Introduction
Criminal profiling is an important step in the investigation that helps the investigator to determine the identity of the perpetrator of a crime. Even though it may not be able to capture the name of the perpetrator, it gives crucial information on the characteristics of a crime that can be used to apprehend the kind of suspect that fits the characteristics. It will give more information concerning the personality, sex, sage, ethic background and other physical features of the criminal like height and weight. This information is important in identifying possible suspects for a crime. The following is assessment guide book that can be used for criminal profiling following a behavior analysis model.
The guide book is constructed to capture the motive of the offender and their characteristics and can be used in case where the identity of the offender is known or unknown. It will be narrowing down to give more information on the identity of the victims, common characteristics of the victims, weapons used in the crime, and other factors that can characterize a crime and which are useful in the investigation. (Vince, 2006)
Equivocal forensic analysis
This step will analyze all the physical evidence present from the scene of the crime. This will include all interviews, evidence logs, investigation and autopsy reports, photographs and videos the can be collected from the crime scene. This will also include the evidence that can be given in narration by the living victims who were present at the crime scene or who saw what happened in the crime scene. This step will help the investigator to collect any physical evidence that can be interpreted in a number of ways and which can give a clue about what happened in the scene of crime. This step involves the profiling inputs and will seek to collects all evidence found in the scene of crime.
All the materials collected in the crime scene will be of value since it can be related in a number of ways and give various interpretation leading to the motive of the crime which can help to narrow down to specific suspects. (Alison, 2006)
Equivocal forensic analysis step is vital in criminal profiling since it gives the support material and evidences the can be used by the investigator to get the preliminaries about a crime. This step also helps the investigator to come to the rough details of a crime mainly from the materials that the investigator collects from the crime scene and which becomes of use in the investigation. It is the most important step in any criminal profiling since it marks the beggining of a long investigation. This is the reason why I chose to include it in my criminal profiling guidebook. It has to be the first step since it will act as the stepping stone to the whole criminal profiling process.
This step will also involve the inclusion of a decision making process from which the evidence from the crime will be arranged in such a way that it will help the investigator to come up with the pattern of crime. From the evidence collected it will be easier for the investigator to come up with a pattern of crime in order to understand if it is a part of a series of crimes or it was a crime that was targeted to that particular victim.
The investigator will have time to put all the evidence collected from the crime scene and reconstruct it well. The investigator will be able to use the patterns to determine what happened and in what order. It will also help him to be able to determine the role that was played by each victim or any weapon that was used in the crime. This can be all deduced from the evidence that the investigator will have collected from the scene of crime. (Funder and Ozer, 1997)
This step involves the determination of a number of factors that are relevant to the location of the scene of crime, for example determining where the crime scene is located in relation to the other crimes scenes, and how offender approached the victims. This phase helps the investigator to relate the evidence that was collected in the initial stage to other factors regarding the crime and the crimes the have happened. The investigator relates the scene of the crime to other scenes in the surrounding and to other scenes in the world. All these factors are used to give more evidence on the motive of the criminal.
Having collected all the evidence that can be found in the scene of crime, the investigator will be able to relate the evidence such way that there will be some effort to try and make some form of conclusion regarding the case in the initial stage. Hence there must be effort to collect all possible evidence from the crime.
This step should be taken very seriously by any investigator since it gives the preliminaries about a case. It acts as the guide that can be used for the rest of the case. Therefore there must be systematic efforts to pay attention to each and every detail of evidence that is collected from the scene. Nothing should be left to chance or seen as not important in the process.
Victimology
This is the second step in my behavior profiling case assessment guide. This step is very important since it helps the investigator to come up with important character to that can be used to make a profile for the victim. It helps the investigator in coming up with the initial clue to the identity of the suspected criminal. This step will involve the investigator putting together the piece of the evidence collected in order to come up with information that can be used to infer to victim of the crime like gender, ethnicity and other factors that leads the investigator to narrow down more to the motives of the suspect.
This step is very crucial since it can help the investigator to come up with some clues as to why the criminal is targeting a certain type of individuals from which one can deduce the motive of the crime. This will help the investigator to relate the victim with the physical evidence that was collected from the crime scene. In this regard the physical evidence collected can give a lot about the victim and the suspect. For example, if the victim is heavy and has been dragged fro a distance, the investigator can make a conclusion regarding the suspects on the fact that, the criminal might be a strong and muscular person or the crime could have been committed by more than one person. This will help the investigator to come close to the characteristic of the suspect.
This step is very crucial since it will help the investigator to come with the best way that can be used to interview the suspects for the crime in relation to the evidence that had been collected about the victims of crime. The step is also very crucial since it helps the investigator to come up with a clue on the personality and characteristics of the suspects in relation to the suspects of the crime.
Crime scene characteristics
This is the third step in my profiling guide book. This is an important step where the investigator put in place all the evidence that was collected from the crime scene, relates it to the Victimology that has been carried out and the conclusion from the analysis helps in coming up with personal characteristics that can help in drawing more to the suspect. The investigator draws more from the scene of crime in relation to the analysis of the victim and the pattern of the crime.
This step is important in any investigation since it helps the investigator to understand the crime will in relation to other crimes that have been perfumed elsewhere. It helps the investigator to understand the crime well which can assist in the investigation since the crime can be related to others elsewhere and the suspect can be related as well. This step helps the investigator to come close to the characteristics of the offender. (Fintzy, 2000)
Offender characteristics
This step is a result of carrying out a thorough analysis of the first three steps. This helps the investigator to come up with a sketch idea of the character of the suspect. This is arrived at by combining knowledge that has been gleaned from the analysis of different parts of the crime scene. This step is important since it helps the investigator to understand the fine characteristics of the suspect which can be used in hunting of the suspect. Offender characteristics helps the investigator to combine all the three steps, review different aspect of the crime, relate the evidence to other crimes that have been committed which gives a more insight into the crime and the motives of the crimes. (Winnerman, 2004)
Criminal profile
This is the last step in my criminal profiling. It is the final profile that the guide book will have created that can be presented to the investigator for investigation or apprehension of the suspects. A criminal profile will be made using the information that has been collected from the suspects who have been investigated. The criminal profile is important since it helps the investigator to narrow down to suspects bearing the criminal characteristics for apprehension.
It is also important since it helps the court to have a profile with which it can be used to prosecute the suspects who have been aligned before it. Hence a criminal profile is important both to the investigator and the court of law. The profile will try to relate the evidence that was collected from the initial crime scene and the evidence that is collected from the investigation and apprehension of the suspect.
Reference
Alison, L. (2006). The Forensic psychologist’s casebook: Psychological Profiling. London: Wilan Publishers.
Fintzy, R. (2000). Criminal Profiling: Introduction behavior evidence analysis. American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 157(6): 1532-1534.
Funder, D., & Ozer, D. J. (1997). Pieces of personality puzzle. New York: Norton & Company Ltd.
Vince, G. (2006). Forensic psychologist tackles UK serial killer. Web.
Winnerman, L. (2004). Forensic Psychologist and law enforcement. Monitor Psychology, Vol. 35(7): 78-90.