It's Just The Beginning...

To me, a sociopath’s career begins when his ability to feel empathy is destroyed. It has been determined that serial killers, for example, have typically sustained prolonged emotional abuse during their formative years (before age 12). It is reasonable to hypothesize that a person who is subjected to physical and emotional mistreatment, such as beatings, rejection from a parent, and abandonment, will subconsciously shut down the parts of the brain (the limbic system) that allow us to feel emotions; or, perhaps this area of the brain is altered. This enables the “victim” to block out the negative feelings that result from abuse, but at the same time, positive emotions, such as love, and empathy are destroyed as well.

Empathy acts as our moral compass, or conscience if you will. Without this powerful emotion, we are unchecked and fall prey to the most basic of primitive human instincts. Not all sociopaths kill. All sociopaths, do however, act without thought or understanding of how their actions will impact others.

It makes perfect sense that individuals who grow up in abusive environments learn to hurt others. This is what they know about human interaction. Albert DeSalvo, a.k.a. The Boston Strangler,for instance, was sold as a slave by his alcoholic father. "Childhood abuse may not be the sole excuse for serial killers, but it is an undeniable factor in many of their backgrounds."

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/tick/abuse_3.html

I am certainly not excusing the actions of violent offenders. My point is simply that we must understand where these violent criminals come from, how they see the world and others, and how they were molded into the monsters that nightmares are made of. If we can isolate the common variables between these offenders, finding what makes them different from the child who was not abused, or even more so, from the child that was, perhaps we can discover the “trigger(s)” that causes one to take the lives of others.

Profiling: Psychic Visions or Scientific Soudness?

When it comes to offender profiling, the argument often boils down to proponents claiming it is a science, while critics claim it is simple subjectivity. The truth is that profiling does indeed rely on a certain amount of subjective reasoning. In the same token, research on past offenders, as well as the psychological research on human behavior that has occurred for far more than a century, is also relied upon heavily in devising a profile. Science generally likes everything to be neat and tidy. However, when one is dealing with the human element, not as a whole, but on an individual basis, neat and tidy are not luxuries one can depend upon.

In addition to this, profiling is not meant to single handedly solve every crime. It’s one of many investigative tools that can aid law enforcement. Like many aspects of law enforcement, this investigative tactic has received an idealized reputation due to Hollywood, and movies such as Silence of the Lambs and Mindhunters, which make superheroes out of everyday people, granting them abnormal powers akin to x-ray vision and movement equal to a speeding bullet. In reality, we study cases of past offenders, delving into every orifice we can find, and from the results of this detective work, find similarities and patterns that can be extrapolated to other offenses and offenders. Every individual is unique in background, experiences, beliefs, and cognitions. These are unpredictable variables that make it nearly impossible to fit any offender strictly within the parameters of one category; however, as humans, we are alike enough that the factors that influence our motives often result in similar behavioural patterns.

While many critics of offender profiling claim that this practice is merely a combination of common sense and the guess and check method, the fact of the matter is, in the words of former F.B.I. profiler John Douglas, “…it all comes from interviewing a lot of subjects and getting a sense of what they’re all about.”

The argument over the practicality of profiling is an important one. It is pertinent to consider though, that our traditional methods of law enforcement have been based on a reactive mentality. Today, we focus more on being proactive, meaning we seek to stop crime before it happens. In order to do this we must be open to experimenting with progressive and innovative techniques. Much of the resistance facing profiling has stemmed from the old school veterans who entered law enforcement at a time when maintaining law and order meant responding to calls once that radio crackled to life. Today, we realize that simply responding to calls is like putting a band aid on a broken bone. We are doing nothing to prevent crime and keep society safe if we do not seek new methods to cut crime off at the pass.

Profiling works towards two goals. The first, is to apprehend suspects as quickly as possible to prevent future victims; the second, is to develop an understanding of why criminals do the things they do, how they become involved with the criminal element, and whether there are physical and mental characteristics that exist among specific types of offenders that are absent from the generally law abiding element of society. If the latter can be uncovered, we may find the elusive key to unlocking the formidable lock on the criminal mind, and thus have the capability of reaching these individuals before the innocent are forced to suffer.

Profiling is still a young practice that needs to develop more fully. Good profilers do not claim to have all of the answers, are not reading the stars, and warn that a profile is based on statistical and empirical data, but will not match the offender on every point. As most psychologists will tell you, when one works with people on a daily basis, studying behavior and thought processes, one develops a deeper understanding of human nature and the factors that play into the development of each individual. Profilers are trained to see what most lay persons would find no significance in, and are capable of reading between the lines of the physical evidence. Intuition, knowledge, experience, training, common sense, and investigative abilities all equip profilers with the tools that are necessary to mold from a lump of formless clay, a Michelangelo masterpiece that shortens, or in the best of cases, eliminates the lead that the offender has managed to maintain over law enforcement.

What is Criminal Profiling?

The focus of this blog is on criminal profiling. Profiling deals with behavioral sciences, combining mainly the two disciplines of psychology and criminology. The goal is to unmask the predators who glean pleasure from the fear and torture of their fellow man. It is through profiling that the criminal analyst enlists his instinct, intellect, and experience with the human race and criminal element to gain access to the perpetrator’s subconscious and eventually to his identity.

Investigators trained in profiling analyze a crime scene attempting to extrapolate hidden clues from the latent evidence. Examples include the offender’s personality, age, sex, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and mental state. In developing this picture of the unsub (unknown subject), one must consider weapons used, details of the victim (victimology), where and at what time the crime occurred, organized vs. disorganized crime scene, brutality of the crime, etc. Former F.B.I. profiler, John Douglas, uses the formula: “How plus Why equals Who,” stating that if you answer the hows and the whys, you can typically determine the “Who.”

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/profiling/history_method/6.html

Those who feel strongly about the effectiveness of criminal profiling have not had an easy time introducing the technique into the world of law enforcement, or even into the field of psychology. While it is still a young invention, criminal profiling can be traced back to England and the brutal slayings of Jack the Ripper in the late 1800s.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/profiling/history_method/index.html

After the The Ripper’s fifth victim fell prey to his blackened heart and lethal hands, a frustrated police force turned to the services of Dr. Thomas Bond, requesting a detailed analysis of the wounds inflicted on each victim. Bond, provided much more than a routine report, however, when he speculated as to the qualities of the man responsible for these slayings based on the physical elements of the crimes. Such qualities included that this man operated alone; was physically very strong and daring; but, was quiet and inoffensive in appearance; middle-aged, a loner without a real occupation, eccentric, and mentally unstable.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/profiling/history_method/index.html

Although we have never determined the identity of Jack the Ripper, the portrait of a man devised from crime scene patterns marked the entry of criminal profiling into the world, and opened a portal to the elusive and enigmatic workings of the human mind.

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”
~ Henry David Thoreau