Behavioral Analysis and The Art of Criminal Profiling

Behavioral analysis is the study of human behavior applying human characteristics to psychological traits mainly focusing on why this person did this crime and what made him or her do it. I took interest in profiling because of two tv shows and a movie called Silence of Lambs, Criminal Minds and Mindhunter which all focus on criminal profiling and understanding human behavior. I am fascinated with criminal profiling because of what it teaches you about crime and how much it changes over years. Have you ever wondered when you look on the news why you see terrorist attacking the us for no reason, or why a person is murdered over a dollar this is the kind of thing that makes profilers ask questions on why did the terrorist target that specific spot, or why did the criminal result to killing this man over a dollar which doesn't make sense at all. This is the kinda thing that will have you wondering why people do what they do. I feel that this is why behavioral analysis was developed to help solve crimes that has no meaning.

Thanks to legendary FBI profilers and highest ranked special agents during the 1980s Robert Ressler and John E.Douglas there was a new way to solve crime and understand the meaning behind it. Now Behavioral analysis is on a whole new scale at first it was only designed to understand assaults and murders, but now it is applied to every crime you can think of such as rape, kidnapping, vandalism, bank robberies, child molestation and everybody's favorite serial killers. Criminal minds focus on serial killers they mainly apply psychological analysis to behavior and that leads them to there offender every time but it also shows us the pain and suffering of being a profiler and examples are less sleep, nightmares, horrible images of every crimes that play over and over in your head, headaches and the worst of them all is the thoughts of what if this was my family, and the taunting of the question have I wasted my life chasing monsters when I could have been living life. 

Being a profiler takes a toll on a lot of things it causes lots of divorces in the FBI. You begin to travel a lot you don't get much time off and it causes you a lot of stress also sometimes it leads you to go crazy because you realize the pain and heartbreak of all these cases and to me it's suffering on both ends because the families of the victim suffers and your suffering as well because now it's up to you to find out who did this and you relive it with them for the rest of your life. Plus the thing that haunts every profiler dealing with criminal or behavioral analysis is that one case that they think about everyday and still have nightmares about. Yes Behavioral or Criminal profiling has its good and bad moments relieving the case forever and never forgetting it, but the thought of all the lives you save will bring a bright smile to your face every day. You always think maybe if I would have done something else i wouldn't have had to deal with so much stress and pain, but I wouldn't have accomplished so much in my life. Behavioral analysis is a job that takes 180% it takes a while to become an expert but you have to be patient and when it's time for you to retire and give it all up someone else will come in and take on the roll. Here are some facts about criminal profiling.

The first step is to get to know your criminal you have to start by doing your history of your criminal or in simple words a background check, but don't just go to their recent history with police. You have to go further go back to their childhood. You have to look for when their bad behavior started. And reasons why such as school suspension, fights, attitudes basically anything that you can apply to this crime. You have to look at crime scene evidence, victims bodys, witnesses, - everything that is involved in the case and then build your profile who and what kind of offender you're looking for. According to Dr Stanton Samenow London physicians George Phillips and Thomas Bond used autopsy results and crime scene evidence in the fall of 1888 to make rudimentary but informed predictions about legendary serial killer Jack the Ripper's personality.Thomas Bond states” after examining the available forensic evidence and bodys I've concluded that all five murders were committed by the same hand .His profile reads ‘’this man has no medical training or knowledge of anatomy despite the extensive cutting and mutilation of his victims and the removal of their organs also the wounds inflicted were not consistent with the training of a medical expert.’’ The statement by Bond was something law enforcement had already guessed that the man had no medical training but the additional information helped them catch Jack the Ripper. 

The next step in behavioral profiling is building a profile of your suspect. You take your statements from witnesses crime scene evidence and knowledge from your training. Your profile may say the unknown subject were looking for is a white male in his late to early forties, who has extreme knowledge of the area, he is mobile and has a problem with authority and based on the high level of violence showed at the crime scene he has a criminal record. So now you as the profiler will go back and look for inmates who were recently released, from the area and always had a problem with authority figures. Then you go to your suspect list and apply your profile to your criminal and that's were the work really starts because now you're on the hunt for your criminal. You have to be precise and go back over the profile look at the childhood again and look for a characteristic that was shown in the childhood and displayed now. After apply that to the crime if the criminal was aggressive to the teachers,principles,or their own parents then this is the person you're looking for because its not the aggressiveness he or she showed in the pass as a child it's the same kind of aggressiveness showed now and it's that one characteristic that hasn't changed and in profiling every criminal has there own characteristic or signature. After that now is the time to arrest your criminal after you catch him or her don't think that your job is done. 

Now that you have your criminal it's time to set up your interview which is your third and final step. Now is your time to get into his or her head and try to try and learn why they committed this crime. Also your criminal is conducting their own interview by getting into your mind, and it has been told that the best profilers in the world are criminals, because they understand their behavior and they can understand other criminals behavior. According to Dr Stanton E.Samenow “Whenever a criminal is participating in an interview, two evaluations are occurring. The law enforcement, corrections, or mental health professional is officially in charge and posing questions to make whatever assessment is necessary. However, the criminal is conducting his own evaluation as well. He cases out the interviewer whom he wants to win over to his point of view. He has behaved similarly throughout his entire life with people who seek to hold him accountable or who are about to impose disagreeable consequences that he is trying to mitigate or avoid altogether. He is well-practiced as he seeks to gain advantage and struggles to overcome an adversary, perhaps even hoping to convert him into an advocate. The criminal has previously maneuvered in such a manner with parents, teachers, counselors, peers, and others.”  Dr Stanton also states “Even before meeting his interviewer, a criminal may endeavor to learn as much as he can about him. The Internet can provide useful information. Talking to others who have experience with the same interviewer can help. The criminal’s objective is to arm himself so that he can pounce on any vulnerability in the interviewer as he jockeys for advantage.” basically your criminal is coming into this interview with a tactic or strategy to throw you off your game so he or she can get into your head but it's up to you to know when they are going to try and use this tactic. Every interview has to be solid you have to pay attention to what they are saying. Criminals often begin asking the interviewers questions before the interview starts and they begin their profiling session. 

The criminal will try and get into your head and they will try to understand you as to why are you here, and what kind of background do you come from. You need to try and find a route to his head ask him a question that you are sure will get in his head. Like him as a child that is where most criminals lose control and they begin to tell you everything without even knowing it now you have entered the mind and you start to get into his mind you learn everything about him or her.