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And this behavior can create a surprisingly accurate picture of the offender. (Forensic FAQ p. 2) Forensic science has been in practice for centuries; the first textbook on forensic science was printed in China during the 1200’s; in the early 1800’s, a technique was developed the first test to identify arsenic in the blood stream; the early 1900’s lead to the development of using fingerprinting to identify victims and suspects. While these discoveries where important in criminal investigation, they were only the beginning. Only recently has forensic science significantly refined its techniques and accuracy. Today scientists can locate, identify and trace the tiniest of particles, and identify victims and suspects, beyond a reasonable doubt through DNA analysis. This evolution in forensic science is a prosecutor’s dream; while a defense attorney’s nightmare. Forensic science has made great strides. Offender profiling has been a new tool to criminal investigation. In pierces deep into the mind of the offender and provides non-traditional method of catching criminals. Not all crimes will call for the use of criminal profiling. Crimes of violent and serial in nature will be profiled. Crimes that will be profiled include: serial murder and rape, ritualistic crimes and child molestation and abduction. Profiling does not take the place of conventional police work, but it will significantly assist an existing investigation. Profiling is a valuable tool for police work because it can help narrow the search for an offender, lower the potential number of victims, allow for better interrogation methods when a suspect is in custody and lastly the profiler can act as an expert witness and help jurors understand motives of the offender. Profiling tries to determine specific characteristics about an offender: lifestyle, personal habits, occupation, gender, size, marital status, remorse or guilt, aggressiveness, skill level and education and so on. The goal is to identify and predict. Before a forensic profile can be created, a full forensic investigation of the crime must be performed. During the forensic investigation, several facts are observed: location of the crime, a public street or the victim’s house, condition the crime scene was left, whether it was neat or torn apart, body position and post or pre rigor mortis, force of entry or unlocked doors, the weather, temperature of surroundings, this could be the temperature of a cup of coffee or bowl of ice cream, patterns of blood and footprints. Physical evidence is then collected and preserved: blood, semen, weapons, fibers, hairs, fingerprints and footprints are also taken. Second, the characteristics of the crime scene are looked at. Photographs of the victim and scene are taken to determine how the crime was carried out. Investigators look at the type of weapons used, if gloves were worn, the level of intelligence that was need to perform the specific crime. In assessing the crime, police try to determine if the crime was planned or unplanned and if was carried out due to anger or perhaps reaction to stress. These characteristics are derived from the forensic reports. Characteristics from each individual crime and similar crimes are compiled and similarities are reviewed. Thirdly, victimology is used. Victimology is the study and analysis of victim characteristics. Specifics about a victim such as appearance, age, race, social status, profession, drug use, routines and people last in contact with the victim can give potential answers to questions from investigators. Questions such as: why this victim was chosen? Each question that is answered about the victim, can answer a question about the suspect. Victimology is essential because it can lead law enforcement agencies to identify a signature of the offender. Signature is basically repeated identifying markers that are used in a crime: same type of weapon, same type of restraints, same types of locations, same types of victims and so forth. Victimology is an approach used to obtain insight into the criminal mind. Determining the interaction that transpired between victim and offender is another important element of profiling. This can provide insight to past and future crimes. Studying the victims can assist police as to what techniques will be most advantageous during an interrogation. Identifying potential victims of a serial offender is another benefit. Ted Bundy a famous serial killer, chose his victims according to physical characteristics. Most of Bundy’s victims had long red hair and were of college age, which resembled his ex-girlfriend. As mentioned before, profiling is most effective when it is used for serial murders, rapes, ritualistic crimes and child molestations and abductions. These kinds of crimes are more difficult to solve and conventional police work alone will not suffice. Serial offender’s motives are somewhat abstract. Serial killers, which will be the focus, are different from the one-time killers; in the fact they usually kill 3 or more people. The one-time killers are those who may kill out of rage due to an insult or jealousy, they are reactive killers. Serial killers are motivated out of the act of killing itself, which is driven by a need to control and overpower. Serial murders will not be stopped unless they are stopped. The behaviors that are common to serial criminals are obsession with publicity and fantasy and rituals. (Profiling p. 2) Most serial killers will collect newspaper articles and other information on the crimes they have committed. Some will even make contact with the police or the victim’s family. This obsession with publicity and attention feeds the arrogance of the offender and often lead him to make mistakes, which enable his capture. Once police have identified crimes as serial, and knowing this fact of obsession for publicity, they can set up telephone traces at the victim’s family’s home, which can potentially lead to an arrest. Fantasies that drive serial offenders’ behavior are not normal to the general, non-offending public. For example, Jeffery Dahmer was obsessed with collecting parts of his victims so they would never leave him. The collection of body parts was a part of the ritual that fed his fantasies. (Profiling p. 3) There are four types of serial killers: ones which exhibit psychotic behavior, ones which appear normal to outside world but are disturbed internally, ones who kill for thrills and one who kills out of lust. Ted Bundy killed out of lust. Discovering what fuels a serial killer will help predict behavior and future victims. A general profile of a serial killer is as follows:  victims will mostly be of own race (Goldman p. 2) Let’s look at an organized killer like Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy was a law student, intelligent and dressed neatly. Bundy did not appear to be questionable to the outside world; instead he appeared as a very well liked and charming man. The police received many calls into the station, with leads about the Ted Bundy murders. It took them one month just to compile all the information. After all the information was processed, they were immediately able to put Ted Bundy to the top of the suspect list due to the psychological profile that had been created based on his crimes. Because the profile lead police directly to Bundy, it saved many investigative hours. For serial killers, it is believed that an addiction is developed. As time progressed, Bundy’s need to kill, like other serial killers, increased before he was finally stopped. The killings were becoming more and more frequent and if not for the profile, Bundy’s list of victims would have grown. Bundy was eventually given the death penalty in Florida. It was believed that he moved to Florida to find more victims due to his attraction to girls in bikinis. The FBI has created NCIC. The NCIC is the National Crime Information Center. It is a national database that local and state police can access. This database has numerous profiles of many serial crimes as well as non-serial crimes. The major benefit of profiling is in this database, which allows authorities to compare crimes on a nationwide basis. This database not only has profile of criminals, but also profiles of victims and missing persons. For example, if there were a particular type of victim that had been appearing, and there was a missing person fitting that description, they would be cross-referenced in the NCIC. Databases such as the NCIC, have lead authorities to believe that Ted Bundy has been responsible for several other murders that he did not confess to, or convicted for. Sometimes it appears that serial criminals will just stop when no suspect has been apprehended. One potential reason is that the serial killer was incarcerated for another crime. If a series of murder occur for number of years, then stop for a period and then begin to resurface, police can use the database to locate possible suspects. They can do this by reviewing prison records before, during and after the crimes were committed. This can help save valuable time in searching for a suspect. After a serial killer is captured and put on trial, profilers can testify as expert witnesses on the offender. They can testify that his psychological profile was driven by certain motives, which drove him to kill and kill again and again. It can help jurors understand why he committed those crimes, but most importantly, he was capable. Forensic science in general has been progressing rapidly over the last decade. Police are relying more and more on forensic science to solve crimes. Profiling has been an invaluable tool in catching criminals. Profiling can narrow the search of suspects, reduce number of investigative hours, can help a juror come back with a guilty verdict and most importantly save the lives of potential victims. Bibliography: Works Cited Lee, Henry Dr and Dr. Jerry Labriola. Famous Crimes Revisited. Strong Books, Southington, CT. 2001. Simon, Robert Dr. Bad Men Do What Good Men Dream. American Psychiatric Press, Inc. Washington, D.C. 1996. Ross, Drew Dr. Looking Into The Eyes Of A Killer. Plenum Publishing Co. New York, NY. 1998. Goldman, Amy. The Importance of Victimology in Criminal Profiling. Serial Killer Info Site. May 28, 1997. Profiling. www.victimsofviolence.on.ca/profil.htm. Kutake, Junko. Psychology and Criminal Profiling. www.corpus-elicti.com/profiling_law.htm Forensic FAQ, Forensic Psych: Just the FAQ’s. http://flash.lakeheadu.ca/~pals/forensics/faq.htm Word Count: 1671
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