Criminal Profiling - The Foundation of Studying Serial Killers

In today’s era the Federal Bureau of Investigation is extremely effective in areas invovling serial killers and serial rapists, because of the creation of the behavioral unit and how foundamental the creation of this unit is to modern society on it’s studies on mass murders, serial murders, serial rape. Without John. E. Douglas and Robert Ressler the foundation of studying serial killers, serial rapists and mass murderers would be nonexistent or significantly undeformed. Because of John Douglas and Robert Ressler we have criminal profiling, a deeper knowledge of criminal psychology, and more awareness on the crimes of serial killers and mass murderers.

Because of the creation of criminal profiling it helps investigators examine evidence recovered from the crime scenes to piece together a description on the offender by using victim and if there's any witness reports. Officers are able to use the many to very few evidence left behind to help them shape out physical traits of what the offender might look like, their age,race, behavior patterns as well as geographic location (Winerman). The advantages of profiling allow for law enforcement to narrow the suspect pool with the evidence left behind. Profiling allows for law enforcement to even prepare for interrogating a suspect with the evidence they have from the crime scenes. Criminal profiling has been used since Jack the Ripper, however because of John. E. Douglas and Robert Ressler they advance criminal profiling by creating “organized/disorganized dichotomy”(Winerman). Organized crimes are premeditated and are thoroughly planned causing there to be little to no evidence left behind at the crime scene. Organized criminals are very antisocial but they have the knowledge of what's right and what is wrong, these organized killers are not proven insane but show very little to no remorse when they would commit the crimes. However on the other side of the disorganized crimes would leave a lot of evidence at the scene such as fingerprints, blood stains. People who tend to commit the disorganized crimes were more than often younger, under the influence and possibly mentally ill. With the classifications of organized and disorganized dichotomy it has allowed for the behavioral unit to dive deeper into the classification aspect of the killers and the why. The behavioral unit has used profiling over the years and there are now “4 different types of parts that go into classifying the suspect, antecedent, method and manner, body disposal, and post offense behavior. “(Winerman)

The main goals of criminal psychology are to assess how likely criminals are to become a repeat offender. The other goals of criminal psychology are to try and understand why the criminal committed the crime(s) that they did and what their actions were after committing the crime(s). Criminal psychology helps local law enforcement and the FBI by giving them a psychological assessment of their suspect, allowing them to create a strategy and suggestions on how they should interview their suspect (Cherry). However on the other side is criminal philosophy. Criminal philosophy deals with the charges being given to the criminal. The charges being given to a criminal correlate with how they act and function in a society. The charges that are given to a criminal are based off of their psychological assessment they had taken prior. The assessment can help the criminal with the amount of time being served as well as the statistics of them becoming a repeat offender or not. “Within 5 years of offenders being released 45% of them are rearrested, reconviction is rate is 32% and the incarceration rate is 25%” (Keller). People who were arrested before “21 have a rearrest rate of 68% vs those of 60 and older have a rearrest rate of just 16%” (Keller). “Color does play a role in arrest percentage but unfortunately there is no true reason for being arrested” (Keller)

The behavioral unit took the biggest step in the right direction by interviewing serial killers, serial rapists and mass murders to get insight on their thinking and the reasoning behind why they would commit the crimes they committed. “The behavioral analysis unit gets inside the twisted minds of serial killers like Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer and John allen Muhammed.” (Behavioral Analysts). The behavioral unit begins to ask these questions. “Why would someone kill 10 people over the span of a year.” “What kind of a person would cut and chop someone or carve something into their victim??” (Behavioral Analysts). To the average person these types of questions and the idea of doing that to another person are sickening but for the workers of the behavioral unit it’s just another day. Back in 1985 when the BAU was in the making, John Douglass and Robert Ressler were traveling across the nation to help give information on these criminals and how to deescelate hostile situations to the local law enforcment, this helped local law enforcement when it came to never seeing child abudction, serial rape and serial murder. Rober and John would come in and look at it from a motivational standpoint and would then begin to create a profile of who the offender might be and their motives and what moves they might make next (Behavioral Analysis)

John Douglas and Robert Ressler helped make the Behavioral Analysis Unit what it is today by taking the risks of interviewing and diving deep into the minds of Serial killers, rapists and mass murders. Without John Douglas and Robert Ressler helping and working with local law enforcement all over the nation, the study of these crimes would be extremely undeformed. Today we have less threats of serial killers, rapists in society because of the work John and Robert did. Criminal pyschology took off with the help of the behavioral unit by interviewing and questioning their thinking and reasoning for why they would commit the crimes they commited.

Works Cited

1. “Behavioral Analysts.” FBI, FBI, 2 May 2011, www.fbi.gov/audio-repository/news-podcasts-inside-bau-profilers.mp3/view.
2. Cherry, Kendra. “What Criminal Psychologists Really Do.” Verywell Mind, Verywell Mind, 29 July 2019, www.verywellmind.com/criminal-psychologist-a-career-profile-2795649.
3. Keller, Bill. “Seven Things to Know About Repeat Offenders.” The Marshall Project, The Marshall Project, 10 Mar. 2016, www.themarshallproject.org/2016/03/09/seven-things-to-know-about-repeat-offenders.
4. Winerman, Lea. “Criminal Profiling .” Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2004, www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/criminal.