Describe the stages in the criminal profiling process.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers may vary.Douglas, Ressler, Burgess, and Hartman (1986) divided the FBI's profiling strategy into five stages, with a final, sixth stage being the arrest of the correct suspect. The six phases, as they evolve in a murder investigation, seem to apply reasonably well three decades later. They are as follows:a) Profiling inputs. The first stage involves collecting all information available about the crime, including physical evidence, photographs of the crime scene, autopsy reports and pictures, complete background information on the victim, and police reports. The profiler does not want to be told about possible suspects at this stage, because such data might prejudice or prematurely direct the profile.b) Decision process models. In this stage, the profiler organizes the input into meaningful questions and patterns along several dimensions of criminal activity. What type of homicide has been committed? What is the primary impetus for the crime-sexual, financial, personal, or emotional disturbance? What level of risk did the victim experience, and what level of risk did the murderer take in killing the victim? What was the sequence of acts before and after the killing, and how long did these acts take to commit? Where was the crime committed? Was the body moved, or was it found where the murder was committed?c) Crime assessment. On the basis of the findings in the previous phase, the profiler attempts to reconstruct the behavior of the offender and the victim. Was the murder organized (suggesting an intelligent offender who carefully selects victims against whom to act out a well-rehearsed fantasy) or disorganized (indicating an impulsive, less socially competent, possibly even psychotic offender)? Was the crime staged to mislead the police? Can details such as cause of death, location of wounds, and position of the body reveal anything about the killer's motivation? Criminal profilers are often guided by the following hypotheses:• Brutal facial injuries point to killers who knew their victims.• Murders committed with whatever weapon happens to be available are more impulsive than murders committed with a gun and may reveal a killer who lives fairly near the victim.• Murders committed early in the morning seldom involve alcohol or drugs.d) Criminal profile. In this stage, profilers formulate an initial description of the most likely suspects. This profile includes the perpetrator's race, sex, age, marital status, living arrangements, and employment history; psychological characteristics, beliefs, and values; probable reactions to the police; and past criminal record, including the possibility of similar offenses in the past. This stage also contains a feedback loop whereby profilers check their predictions against stage-2 information to make sure that the profile fits the original data.e) Investigation. A written report is given to investigators, who concentrate on suspects matching the profile. If new evidence is discovered in this investigation, a second feedback process is initiated, and the profile can be revised.f) Apprehension. The intended result of these procedures-the arrest of a suspect-allows profilers to evaluate the validity of their predictions. The key element in this validation is a thorough interview of the suspect to assess the influences of background and psychological variables.