Offender profiling

Offender profiling is an investigative method that infers likely characteristics of an unknown offender from features of a crime and its circumstances. It generates hypotheses to guide inquiries, not proof of identity.

Behavioral evidence analysis: A method of interpreting crime-scene actions to infer an offender’s behavior, motives, and possible characteristics. This approach formalizes how profilers connect observed actions with hypotheses about an unknown offender.
James Brussel: An American psychiatrist known for developing an influential profile of the 1940s New York bomber. His publicized profile helped establish the idea of psychiatric inference in criminal investigations.
Serial murder: The unlawful killing of multiple people in separate events by the same offender, with a period between killings. Repeated offenses can reveal patterns that investigators use to form a profile.
Criminal investigative analysis: The FBI’s term for behavioral analysis used to support criminal investigations, including assessments of unknown offenders. It names the FBI practice often called offender profiling, while emphasizing investigative support.
Confirmation bias: The tendency to favor information that supports an existing belief while discounting conflicting information. A profile can anchor investigators to a suspect or theory and distort later evidence evaluation.
Crime scene analysis: The systematic examination of a crime scene, its physical evidence, and its circumstances. Profiling depends on scene observations, but extends beyond documenting physical evidence.
Jack the Ripper: The unidentified serial killer who murdered women in the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The case became an early subject of retrospective attempts to infer an unknown killer’s traits.
Linkage analysis: The process of assessing whether crimes committed at different times or places share the same offender. Behavioral similarities can help connect cases before an offender is identified.
Statistical profiling: The use of statistical patterns in crime data to estimate characteristics or behavior associated with offenses. It contrasts with profiles built chiefly from case interpretation and practitioner judgment.
Base rate: The frequency of a characteristic or event in a relevant population before considering specific evidence. Ignoring base rates can make common traits seem more diagnostic of an offender than they are.

Linked from 1 page

Criminal psychologyBroader topic: It translates patterns of offending into investigative hypotheses about a perpetrator.