Mind Hunters - Tracking Down Killers With the FBI's Psychological Profiling Team

• NCJ Number: 98656
• Author(s): B Porter
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 8 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Reprinted from Psychology Today, (April 1983).

Annotation

This article discusses the use of psychological profiling to aid in the investigation of such crimes as multiple rapes, child molestings, or motiveless murders in which the nature of the crime points to major psychological abnormalities in the perpetrator.

Abstract

While the literary origins of psychological profiling go back to the 1800's, perhaps the most ingenious real-life application occurred in the late 1950's when a psychiatrist's analysis produced an extraordinary likeness of New York's Mad Bomber. In working up profiles, the FBI pays close attention to autopsy reports and crime scene data. How the victim was treated, the nature of the injuries, the type and availability of the weapon, how long the killer remained on the crime scene after the murder, and how the body was treated after the murder can provide information about the murderer's personality, motivations, feelings about the crime, and familiarity with the location of the crime. In addition to using crime scene data, the FBI uses basic research data from the murderers themselves. Such data include a file of taped interviews with 100 notorious assassins and mass murderers which has been computerized to identify similarities among the cases. In writing up its profiles, the FBI uses plain English and focuses on such characteristics as the murderer's race, age, and marital status. The agency warns officers not to limit investigation to people who exhibit the characteristics of the sketch. The profile is supposed to describe a general type of individual rather than a specific individual. The profiling system soon will be computerized so that policemen across the country can detail characteristics of a bizarre murder and receive back an educated guess as to the perpetrator's personality type (organized, disorganized, or mixed) and a listing of numerically weighted characteristics such as age, race, and how closely he lived to the crime scene. Thus, in the future, police may eventually be able to identify a criminal by the psychic loops and whorls left at the crime scene.