Pragmatic solutions to offender profiling and behavioural investigative advice

Abstract

This paper outlines a brief history of the evolutionary trajectory of offender profiling and illustrates the three broad strands (investigative, clinical, and statistical ) that emerged in the 1970s-1990s. We then indicate how a more pragmatic, interdisciplinary practitioner-academic model has emerged in recent years and go on to describe the range of contributions that are now made across the criminal justice field. More recently termed 'behavioural investigative advice' in the UK, the paper then argues that whilst a range of potential contributions exist (from linking crimes, risk assessment, provision of bad character evidence, investigative interviewing advice, to geoprofiling), the nature of the process by which that contribution occurs is not yet well understood. The review of these potential contributions concludes with several suggestions and recommendations for further research and relevant methodologies by which to conduct that research. This includes the requirement to combine conceptual and theory-driven models alongside empirically driven statistical approaches, as well as the requirement to more precisely delineate and describe how contributions are made by behavioural experts through cognitive task analyses and associated methods.Several countries' police services regularly employ the assistance of psychologists in relation to the prevention, management, and investigation of crime (Alison, 2005).Although some of what they are engaged in might be described as offender profiling, the support from psychologists over the last 10 years, in the UK at least, might be more accurately described as behavioural investigative advice (BIA; ACPO, 2006). The older term offender profiling has developed an almost mythic status in popular literature and drama (Herndon, 2007), although, as this paper will demonstrate, in its best understood but narrow definition, it has failed to make much operational impact.

Comparing the Predictive Accuracy of Case Linkage Methods in Serious Sexual Assaults

“…Collins, Johnson, Choy, Davidson, & Mackay, ), the decision whether to link a crime or not has still to be made by the end‐user himself or herself (Adderley & Musgrove, ). Although the practice of linkage analysis enjoys steadily increasing empirical support (for a comprehensive review, see Woodhams, Hollin, & Bull, ), there is an on‐going debate as to what the most accurate approach is (Alison, Goodwill, Almond, van den Heuvel, & Winter, ): Using distinct dimensions as linkage predictors that comprise thematically similar crime scene behaviours (hereafter: ‘dimensional behavioural linking’) Using a simultaneous input of single (assumingly independent) crime scene behaviours (hereafter: ‘multivariate behavioural linking’).…”

Male Stranger Rape

“…From a pragmatic perspective, this offense-based typology can be seen as the first step in the investigation of the association between crime scene behavior and offender background characteristics (Alison et al, 2010). over recent years the use of behavioral investigative advice by police in the united Kingdom has gained in both momentum and scope.…”

Serial Murder Profiling: Our Contemporary Understanding

“…For example, a killer will leave at the crime scene evidence of a repetitive behavior, even ritualistic, a sketch or writing on the walls and/or on the body, and in that way it will be possible to connect this behavior to a certain personality among those who have been arrested for interrogation. The signature is an important medium in profiling a serial murderer, primarily when it is necessary to choose a dominant suspect among several suspects and establish a case against him [30].…”

“…The modus operandi can change from one murder to the next [12,30,36]. An additional criticism is that the more murders that a murderer commits, the more likely it is that his modus operandi will not only escalate, but also change in order to mislead the law enforcement officials, as we stated earlier.…”