To truly understand profiling you must first look at
the basic definition of it. With that in mind, then take and break it down into
the different areas of profiling. The basic definition of profiling, according
to the World English Dictionary, is as follows:
The use of personal characteristics or behavior patterns to make
generalizations about a person, such as gender, unique characteristics (such as
scars), hair color, color of eyes or skin, nationality. The use of these
characteristics is to determine whether or not a person may be engaged in
illegal activity.
Racial profiling is considered to be
used by law enforcement in deciding whether to engage in enforcement of the
law, such as making an arrest or a traffic stop. It uses an individual’s race
or ethnicity to make these decisions. It is controversial and in some
jurisdictions illegal.
Criminal profiling (or offender
profiling) is described as using numerous factors such as race, dress, and
interactions to determine whether or not a person is involved in criminal
activity. Various aspects of the criminal’s personality makeup are determined
from his/her choices before, during, and after the crime.
Predictive profiling attempts to guess
who is likely to commit a crime that has not happened yet. This type of
profiling occurs when a police officer, while patrolling, observes and tries to
spot suspicious behavior that could mean a crime is going to take place.
Psychological profiling is a method of
suspect identification which seeks to identify a person’s mental, emotional,
and personality characteristics, which are manifested in things done or left at
the crime scene.
There
are four phases of profiling that profilers attempt to collect to determine the
personality of the offender:
1.
Antecedent: What fantasy, plan,
or both did the murderer have in place
before committing the crime?
What triggered the murderer to act some
days and not others?
2. Method and manner: What type of victim/s did the murderer select,
and
what method and manner of
murder did he/she use? Shooting, stabbing,
strangulation, or something
else?
3.
Body disposal: Did the murder and
body disposal take place at one
location or multiple
locations?
4.
Post-offence behavior: Is the
perpetrator trying to inject himself into the
investigation by reacting to
media reports or contacting investigators?
In the case of serial killers a
phase of criminal profiling is case linkage, which is the process of
determining if there are connections between two or more unrelated cases.
Involved is the establishment and comparison of physical evidence, victimology,
crime scene characteristics, modus operandi, and signature behaviors between
each of the cases.
As you can see there are numerous
categories of profiling. As a writer, knowledge is imperative to making our
story sound convincing. Do not just write, but know what you are writing.
Faye
M. Tollison
Author
of: To
Tell the Truth
Upcoming
books: The Bible Murders
Sarah’s Secret
Member
of: Sisters in Crime
Writers on the Move
