interesting to look at all the different psychological implications that can go into profiling. It largely goes into behavioral due to your looking at what someone is likely thinking and their motives at a crime. But then you get into psychotic culprits and the profiles that you can base off of them. And with psychological autopsies clinical psychology becomes very important in trying to find if someone be killed or if they committed suicide.
Evidence, Behavioral, clinical, psychotic, psychoanalytical psychology, court, judge, profiling, Probative Evidence, Stereotypes, Geographic profiling, Tunnel vision, Case linkage, Visionary, Mission orientated, hedonistic, power-orientated, signature,

Chapter 5 starts out with a Silence of the Lambs introduction. While I have seen this movie and it is one of my top picks, I have never realized how much profiling it actually contains. The example that was given from the movie made me realize how far Hollywood takes profiling, and it is not very realistic. Profiling is used especially when dealing with serial killers. I found the discussion of a serial killer's signature to be very interesting because the chapter links the signature to the killer's emotional attachment to his crimes. We then go on to see a few examples of early attempts at profiling. The first is Jack the Ripper, who's case is the first ever attempt at profiling. To be honest, I had always heard the name "Jack the Ripper" but never knew what time period he was from. He would kill mainly women and take some of their body parts with him, sort of like an old time Jeffrey Dahmer without the eating. Based on what he saw at the crime scene, a specialist put together clues in order to find out who this person was. He said the man would be strong, because obviously he would rip things out of his victim, and he also said that the man would be well dressed and maybe wear a trenchcoat, because he would blend in with the crowd when sneaking out of places. Jack the Ripper was unfortunately never found. Next, I learned about the Olympic Bomber, whom I had never studied. This was a profiling attempt gone wrong. The initial profiler said the man would be associated with some type of police work and a few other characteristics. Long story short, they ended up arresting a man who fit this criteria and he was actually not the right man. Lastly, I learned about the Mad Bomber, another I had never heard of before. This man would place bombs in window sills, some that he would detonate and some he would not. The police had quite a time finding him. When World War 2 began, the bomber sent a note to the police saying that he was a patriotic man and wouldn't mess around with any bombs until the war was over, and he actually stuck to this. After the war, the police went to a psychologist, who gave a crazy detailed profile. What was even crazier, was that the police used this to arrest a man who fit literally almost all the criteria and it was the correct man this time. The chapter then goes on to explain characteristics to serial killers, such as organized and disorganized killers. Organized plan when and what they are going to do ahead of time and also stalk their victims. Disorganized are very impulsive and kill victims randomly. There is a further classification system broken off into four types: visionary (psychotic), mission-oriented (kill those they don't trust), hedonistic (find pleasure in the thrill), and power-oriented (they want to feel in control of their victims). Even with these characteristics, there are several problems that can be associated with profiling. One is jumping to assumptions based on a couple extreme examples. Another is cross-situational consistency, and seeing how a person behaves in different contexts. This also intails the police working on case linkage and trying to link one person to different crimes that may fit his profile. Another problem is vague information in a profile that can be applied to many different people. Some information is also hard for the investigators to witness because they involve the sexual behavior of a serial killer. Lastly, tunnel vision is also a problem because the police can be looking for someone who only fits a certain profile and completely miss who the real person might be. Another fascinating thing I learned was about geographic profiling and how during an investigation, the police can track where a person lives compared to where the crimes have occurred along with other factors. In closing, I found the section on psychological autopsies to be very interesting. I feel it is very necessary to know the state of one's mind along with the state of one's body after they have died. The psychologist who studies the person has to look at how the person acted in the weeks before they died. They interview family members, check through their records, etc. They then follow a set of questions to try to determine which category the person falls under: natural, accidental, suicidal, homicidal. Although this system isn't perfect, it is very interesting to study and would be a very interesting line of work.
Terms: profiling, serial killers, signature, Jack the Ripper, the Olympic Bomber, the Mad Bomber, organized killer, disorganized killer, visionary type, mission-oriented type, hedonistic type, power-oriented type, cross-situational consistency, case linkage, tunnel vision, geographic profiling, psychological autopsies, natural, accidental, suicidal, homicidal

Chapter five went into great detail about profiling and psychological autopsies. I learned a lot of new information about profiling that I had not heard of before. I also had never heard of psychological autopsies at all so that section was completely new to me.

The first thing I learned about criminal profiling was the exact definition of profiling, which is the process of drawing inferences about a criminal's personality, behavior, motivation, and demographics based on crime scenes and evidence. I knew that profiling was a helpful tool to find leads on suspects for murders and serial killings. I did not realize that the term serial killer could be used to describe someone that has murdered three or more people. I assumed it would have been at least five. I also learned that the "signature" of the serial killer is a valuable tool for investigators. It helps them to link killings to each other. It also helps to gather more evidence on the killer.

Jack the Ripper was the first of three serial killers discussed. I thought the profile seemed good, but it would be hard to find the man, because he did not stand out at all. I am confused at how they said he was never caught. I don't know why he would be a good serial killer to put in this section if his profile did not help investigators to catch him.

I thought the case of the Olympic Bomber was pretty interesting because it showed that there is more to the investigation than just fitting the profile. This section showed how a man, Richard Jewell, was quickly accused of the bombing because he fit the description of the profile. It was later after he was publicly made the suspect, that they caught the real bomber, Eric Rudolph.

The case of the Mad Bomber was the most interesting of the three. This was said to be one of the most famous profiles ever produced. It is interesting how long it took for the police to consult with a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist created a very detailed profile, which turned out be eerily accurate. I found it ironic that the psychiatrist could even predict the suit that he put on when he was arrested.

While reading this chapter I learned that there are two types of serial killers, organized and disorganized. The organized serial killers are the ones that stalk their prey and plan out every detail of their murders. The disorganized killers strike on impulse.

Psychological autopsies are very interesting and I am glad I read about them. They can be helpful in deciding whether a death was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide (NASH). The psychological autopsy is an attempt to dissect and examine the psychological state of the person before the death. The investigators use a list of 16 questions as guidelines for information of the person's psychological state. I was surprised to see that in a study using psychological autopsies to determine if a death was suicide or murder, the psychological autopsies were correct 92 percent of the time. I think it is odd that with that high of an accuracy, courts do not usually let psychological autopsies be presented. Psychological autopsies can be extremely helpful when dealing with Wills and insurance claims. If someone committed suicide the families cannot collect the insurance money, but if a psychological autopsy reports it was not a suicide, the families can get the money. They can also be used when deciding if a Will was written when the deceased person was in an incompetent state.

Terms: criminal profiling, psychological autopsies, serial killer, signature, organized killer, disorganized killer, NASH, and incompetent.

Summarize Chapter 5 - First of all, this chapter is definitely one of my favorites, on a personal note. I am fascinated with the whole process of profiling and the psychological autopsy aspect as well.

The chapter began with a brief introduction about a movie, which most people interested in psychology probably have seen, The Silence of the Lambs. It was a great attention grabber and reminded me of what I believed or thought to be the basic idea of what a criminal profiler does. And then it continued through to three famous profiles as to give the reader a full view of the process of profiling and how it definitely made a difference in all three cases; Jack the Ripper, the Olympic Bomber & the Mad Bomber. Soon after that you found yourself reading through a section about the Characteristics of Serial Killers which is where you find the definitions of what an organized killer compared to a disorganized killer, which there are definitely very noticeable differences in the crime scene which is shown on a table/graph that was very basic and easy to read. The chapter then shifts to the Research of profiling and then to a section about the problems and promise, assumptions. Because things are not always organized or disorganized they had to come up with alternative ways to profile them. The chapter talks about the cross-situational consistency and the utility of inferences which I found unbelievable especially with the persistent problems, like tunnel vision for example.

The next very important section was about geographic profiling, which is considered an alternative to intuition. This section described this type of profiling involves and relies of maps and mathematics more so than instinct or intuition. This type of profiling uses the different computer programs and computerized maps with very detailed information that help investigators with anchor points, buffer zones and so forth. With the use of these programs the distance of decay can be established which is very useful in solving a case. There was also a brief “Hot Topic” section over racial profiling which I found very information and necessary to complete the section over profiling.

The last section was over the Psychological Autopsies, new terms and new definitions necessary to understand what efforts go into the dissection and examination of the psychological state a person went through prior to his or her death. It explained the NASH system which is the basis for death classification, a death can fall into one of four types: natural, accidental, suicide or homicide and that’s it. It describes a 16-issue checklist that was developed to assist psychologists in making the determination whether a person has committed suicide or not. The uses of pathological evidence or toxological evidence are the top two and it filters done to the decedent’s history of their physical health. The chapter concludes with the different legal statutes of psychological autopsies and how the courts have been open to expert testimony based on the psychological autopsy in some civil cases.

The chapter concluded with an overview of even though profiling is important there is still no good estimate of how often they have really been useful compared to the times that they have not been. And finally, it finished off by stating that though there are a variety of profiling techniques it will only be through continued research that will allow the specifications of the conditions at which they will be useful in helping investigations, cases, and crimes getting solved.

What information was most surprising or interesting to you?

It was something that I read on the sixth page under the “Characteristics of Serial Killers” section. It stated that although this is not real list of characteristics that would describe serial killers in a general manner although research has revealed that there are some recurring patterns within serial killers. It stated that many of them suffer from some form of brain injury that impairs rational thinking. I knew that most serial killers have had some experience with physical, sexual, and/or psychological abuse during childhood but not about the brain injury.

What do you know now that you did not know prior to reading these chapters?

I did not know of the classification scheme proposed by Ronald Holmes and his colleagues which identifies serial killers one of four classifications: 1) visionary types – who are usually psychotic; have visions or believe they hear voices from God, 2) mission-oriented – who are less likely to be psychotic and are more motivated by a desire to kill people they regard as evil or unworthy, 3) hedonistic types – they kill for the thrill and take sadistic sexual pleasure in torturing their victims, & 4) power-orientated – which is pretty self-explanatory, they kill for the satisfaction of kidnapping and controlling the victim and then eventually killing them just to kill them.

How have your views about criminal profiling changed (or not) through these readings?

They did not quite change but rather only intensified because now, I am only more intrigued by the subject and want more information about how one becomes a profiler and how long does it take to go through the ranks to be considered a great profiler.

Had you even ever heard of psychological autopsies?

Honestly, I had only heard and seen them on TV and knew that they had to be real but I really didn’t know if there truly existed. Then one day my cousin was murdered and it was through a psychological autopsy that they discovered evidence linking the victim and killer; like maybe friends or that she knew who her killer was. I don’t know how they did that but they were right. It ended up being a very close friend who even went to the funeral and stood by next to us. It may have taken 7 years but eventually he was convicted and currently resides in some prison somewhere.

Why are they important?

It may have taken 7 years but without that piece of information they wouldn’t have kept looking at her friends and continuous checking the status of certain individuals waiting for them to make another mistake. That information was from a psychological autopsy.

Terms: process of profiling, profiling, psychological autopsy, psychology, criminal profiler, serial killer, disorganized killer, organized killer, crime scene, victims, cases, research, assumptions, organized crime scene, geographic profiling, intuition, instinct, investigators, anchor points, buffer zones, distance of decay, NASH system, natural death, accidental death, suicide, homicide, pathological evidence, decedent, courts, toxological evidence, investigations, crimes, civil cases, vision-types, mission-orientated, hedonistic types, power orientated, kill, kidnapping, criminal, evidence, convicted, and prison.

Criminal profiling is inferring a criminal’s demographics, personality, motivation, and behavior from a crime scene they left behind. Though this seems interesting and makes for a great movie, the research has been inconclusive that profiling is an accurate way to find a criminal, or even begin to look for suspects. The techniques of profiling were established by the FBI Behavior Science Unit, and it is the FBI who is specially trained for this skill (not all, actually about a dozen). It is mostly used for cases involving serial killers, who leave behind several crime scenes that usually involve similar aspects such as choice of weapon, post-murder acts, and how they leave the body. Serial killers also tend to choose victims who are alike, whether that is race, age, or gender. According to professional profilers, serial killers typically have a signature – a distinctive, personal aspect of the crime that presumably reveals the personality of the killer. Their signature seems to represent their motivation for committing the crimes; it tells what fulfills them emotionally. Profiling experts have also categorized serial killers into organized and disorganized killers, going back to aspects of the crime scene. Another distinction they have made is types of serial killers: visionary, mission-oriented, hedonistic, and power-oriented.

It turns out that these claims have very little scientific basis. Crime scene characteristics do not seem to fit into neatly bound categories such as “organized” or “disorganized,” but rather on a continuum. Crime scene characteristics do not appear to be reliably associated with criminal personality types either. Even if we could pull inferences about their personalities from the crime scenes, we have to recognize the power of the situation. Social psychology research tells us that our behavior is powerfully affected and determined by the situation we are in. Inferences made by profilers seem to be of little use to investigators. The inferences are vague, difficult to interpret, difficult to investigate, contradictory, and in most cases… wrong. One might even accuse profilers of simply stereotyping. The chapter talked about how this intuitive information can not only be off base, but it can lead investigators to exclude suspects altogether. This is referred to as tunnel vision, where misleading profiles can allow criminals to escape from investigations altogether.

I honestly did not know that profiling was so non-evidence based. The book makes it sound almost close to psychic readings! John Douglas is one of the agents who developed the system for the FBI, and he blatantly calls it instinct, and individual’s judgment, not relying on any objective sale or test. He even says, “If there’s a psychic component to this, I won’t run from it.” I can imagine this is one of the biggest controversies when psychologists interject their knowledge into the legal system. Psychology is a science – based entirely on empirically tested evidence, systematically researched and scrutinized. This type of instinctive judgment is as far from psychology as you can get. It really surprised me that the legal system used such methods to search for criminals. This chapter has completely changed my view on criminal profiling in a negative way. I will never watch a movie involving profiling the same!

I guess I know now how extremely difficult investigations can be, specifically serial killer cases. Watching movies and TV shows makes you believe that either profiling or geoprofiling will give the right clues to catch the criminal. But in reality, they can both be very flawed systems. Intuitive profiling relies on a few human assumptions that can lead investigators way off track. You would think that geoprofiling would be more accurate because it uses concrete information, maps, and statistical techniques, the other end of spectrum. Though this type of profiling is more reliable than intuitive profiling, it is by no means perfect. Computers can’t always take everything into context, and therefore they make mistakes just as humans do.

I had never heard of psychological autopsies before reading this chapter. It is an effort to dissect and examine the psychological state of a person prior to his or her death. This is important for legal reasons. If someone dies, their family may be entitled to insurance money. However, many life insurance companies do not pay the family if a death was a suicide. Because we cannot cut open a corpse’s brain and tell whether he was depressed or not, we have to infer a lot about the person’s previous psychological state. Psychological autopsies are also important when determining if a will is legally binding. If the person was not legally competent when the will was created, it will be ruled invalid. This is obviously related to clinical psychology. Expert witnesses who appear in court (who give information about psychological autopsies) are typically psychologists who assess the psychological state of the person who has died.

Terms: profiling, serial killer, signature, organized killers, disorganized killers, social psychology, tunnel vision, geographic profiling, psychological autopsies, competency

Chapter 5 starts out by giving an overview of the process of profiling. Profiling can be defined as the process of drawing inferences about a criminal’s personality, behavior, motivation, and demographic characteristics based on crime scenes and other evidence. Growing up, I always had an interest in crime, but the idea of profiling was what interested me the most. That is why I enjoyed reading this chapter so much. Another aspect of crime that stood out to me more than other areas is the realm of serial killers. This works out nicely for this chapter because profiling techniques are most often applied to cases involving serial killers. The main purposes of these profiles are to provide leads for police and to focus the efforts of investigators. A very important part of profiling is the signature aspect of the crime. This helps reveal the personality of the killer. The chapter then goes into three different famous profiles from the past. First there is Jack the Ripper. This criminal profile is considered to be the first of its kind. As we all know, Jack the Ripper was never caught so the accuracy of this first profile can be debated. Next they discuss the Olympic Bomber. This particular case helps point out that profiling can be used for many different types of crime, such as bombing, even though serial killers is considered the main area of focus. It seemed to me that the criminal profile created for this case was not very accurate. They did end up catching the man responsible, but they initially targeted the wrong guy and the actual Olympic Bomber was able to evade police for several years before being caught. Lastly they discuss the Mad Bomber. Once again, the profiling was used in a bombing case. The criminal profile of the Mad Bomber is one of the most famous and detailed profiles ever produced. The detailed nature of this profile is what helped them catch the right person in the end. Characteristics of serial killers are worked into the chapter next. There are no specific characteristics that can describe every serial killer there ever was, but there are some recurring patterns (such as brain injuries that impair rational thinking). Almost all serial killers are white males and are typically of average intelligence. Many are looking to dominate their victims before killing them. There are two types of serial killers: organized killers and disorganized killers. Organized killers are careful in selecting and stalking their victims in order to plan out what they will do. Disorganized killers are impulsive a lot of the time and pick their victims at random. This can be due to rage or voices in their head. One of the final sections of the chapter that I thought to be of great importance was geographic profiling. Compared to psychological profiling, geographic profiling relies on maps and mathematics. They use these to map different areas associated with crimes (in ways from the actual crime scene to where bodies have been dumped or where witnesses have spotted suspicious activity). I think that psychological profiling is very important, but after reading it became clear to me that geographical profiling is very important as well. It’s good to be educated in the psychological and geographical aspects of every crime involving profiling. Lastly, the chapter discusses psychological autopsies. These are used in an effort to dissect and examine the psychological state of a person prior to his or her death. The idea of something like this being possible interests me a great deal.

This whole chapter was interesting to me simply because of my continuing interest in criminal profiling. I enjoyed reading this chapter because it provided me with more insight into the world of profiling that I had never gotten the chance to have previously. Getting the opportunity to ready about the three famous cases involving profiling was great as well. Jack the Ripper is a name that everyone knows and it was interesting getting to read about how profiling fit into that case. There wasn’t a whole lot about this chapter, minus the psychological autopsies, that surprised me simply because I have learned a lot about stuff through my criminology major over the last three years. It never hurts to read up on it more, though! I can never get enough! I did, however, learn a little bit more about problems surrounding profiling. While learning about things like this, you don’t spend as much time focusing on the negatives when compared to the positives. It was nice to see a little of the other side.

As far as my views of criminal profiling, they have not changed. I am still as interested as ever, and I think this chapter just helped me become that much more interested. It provided me with a lot of information and makes me want to keep learning more. When talking about psychological autopsies, I had never heard of them before reading this chapter. It didn’t take me long after reading about them to realize how important they are, though. Getting an inside look into why a person may have acted the way they did could be huge figuring out what really happened. They are debatable when it comes to the legal status, but they are of great importance in the long run. If you have someone who is knowledgeable of the subject and is able to perform a great psychological autopsy, they I don’t see where I would hurt to just try!

Terms: profiling, serial killers, signature, organized killers, disorganized killers, geographical profiling, psychological autopsy

This chapter discussed profiling and psychological autopsies. The book explained autopsies as the process of drawing inferences about a criminal’s personality, behavior, motivation, and demographic characteristics; which are based on crime scenes and other evidence. I learned that there are only 12 FBI agents who are actually specialized in profiling. While that number is extremely small it is highly believable and understandable. Profiling isn’t always considered accurate. Profilers are usually needed when a serial killer has arisen. They are able to determine aspects of the killer’s personality due to the way they kill and what they do to the victim. They first go to each of the crime scenes and take notice about everything. They look at the specifics about the victim; race, age, gender, and similarities in all of the victims combined. They also investigate where the crimes took place, how the victims were harmed, positioned, etc. All of these details give insight to the killer which may lead to finding and prosecuting him. The book also discussed the signature of the crime. For instance, some killers may leave a “card” like the joker in batman (lame example I know, but I feel it works). The killer does this because he wants to be known, he wants to be associated with what he has done and what his signature is.
Apart of me does and doesn’t understand this. In one way it makes sense. Psychologically I feel as though the killer wants recognition for what I would assume he believes to be something he created-i.e. “art” in his crazy mind. Therefore his signature is something relevant to a part of him or his past. He feels as though people need to understand why he’s doing this and what it means. For example, the movie Seven with Brad Pitt can show this. The killer thought that too many people we’re committing the 7 deadly sins. Therefore with each of his murders he wrote which sin that person commit and I think with all of them (?) that’s how he killed them. For gluttony I remember a heavy weight man was tied up like a pig and died from over consuming. The detectives in the movie noticed that the killer went and bought more food to kill this man. So, psychologically what this killer was doing, in his mind, was an act of awareness or an act of helping in some way. He went to extremes to let it be known why he was killing and his signature was the 7 deadly sins. He killed them with their sin. The one little reason I don’t understand is that if killers do leave a signature, does a part of them expect to be caught, or even want to be caught? Or is it just them knowing that people are recognizing what they do?
I love reading on profiling, if it were possible I’d love to make this my career. Even with the burn out rate I think I’d be good at it, once properly trained of course. Now after reading I believe I just understand this a little more now. With terms and explanations more I find myself even more interested in this field of work. It fascinates me that someone can just determine so many things from little subtle things you do that you wouldn’t even notice you actually do.
I learned about organized and disorganized killers. It’s pretty self-explanatory but after reading it it’s a little different of an understanding. Organized killers are killers who take their time in plotting out their murder. They may follow/stalk a person in order to know their daily routine so they know when to attack and they clean up after the attack in order to stay unfound by the profilers. A disorganized killer is one who acts on impulse, the book stated that they may hear voices that tell them what to do. They do not have any plan when committing their murder.
Honestly I had never heard of the term psychological autopsy. I now know what they are and that they are extremely important. A psychological autopsy is an effort to dissect and examine the psychological state of the person prior to death. When I first read this I was a little uncertain that this was even possible. I mean, when I thought about it, I thought how on earth are you supposed to determine this when they are dead and by doing an autopsy. It just didn’t seem as though it was a real thing. It then discussed the NASH system. This system is simply a way to determine how the person died-natural, accidental, suicide, homicide. If they were unable to determine it using the NASH system, they would then use the psychological autopsy comes into the picture. I don’t quite understand why the term is coined “autopsy” because it’s not quite like it sounds. I took away from this section that they find out personal things in the person’s life, like a detective would. For example a victims cell phone records could be relevant if they were to call a particular person several times within a time period. This would then lead the detectives to question the person that they called. I would say this is really important no matter what it’s called. In the book they used an example of a mother making her child strip for money. The child didn’t want to and it leads him to kill himself. The psychological autopsy leads to this conclusion. It should help prove that the mother should be held responsible. It’s found as evidence and should be held credible evidence.

Terms: profiling, psychological autopsies, personality, behavior, motivation, demographic, crime scene, evidence, killer, victim, investigate, prosecuting, signature, psychologically, organized and disorganized killers, plotting, murder, stalk, attack, psychological autopsy, psychological state, NASH system.

Chapter five begins with an excerpt and small description of psychological profiling from The Silence of the Lambs and then goes on to discuss in detail the process of profiling. Profiling is when a professional makes inferences about a criminal’s personality, behavior, motivation, and demographic characteristics based on crime scenes and sometimes other evidence. Profiling is used in many different countries and was pioneered in Virginia by the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit. Criminal profiling has a small amount of agents who specialize in it, although thousands are trained in it, and it has most famously been used by the FBI in cases dealing with serial killers. Profiling refers to the description of the criminal that profilers analyze. Profilers use crime scenes, gather information about all of the victims, and study police and autopsy reports. The profile instructs investigators and detectives to look for certain types of people and ignore the rest. Many profiles can show agents what the signature aspect of the crime is, the personal aspect of the crime that stays constant, even if the abductions, transportation, or disposal of victim changes. The signature can be linked to the emotional reason why the person is committing these crimes. The profiler is using inferences and data to determine the what, the why, and then the who of a crime, which can be difficult because there isn’t a systematic and articulate way to do this. The book then goes on to discuss actual criminal profiles and their varying degrees of success.
In London in 1888 Jack the Ripper terrorized the town and killed at least five prostitutes. Dr. Thomas Bond may have created the first criminal profile recorded during this time. Dr. Bond did autopsies on two of the victims and wrote down many speculations about the ripper based on the crime scene characteristics. The ripper was never caught, so it can’t be determined how successful Dr. Bond’s profile was but it may have helped police along the way. Besides using criminal autopsies for serial killers it was used for the Olympic Bomber in 1996. The FBI quickly used evidence from the scene of the bombing and evidence from past bombings to instruct the police to search for a white, middle-class male with an intense interest in the police. The police turned their attention to Richard Jewell because he fit the profile perfectly, but it was later found that they could not link him to the bombing in any way and that it was another man, Eric Rudolph. They both fit the profile well but this account of profiling was not a complete success. The profile of the Mad Bomber in 1957 may be the most famous because it was extremely detailed. When police were having trouble finding new leads they contacted James Brussel, who gave the police an extremely detailed profile, which the bomber ended up fitting precisely. The reason that this profile worked so well is because it directed police to look at current and former Con Edison employees, which they should have done in the first place, but was much harder to do in the 1950s and before.
The text goes on to discuss characteristics of serial killers because profiling is generally used to identify them. There are many recurring patterns with serial killers but there is not a list of characteristics that they all have. For example, nearly all serial killers are white males of average intelligence, many have had some sort of brain injury impairing their rational thinking, a lot have experienced some type of combination of physical, sexual, and/or psychological abuse during childhood, and some suffered from maladjustment during their childhood. Many serial killers like to dominate their victims, choose intimate methods of killing- like strangulation, stabbing, or torture, they often drink or use drugs before killing, select a certain type of victim, and have violent sexual fantasies and manifestations. Many profilers now distinguish between organized killers and disorganized killers. Organized killers carefully select their victims, stalk them, and plan out what they will do. They also have a great deal of patience and self-control by waiting to commit the crime and by cleaning up the crime scene after committing it. Disorganized killers are more impulsive, selecting their victims and committing their crimes at random. They are also more likely to use weapons and to use the dead body for sexual purposes. These differences can help the FBI and police determine the type of person the killer may be. The BSU said “the organized versus disorganized distinction became the great divide, a fundamental way of separating two quite different types of personalities who commit multiple murders.” Ronald Holmes and his colleagues also proposed four different groups that serial killers could be grouped into. Visionary types of killers are psychotic and have visions or believe that they hear voices from a God, telling them to kill people. Mission-oriented types kill people that they believe deserve to die. Hedonistic types kill because they find it thrilling or have sadistic sexual pleasure when torturing victims. Power-oriented types like to capture and control their victims before killing them. Not every serial killer can fit into these four types perfectly but they try to explain some of the reasons why a person is motivated to commit these crimes. There have been many studies done to test the accuracy of profiling and placing the criminals who commit these horrific crimes into categories but the research on its accuracy is limited. Multiple studies have shown that profiling only leads to a little bit more success in some cases, and only if the profile actually is accurate. When one study looked at serial rapes they found that almost none of the offenders had much in common, which would make it hard to create a profile on any one of them.
Some other problems with profiling are the basic assumptions made. Not every killer is completely organized or disorganized and not all crime scene characteristics can be matched up with criminal personality traits. There are also issues with cross-situational consistency, meaning that our personalities change in different situations and that the context of the situation matters and can change things. Sometimes investigators do not take context into account in the ways that they should and can link crimes together because they look similar, which is called case linkage. The inferences given to investigators by profilers can also be things that are hard to discover, like that they have awkward relationships with females or that they are unengaged in the bedroom. Misleading profiles may make investigators have tunnel vision, and only look for the type of suspect that they described, and could let the real criminal go. On the other hand, geographic profiling is an established technique that uses the crime scenes, where bodies have been left or suspicious areas to create a map. As more crimes are committed the map becomes more useful to investigators. Geographic profiling uses computers and can compute anchor points-where the attacks may start, buffer zones-an undisturbed area likely around the criminal’s home, and distance decay-when a criminal moves farther away the probability of an attack decreases.
It is not always clear how someone may have died; the textbook gives an example of an equivocal death, which means it is not clear why or how they died. Many deaths can be classified in the NASH system, meaning that their death was either Natural, Accidental, a Suicide, or Homicide. Psychological autopsies can be done in an effort to determine the psychological state of a person before their death. Because there is psychological corpse to use for psychological autopsies, like the body is used in a real autopsy, investigators must use records left behind. The goal of psychological autopsies is to recreate and determine the dead person’s emotional state, thoughts, personality, and intentions. Psychological autopsies especially help investigators in determining if a death was a suicide or an accident/homicide.
The things that most surprised me while reading this chapter were about psychological autopsies and how they can sometimes be used in courtroom testimony. I did not know anything about psychological autopsies before reading this and now know that they are extremely important when determining if someone commit suicide, if the death was an accident, or if it was a homicide. I also didn’t know that profiling wasn’t as accurate as I have heard about through movies and books. My views haven’t really changed much about criminal profiling since reading this chapter, I still think they could be helpful and should be done with caution.

Terms: profiling, serial killers, signature, organized killers, disorganized killers, visionary types, mission-oriented types, hedonistic types, power-oriented types, sadistic, cross-situational consistency, case linkage, tunnel vision, geographic profiling, equivocal death, NASH system, psychological autopsy

Key terms: profiling, signature, Jack the Ripper, The Mad Bomber, behavioral psychology, organized killers, disorganized killers, NASH system

The chapter begins by explaining a scene in the movie "The Silence of the Lambs", when an FBI agent profiles a murderer just by looking at a picture of him. They ask the question if it is really possible to make valid inferences about a criminal's age, race, gender, living circumstances, and personality based only on information from a crime scene. Profiling was pioneered by the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, VA. Profiling is the process of drawing inferences about a criminal's personality,behavior, motivation, and demographic characteristics based on crime scene and other evidence. It then explains how they create description of "profile" of the criminal, profilers analyze the crime scenes, gather information about the victims, and study both police and autopsy reports. It was very interesting when they stated that profiling is usually used for tracking down serial killers, murders that have killed more than three people. There are three famous profiles that are talked about in the book, Jack the Ripper, The Olympic bomber, and the Mad Bomber. Jack the Ripper was a man in the late 1800s who terrorize the East End of London and strangled women prostitutes during the nights. The bodies were mutilated and sometimes, internal organs were out of their bodies. Although they had his description correct, Jack the Ripper was never caught. It then talks about the Olympic bomber who during the 1996 Summer Olympics, set off bombs. The mad bomber was a man who bombed various parts of New York, but their was a doctor who profiled this guy, just from his letters that he left. The captured him based on the description from Dr. Brussels just by reading these letters and analyzing them. There are many different characteristics of Serial killers, but most of them have a couple things in common whether they are organized killers or disorganized, whether they carry weapons to kill victims, plan their crimes, etc. There are four different types of serial killers; visionary, usually psychotic, mission oriented, not psychotic but motivated by a desire, hedonistic who are motivated by the thrill, and power oriented who get satisfaction from controlling. I thought that geographic profiling was interesting where intuitive psychological profiling relies heavily on instinct and inference, geographic profiling relies on maps and mathematics. So they profile someone, then based on the the geographic area, the profiler tries and to locate this person, also based on where their crimes were committed. The chapter then explains racial profiling and ask if they are precise profiles or just sloppy stereotypes. I think they are just stereotypes because black men are pulled over and detained by police more than any other race. Then there is a psychological autopsy which is an effort to dissect and examine the psychological state of a person prior to his or her death. Psychologists look back on the deceased state of mind from documents at their house, questioning friends and family, and emails. They are trying to figure out whether their death falls in to one of these four categories: natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. Psychologists are through a 16 list checklist to figure out what they need to know about the victim. I had never heard of these types of autopsies, but it definitely makes since to do it. They are either going to say, it was an accident, suicide, homicide, or natural and that will explain a lot about the death especially if they were murdered. Then the police can investigate and maybe put the murdered in jail. My views towards criminal profiling changed a little because it is an amazing process how someone can get inside the head of a serial killer and find them, but when it is towards blacks, I think it is wrong. Police do not have the right to believe that every black person is doing something wrong. I have gone through this before and it is humiliating to be stopped by the police, just for walking down the street.

Terms: disorganized killers, geographic profiling, hedonistic, mission-oriented, organized killers, power-oriented, profiling, psychological autopsy, racial profiling, serial killers, visionary

Chapter 5, Criminal Profiling and Psychological Autopsies
This chapter emphasizes on the process of profiling criminals. Profiling is defined as “the process of drawing inferences about a criminal’s personality, behavior, motivation, and demographic characteristics bases on crime scenes and other evidence” (pg. 97) With that in mind, investigators try to dig in and nit-pick out any identity(s) that help narrow down to an individual suspect that has committed the crime, i.e. is there a theme in victims involved: woman, pretty and blonde, etc. Profiling is most used when investigating serial killers- “murderers who kill three or more people in separate events with a cooling-off period between murders” (pg. 98). When dealing with serial killers, the FBI looks for a distractive signature that the murderer leaves behind. An example of a signature could be how the murderer displays their victims afterwards, a carving into their skin, or any repetitive form of torture found among the different victims. One of the three most famous profiles FBI has been involved in include Jack the Ripper who committed his crimes in public where people passing by could witness, The Olympic Bomber which involved the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, and lastly the Mad Bomber who has safely places bombs all around New York city. The chapter then continues on with talking geographic profiling, or otherwise known as criminal spatial mapping. This type of profiling emphasizes on particularly on location; where the repeated crime could happen next, and where bodies have either been dumped/ left, and also where witnesses have had seen suspicious activities. This type of information is then put into a computer and then program can then be used to look at the anchor point( where attacks might happen), buffer zone( home of criminal where crime is less likely) and distance decay ( probability of an attack decreases as distance from past crime locations increases). The chapter then proceeds in talking about racial profiling and sloppy stereotypes. Racial profiling is when race is used an indicator that people of that race of the ones who will commit crime. These types of profiling occur very often in the legal system especially when based on who becomes the suspect, who should be interrogated and who should be prosecuted. Which is why investigators need to have probative evidence in determining whether or not a person has committed the crime or not.
The information that I found most interesting was how investigators conduct geographic profiling. Who cool is that you can be able to be three steps in front of the killer before he even gets there. I feel that this is very important to have this because investigators can determine where, predict where next, and tract down the suspected criminal/killer. What I know now that I did not before is that the Investigators take very detailed steps in finding out what happened and who did it. Along with that how investigators conduct Psychological Autopsies when figuring out the psychological state that the victim was in, i.e. man found dead in a car, he was may have been drowsy, and feel asleep at the wheel. My views on profiling haven’t really changed from prior to reading this chapter. I just feel more informed about what really goes on. However, I feel that the biggest issue that investigators/ law enforcement will continue to have is racial profiling, and to make assumptions due to stereotypes. I would like to think that with time these type of issues will decrease. This is why it is important to have investigators to make a thorough psychological autopsy. I have never heard of “psychological” autopsies, only autopsies. I feel that these are important that why law enforcement can learn about their victims, and figure out what their mind set was during an event. For example, if a woman committed suicide the investigators would want to look at if there was a note, or letter left behind, and try to figure out why and how it happened.
Psychological Terms: Profiling, signature, geographic profiling, serial-killer, anchor point, buffer zone, distance decay, Psychological autopsy.

This chapter explores the use and effectiveness of criminal profilers in many different cases, as well as allows us insight into their personal workings. One of the things just at the beginning of the chapter that caught my eye is just how instinctual criminal profiling is. I’m a huge fan of criminal minds, but shows like that make it seem like with the right set of facts, anyone could figure out who committed the crime, however the chapter discusses that there is a psychological or psychic aspect to it as well. Although I doubt psychics are considered a legitimate contributor to the psychology world, I think it’s interesting just how much intuition can play a role in our legal system when it’s not something that is proven to work, however I didn’t know that profilers validity at crime scenes isn’t completely proven either.
It was very interesting to read about the Mad Bomber profile, and how incredibly accurate it was, I can’t however determine how someone, simply by reading through a psychological history would be able to determine so much about a person, on such in a specific level. Naturally there were some aspects of the profile that were wrong, and especially those that seemed to follow the Freud teachings, however it is valuable to consider how much good information and eerily accurate information you can get from a profile while only receiving a little invaluable information.
I always imagined that serial killers are organized, because in order to be able to commit multiple murders and get away with them, it would make sense that they would have self control and wait for the timing and circumstances to be correct before they attack a victim. Apparently, that is not the case, there is also a branch of disorganized killers, and to me it seems that they are more likely linked to mental diseases such as schizophrenia, where as the organized serial killers may be more aligned with personality disorders such as borderline personality, narcissistic, or sociopathic personalities.
I was aware that psychological autopsies existed, however I’ve never heard them been called as such. I think that they are an important piece of the investigation however, they are quite circumstantial, and rely heavily upon speculation and may not completely be able to look at the full scope of the incident.

Terms: sociopathic personalities, narcissistic, borderline personality, personality disorders, schizophrenia, mental diseases, organized serial killers, disorganized killers, victim, criminal profilers, psychic, intuition, legal system, Mad Bomber, psychological history, Freud, circumstantial, investigation, speculation

I thought chapter five was one of the more interesting chapters yet because it emphasized psychological aspects of identifying potential suspects who may or may not have committed a crime. In particular, characteristics of serial killers and how they may behave given their previous murders. One of the best examples they gave was of the BTK serial killer, Dennis Rader. A serial killer is defined as someone who murders three or more people in separate events with a cooling-off period between murders. The first step after a crime has been committed is to profile the crime scene and/or the individual. This basically means drawing inferences about a person's motives, personalities, and even demographic information based on evidence obtained at the crime. However, this may become troublesome if an officer develops tunnel vision, that is he/she gathered information at a scene and has made inferences based on how the suspect behaves, what he/she drives, what they look like. If an officer is so set on evidence that he/she ignores any other aspects of that crime it can be troublesome.

This is exemplified perfectly with the BTK killer after police had provided a BROAD list of statements that could fit a variety of suspects in that particular area. Dennis Rader actually turned out to fit very few of the statements they supplied as potential identifiers. Since he had committed multiple murders though, police used a case linkage technique which narrows their focus from all of the crimes that serial killer had committed and identified similarities in each murder. In my opinion, case linkage is made clearer if you have seen the movie Se7en. This film involves a serial killer who murders people according to the seven deadly sins. Since each murder is new and unique it can become challenging to identify a victim. On the other hand, the detectives categorized the murders as following a continuum so it then becomes easier to anticipate a future move.

I found it interesting how they defined two different killers. Organized killers have a unique personality trait because, as the name implies, they are organized. Thus they tend to have an average to high IQ and have carefully planned out their killings in advance trying not to leave any sort of traceable evidence behind. In comparison, disorganized killers tend to have a lower IQ than organized killers. Also, they perform killings on impulse and tend to not follow any media coverage of their killings. When you think about the psyche of a serial killer it begins to become clear why you have the dichotomy.