NCJ Number
187590
Date Published
2000
Length
309 pages
Annotation
This book provides an overview of the theories and methods of the rather new criminalistic field referred to as offender profiling, criminal investigative analysis, investigative psychology, or, in Germany, as case analysis, with attention to developments in this field in Germany.
Abstract
Although the first known offender profile can be dated back to the early 1950's, when Dr. James Brussel -- a psychiatrist and psychoanalytic therapist prepared a profile of an unknown serial bomber in New York -- the first serious research and work models for modern profiling were done by the FBI in the 1970's and 1980's. The Criminal Personality Research Project, which focused on the link between behavior and the biographical and sociodemographical background of serial murderers, was the beginning of empirical research in the history of profiling. In 1993 the first German research and work project for profiling was founded at the Federal Criminal Police Office in Wiesbaden. The case analysis unit began to develop methods of profiling for extortion and kidnapping for ransom, types of crime for which no special application existed until then. After the empirical retrospective analysis of dozens of cases of extortion and kidnapping, the group created the first special analysis scheme for practical profiling in this area. As a second research path, the use of hermeneutic methods for profiling were examined. Objective hermeneutics functioned to track down traces of personality in criminal behavior. This proved to be a helpful tool for practical profiling, especially for analyzing blackmail letters. Currently, the Federal Criminal Police Office has established a tool-box system of profiling in which the requirements of an actual case determine the choice of the analytic method. Also discussed in this book is the relatively new investigative tool for establishing links between crimes, especially homicide and rapes, i.e., the Canadian ViCLAS system (Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System), which uses software design to collect information about individual violent offenses in order to identify serial crimes. 4 tables, 210 references, and a subject index