Criminal Profiling

Criminal profiling is the prediction of specific characteristics of criminal suspects,

including personality traits and behavior patterns or tendencies. Criminal profiling is
controversial, because it is not generally based on well-established science, is frequently
inaccurate, and easily crosses into racial or ethnic profiling, in which people are suspect
simply because of their race or other superficial characteristics.
Criminal profiling is a relatively new field that encompasses both law enforcement and
psychology, and terminologies and methodologies vary. It is also called psychological
profiling, criminal personality profiling, offender profiling, or investigative psychology.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) calls it “criminal investigative analysis.”

Origins

 An Italian psychologist Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) was a criminologist who

attempted to formally classify criminals based on age, gender, physical
characteristics, education, and geographic region.
 Criminal profiling dates back at least to the 1880s, when two physicians used
crime-scene clues to predict the personality of the British serial killer Jack the
Ripper.

 Police surgeon Thomas Bond was asked to give his opinion on the extent of the
murderer’s surgical skill and knowledge. Bond’s assessment was based on his own
examination of the most extensively mutilated victim and the post mortem notes
from the four previous canonical murders. In his notes, dated November 10, 1888,
Bond mentioned the sexual nature of the murders coupled with elements of
apparent misogyny and rage. Bond also tried to reconstruct the murder and
interpret the behaviour pattern of the offender.

 However, it was the case of the “mad bomber” that first drew widespread
attention to profiling.

 Over a period of 16 years, beginning in 1940, there were more than 30

indiscriminant bombings in New York City. The police were clueless, but
psychiatrist James A. Brussel (1905– 1982) used both common sense and
psychiatric and psychoanalytic methods to develop a profile of the bomber.
 Brussel profiled the bomber as living in Connecticut, self-educated, and neat and
meticulous, and predicted he would be wearing a buttoned-up, double-breasted
jacket when apprehended.

 The success of the mad bomber profiling convinced the FBI to pursue the
technique.

 In 1943, Walter C. Langer developed a profile of Adolf Hitler that hypothesized

the Nazi dictator’s response to various scenarios, including losing the war.

 Offender profiling was first introduced to the FBI in the 1960s, when several
classes were taught to the American Society of crime lab directors.

 The fastest development occurred when the FBI opened its training academy, the
Behavioral Analysis Unit, in Quantico, Virginia. It led to the establishment of the
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime.

 Investigations of serial killers Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway were performed in
1974 by Robert Keppel and psychologist Richard Walter. They went on to develop
the four subtypes of violent crime and the Hunter Integrated Telemetry System
(HITS) database.

 At the FBI’s BSU, Robert Ressler and John Douglas began an informal series of ad
hoc interviews with 36 convicts starting in early 1978.Douglas and Ressler later
created a typology of sexually motivated violent offenders and formed the
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime.

 Profiling has continuously gotten more accurate throughout the years. In the year
2008, only 42% of cases were solved using criminal profiling. In 2019 the FBI was
able to solve 56% of the cases that were not solved back in the year 2008.

 The usage of profiling has been documented in Sweden, Finland, New Zealand,
South Africa, Germany, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, Russia, Zimbabwe, and the
Netherlands.
 Many European countries have now developed their own approaches to criminal
profiling and established specialized academic research institutions and trained
police units.

 India has witnessed several serial killers in its criminal history. Amongst them
were certain killers who crossed every limit of brutality.

 Famous Serial killers who were apprehended using criminal profiling techniques:

Bahadurgarh Baby Killer

Satish Kumar was born in 1973. Satish was a habitual paedophile and serial killer
from Bahadurgarh, Haryana. He was active from 1995-1998.

Mohan Kumar Vivekanand (Mangalore)

Mohan was a teacher turned dreaded serial killer in India. He was popularly
known as the “cyanide mohan.”

Sadashiv Sahu
“Killing someone is peaceful,” as said by Sadashiv Sahu. He was a cloth merchant
who lived in Fursatganj, Uttar Pradesh. He was fond of reading religious books,
but his dark deeds were revealed in front of everyone when police arrested him in
a case in 2004.