Creating a perpetrator profile is an essential step in the investigation process. By defining the key characteristics of a criminal, one will be able to identify the possible suspects and, therefore, locate the perpetrator faster. Typically, two approaches toward creating a perpetrator profile are identified. These approaches include common personal characteristics, such as appearance, and crime scene characteristics, namely, the behavior that a perpetrator displays when committing crimes (Pecino-Latorre et al., 2019). By noticing patterns in the specified behaviors and isolating unique characteristics, law enforcement officers can determine potential suspects.
The assessment of the criminal’s characteristics is necessary to identify the unique personal features that will help to identify the perpetrator among similar offenders. For example, in a case where a criminal had to be tall and physically strong to attack an equally strong victim bare-handed, short people with no physical strength should be excluded from the investigation. Similarly, for the identification of the crime scene characteristics, issues such as the weapon with which the crime was committed will have to be isolated and recorded. For instance, if the assault was carried out with a knife, the specified detail should be recorded in the criminal’s profile (Pecino-Latorre et al., 2019). Thus, all details of the crime will be aligned and organized in a manner that will make the investigation go faster.
Incorporating the personal characteristics of criminals and the unique criminal behaviors that they demonstrate when committing crimes, one can locate possible suspects and determine the most likely perpetrator comparatively easily. Therefore, the existing strategies, while being quite few and rather basic, allow for an accurate depiction of a criminal and further success in the investigation. For this reason, both approaches should be utilized when examining the information for further investigation.
Reference
Pecino-Latorre, M. D. M., Pérez-Fuentes, M. D. C., Patró-Hernández, R. M., & Santos-Hermoso, J. (2019). Expressiveness and instrumentality of crime scene behavior in Spanish homicides.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(22), 4526.