CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL PROFILING

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

“The more outré and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined, and the very point which appears to complicate a case, is, when duly considered and scientifically handled, the one which is most likely to elucidate it”^[1]

This statement made by the world‘s famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his endearing ability to solve crime by describing the perpetrator from factual deductions is a skill shared by the expert investigative profiler. Evidence speaks of its own language of patterns and sequences that can reveal the offender‘s behavioural characteristics. Like Sherlock Holmes, the profiler can say ―I know who he must be‖.

It is not uncommon to watch in the news, read in the newspapers or in major documentaries about serial killers and violent criminals who murder, rape or assault victims due to certain similar features that the victims all possess or out of certain distorted motive or intentions. Most serial killers and violent criminals are psychologically impaired based on a peculiar past experience that make them seek some form of personal vendetta against persons who look or act like those that have hurt them in the past or just out of sheer perverse pleasure. These crimes are committed in peculiar manners with little or no material evidence linking the offenders to the act making it more difficult for the law enforcement to apprehend them. Forensic analysts and psychologists over the years have sought means of identifying such criminals based on their mode of operation, signature behaviour, target victims and material evidence from previous crime scenes. This is where the process of criminal profiling is applied.

Criminal profiling has been defined in many ways by various scholars based on their distinct backgrounds and as such, been called many names such as criminal personality profiling, criminological profiling, behavioural profiling, criminal investigative analysis^[2], offender profiling, psychological profiling, crime scene analysis, socio-psychological profiling and linkage analysis^[3] Despite the different names, all of these tactics share a common goal: to help investigators examine evidence from crime scenes and victim and witness reports to develop an offender description. Holmes states that the major function of profiling is to assist in the detection of offenders by extrapolating their personal attributes from information available in crimes.^[4]

Criminal profiling is the identification of specific characteristics of an individual committing a particular crime by thorough systematic observational process and an analysis of the crime scene, the victim, the forensic evidence and the known facts of the crime. It is acknowledging the skewed validity of the perpetrator‘s perspective to be able to predict him ―without allowing yourself to become lost in him and his world‖^[5]. Criminal profiling is a behavioural and investigative tool that is intended to help investigators to accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminal subjects or offenders.^[6] A basic premise of criminal profiling is that the way a person thinks (i.e., his or her patterns of thinking) directs the person‘s behaviour. Thus, when the investigative profiler analyzes a crime scene and notes certain critical factors, he or she may be able to determine the motive and type of person who committed the crime.^[7] All the information from the crime scene is a reflection of the criminal‘s behaviour and this behaviour can create a surprisingly accurate picture of the offender.^[8] This technique has been used by criminal psychologists who are experts in this field to examine criminal behaviour and to evaluate as well as possibly predict the future actions of criminals.

Described as psychological profiling, it is a method of suspect identification which seeks to identify a person's mental, emotional, and personality characteristics (as manifested in things done or left at the crime scene)^[9]

Criminal profiling is a relatively new enforcement practice. It newly emerged in the last two decades and still remains a highly controversial tool.^[10] It has become part of public consciousness even though many people are not really sure what it is and the great majority of people have no idea at all of how it is done. This ignorance is just as prevalent in professional circles as amongst the lay public.^[11] Despite the widespread use of criminal profiling in serial crime investigations, the practice continues to endure fierce criticism from researchers, who almost unanimously agree that profiling lacks scientific foundation and depends on flawed methodology. As a result the validity and utility of criminal profiling is compromised to the extent where evidence is not admissible in court, and serious miscarriages of justice are caused. Profilers are often characterized as being socially alienated individuals, deeply troubled by their own selfless insights into the minds of the unknown offenders that they are hunting. This view presented by fiction and the media not only is completely false but also vehemently misleading.¹²

The question whether criminal profiling is a science or an art has been a common topic of debate by psychologists and experts. It is frequently asserted that profiling is more art than science, and evidence for its validity is limited. Holmes reports 1981 FBI data indicating that in 192 cases of profile generation, arrests were made in 88, but in only 17% of these did the profile contribute to arrest.^[12] Canter and Heritage cite more recent FBI claims of 80% accuracy, although this has been disputed.^[13] As Canter notes, if psychological profiling is to achieve a firmer basis than astrology or spiritualism in aiding the police, ―psychologists need not only to establish the predictive validity of the process, but also why it works‖.^[14] There is also a popular myth that profilers are ‗psychic‘, have special metaphysical and supernatural powers, and are born with an intuitive gift. Although there is a quiet consensus that intuition is an asset to the profiler, the rest is basically a myth, untrue. Turvey dismisses this myth by advocating a discipline that entails the careful evaluation of physical evidence, collected and properly analyzed by a team of specialists from different areas, for the purpose of systematically reconstructing the crime scene, developing a strategy to assist in the capture^[15]. The contents of this project will however discuss the controversies, issues and doubts and also highlight the importance and expediency of criminal profiling.

The basic idea for a profile is to gather a body of data yielding common patterns so that investigators can develop a description of an unknown suspect. Offender profiling is grounded in the belief that it is possible to work out the characteristics of an offender by examining the characteristics of their offences. It helps investigators examine evidence from the crime scenes and victim and witness reports to develop an offender description. These descriptions may include the analysis of psychological variables such as personality and behaviour patterns, as well as demographic variables such as age, race or geographic location. Investigators use profiling as a means to narrow down the suspect pool, or in structuring an interrogation of a suspect once apprehended.^[16] It involves the psychology-trained experts using their knowledge on human behaviour, motivation and patterns to create a multidimensional report. Although it does not provide the specific identity of the offender, it indicates the kind of person most likely to have committed the crime by focusing on certain behavioural and personality characteristics.

It should encompass the integration of material from the crime scene (i.e., blood stain evidence), witness statements, autopsy findings, photographs, related materials such as cameras seized at the crime scene, weapons, items used for torture, and a host of suggestions derived from ―brainstorming sessions‖ with forensic experts and police detectives.

Criminal profiling is done by the employment of both tangible and intangible tools. The tangible tools involve the crime scene, the offender‘s modus operandi (mode of operation), his signature behaviour, clues he or she may have left behind in the commission of the offence as well as insight into the possibility of having more than one person involved in the crime, victimology. Five behavioural characteristics that can be gleaned from the crime scene include: the amount of planning that went into the crime, the degree of control used by the offender, the escalation of emotion at the scene, the risk level of both the offender and victim, and the appearance of the crime scene (disorganized versus organized)^[17]. The intangible tools include the profiler‘s intuition, knowledge, experience, the uncommon ability to objectively get ―into the mind‖ of the criminal and think like him or her and an analytical mind. This technique might be considered a ―paper tiger.‖ It can be powerfully aggressive in helping forensic scientists focus on an investigation, or it can be destructive in leading investigators astray. At best it is an adjunctive guide to a complete forensic and criminal investigation and a team effort.^[18] The investigator goes through the following steps or phases in the profiling process: the evaluation of the crime and the criminal act or acts itself; comprehensive evaluation of the specifics of the crime scene(s); comprehensive analysis of the victim; evaluation of preliminary police reports; evaluation of the medical examiner‘s autopsy protocol; development of a profile with critical offender characteristics, investigative suggestions predicated on the construction of the profile; and finally, the possible apprehension of the suspect.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Investigating violent crimes especially murder can be a very difficult and hopeless process when there are no experts or trained personnel, biodata databases, Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), no DNA database or equipment, and no modern technological infrastructures.

To many jurisdictions, a criminal investigation system without these mentioned above may sound like a place in an epic tale from some time long past, but it is not. This is the reality in some places such as Nigeria.

The recent upsurge in violent crimes in Nigeria has created enormous uncertainty in the security of lives and property of individual and of social stability in Nigeria. The incidents of traditional crimes such as armed robbery, arson, murder, kidnapping, rape, hired assassinations and ritual killings are examples of the most serious and violent crimes, which have been on the increase in the recent past.

In Nigeria, many crimes go unsolved because of a lack of adequate equipment and training. Very rarely do the police take fingerprints, there are no DNA laboratories, and there is an extreme paucity of forensic and ballistics experts in the country. With almost 160 million people, Nigeria is Africa‘s most populous nation and also one of its longest democracies but even Nigerians admit their criminal justice system is woeful. Many criminals have gone scot free and many innocent people have been condemned by our justice system because there was no forensic linkage to the crimes to convict and vindicate them respectively.

Experts have linked the many cases of unsolved crimes that dot Nigeria‘s criminal justice system to the absence of forensic evidence. Besides inadequate equipment, lack of regular training has also largely inhabited investigations and the solving and prevention of crime. The poor training that police officers go through lacks global competitiveness.

The practice of psychological profiling remains very much a virgin area and largely unpopular amongst law enforcement agencies in Nigeria particularly by the Nigeria Police Force in the course of their various investigations. Contrary to this, the practice has become widely used in unraveling crimes by counterpart law enforcement agencies in developed nations particularly the Federal Investigations Bureau (FBI), USA and other western nation sister agencies. This technique has to be inculcated into the practices of the Nigerian criminal justice system in criminal investigations because its numerous benefits cannot be overemphasized and our criminal justice system is in dire need of all the help it can get to improve in crime prevention and detection.

1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF CRIMINAL PROFILING

A criminal investigation of any kind should start with the assumption that every human on the planet is a suspect. That is to say, the suspect set is universal. One of the purposes of criminal profiling is to assist an investigation, at any phase, in moving from that universal set of suspect characteristics to a more discrete set of suspect characteristics. It cannot typically point to a specific person, or individuate one suspect from all others. It can, however, give insight into the general characteristics of the offender(s) responsible. This type of insight can be used to educate an investigative effort, as well as attorneys, judges, and juries in a forensic context (e.g., criminal proceedings, civil proceedings, and public hearings).

Criminal profiling is mainly used when the offender does not leave any physical trace at the crime scene. As Douglas and Olshaker have pointed out, "criminal profiling is used mostly by behavioural scientists and the police to narrow down an investigation to those who possess certain behavioural and personality features that are revealed by the way a crime was committed‖^[19]. Continuing, Douglas and Olshaker also maintained that "the primary goal is to aid local police in limiting and refining their suspect list so that they can direct their resources where they might do the most good".

"Another key use of a profile, is when necessary, to go proactive, which means letting the public become a partner in crime solving. The unknown suspect may have displayed some sort of odd behaviour to those close to him that will indicate his involvement with the crime. Getting the public, and hopefully those people to be aware of what they have seen, telling them to come forward may solve the case".^[20] Egger maintained that "the purpose of profiling is to develop a behavioural composite, combining sociological and psychological assessments of the offender. Profiling is generally based on the premise that an accurate analysis and interpretation of the crime scene and other locations related to the crime can indicate the type of person who committed the crime".²² Hence, "because certain personality types exhibit similar behavioural patterns (in other words, behaviour that becomes routine), knowledge and an understanding of the patterns can lead investigators to potential suspects".^[21] Similarly, Jackson and Bekerian maintained that "a profile is based on the premise that the proper interpretation of crime scene evidence can indicate the personality type of the individual(s) who committed the offence. It is assumed that certain personality types exhibit similar behavioural patterns and that knowledge of these patterns can assist in the investigation of the crime and the assessment of potential suspects".²⁴

Holmes and Holmes have outlined three major goals of profiling as follows.^[22]

(1) Social and Psychological Assessments of Offenders.

This involves an evaluation of the social and psychological characteristics of the offender. In fact, "a profile should contain basic and sound information concerning the social and psychological core variables of the offender's personality, including the offender's race, age, employment status and type, religion, marital status, and level of education. This psychological information will help to focus the investigation by allowing police to narrow its range, which in turn will have a direct effect upon the number of days and weeks the police could spend on the case".^[23] It may also help the police to predict possible future attacks;

(2) Psychological Evaluations of Belongings Found In the Possession of Suspected Offenders.

This involves the evaluation of items found at the suspect's home, such as souvenirs taken from the crime scenes, pictures, videos, books, magazines, items of pornography or other items that might point to the background and motives for the crimes, as well as link the suspect to the crime. Such physical evidence could be listed on a search warrant so the police take particular care to look for them. Holmes and Holmes noted the case of Jerry Brudos a sadistic serial killer in the United States who had such a fetish about his victims' high heeled shoes. He took their shoes, wore and stored them at his home.²⁷

(3) Suggestions and strategies for interviewing suspected offenders when they are apprehended.

Another primary goal of profiling is to suggest the most effective interviewing strategy to be used once the offender has been arrested. As there are different types of offenders, one interviewing/interrogation strategy may not be suitable for all the different types, especially when dealing with rapists. As Holmes and Homes have pointed out, "not all people react to questions in the same fashion. For one type of offender, one strategy may be effective, but it is a mistake to assume that all those who commit similar crimes will respond to the same interviewing strategy. For example, not all serial murderers kill for the same reasons, and not all respond to the same type of interviewing strategy. Violent personal offenders also vary in their motives as well as their responses to interrogation.^[24] A good profile can provide the police with strategies that may be effective for a particular offender.

It has been observed that criminal profiling is usually taken up late in an investigation. It tends to be normally taken up as an alternative where DNA profiling is impossible because there were no samples left at the scene of crime.^[25] There are obviously certain dangers with this approach. It is therefore suggested that in serious/major crimes, criminal profiling should be used at the onset, along with the other techniques. It should not be left till later in the investigation when we have come to realize that no physical trace has been left at the crime scene, bearing in mind the issue of 'staged crime scenes'. Important details might be lost later in the investigation and as we know, crime scenes can be tampered with, by both weather conditions and human tampering.

Brent E. Turvey divided criminal profiling into two separate but equal contexts, divided not by the method that is employed to arrive at conclusions, but rather by their divergent goals and priorities.^[26] Turvey continued that ―these goals and priorities are dictated by a necessity that is dependent upon when, in a given case, a profiler‘s skills are requested‖.³¹ The two time frames typically include the investigative phase, before a suspect has been arrested (or before a defendant is taken to court with a lawsuit), and the trial phase, while a suspect is being tried for a crime (or put on trial for damages).

Investigative Phase

The investigative phase involves behavioural evidence analysis of the patterns of unknown perpetrators of known crimes. Criminal profilers tend to be called in to extremely violent, sexual and/or predatory cases when witness testimony, confessions, and/or physical evidence have not been enough to move the investigation forward.

Primary Goals

1. Evaluating the nature and value of forensic and behavioural evidence in a particular crime or series of related crimes;

2. Reducing the viable suspect pool in a criminal investigation;

3. Prioritizing the investigation into remaining suspects;

4. Linkage of potentially related crimes by identifying crime scene indicators and behaviour patterns (i.e., modus operandi and signature);

5. Assessment of the potential for escalation of nuisance criminal behaviour to more serious or more violent crimes (i.e., harassment, stalking, voyeurism);

6. Providing investigators with investigatively relevant leads and strategies;

7. Helping keep the overall investigation on track and undistracted by offering fresh and unbiased insights;

8. Developing communication, interview, or interrogation strategies when dealing with suspects

Trial Phase

The trial phase of criminal profiling involves analysis of known crimes for which there is a suspect or a defendant (sometimes a convicted defendant). It takes place in the preparation for hearings, trials, and post-conviction proceedings. Guilt, penalty, and appeal phases of trial are all appropriate times to use profiling techniques, depending on the evidence at issue.

Primary goals

1. Evaluating the nature and value of forensic and behavioural evidence to a particular crime or series of related crimes;

2. Helping to develop insight into offender fantasy and motivations;

3. Developing insight into offender motive and intent before, during, and after the commission of a crime (i.e., levels of planning, evidence of remorse, precautionary acts, etc.);

4. Linkage of potentially related crimes by identifying crime scene indicators and behaviour patterns (i.e., modus operandi and signature).

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Criminal profiling has been used successfully by law enforcement in several areas and is a valued means by which to narrow the field of investigation. Profiling does not provide the specific identity of the offender. Rather, it indicates the kind of person most likely to have committed a crime by focusing on certain behavioural and personality characteristics. This technique has been proven to be very effective in various criminal investigations and in various criminal offences. Violent and sexual offenders lend themselves to profiling techniques. Through careful interview of the rape victim about the rapist‘s behaviour, law enforcement personnel begin to build a profile of the offender. The rationale behind this approach is that behaviour reflects personality, and by examining behaviour the investigator may be able to determine what type of person is responsible for the offence.

It is no news that the Nigerian criminal justice system faces some major setbacks especially the Nigerian police force in their investigation processes and inability in apprehending the right perpetrators of criminal acts and bringing such offenders to justice. The significance of this study is that showcases how and why the technique of criminal profiling is important and helpful to the police and law enforcement agents in Nigeria in determining criminal offenders and also in crime detection and prevention and reasons why it should not be overlooked as a resourceful tool in criminal investigations.

1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research, which is undertaken in the light of the above stated problems and questions, is a qualitative one. It adopts an analytical approach and a comparative analytical approach.

The standard legal research method of case analysis is been used. This involves extensive case analysis. Cases that involved offender profiling is been analyzed. This method provides adequate background information on the relevance of criminal profiling in the criminal justice system.

The study will also be based on both primary and secondary legal sources. These primary sources include various legislations relating to the criminal justice system in Nigeria and other jurisdictions and countries most especially the USA and the UK. Secondary sources will include reference to textbooks, journals and articles written by leading authors and scholars in the area of criminal and offender profiling. Online articles, journals, abstracts and books will also serve as a secondary information source in this study.

The limitation to this project is the inability to carryout interviews with crime scene analysts and criminal profilers due to the rarity of such experts in the country. This limitation affects the access to first hand and up to date information on the different approaches to criminal profiling.

1.6 LITERATURE REVIEW

Canter notes that 'criminal profiling' is a term coined by the FBI in the 1970's to describe their criminal investigative analysis work.^[27] He maintained that "when FBI agents first began this work they invented a new term to grace their actions: criminal profiling. By doing so they created the impression of a package, a system that was sitting waiting to be employed, rather than the mixture of craft, experience and intellectual energy that they themselves admit is at the core of their activities‖.^[28]

Canter sees criminal profiling as 'criminal shadows'. He maintained that a criminal "leaves psychological traces, tell-tale patterns of behaviour that indicate the sort of person he is. Gleaned from the crime scene and reports from witnesses, these traces are more ambiguous and subtle than those examined by the biologist or physicist. They cannot be taken into a laboratory and dissected under the microscope. They are more like shadows, which undoubtedly are connected to the criminal who cast them, but they flicker and change, and it may not always be obvious where they come from. Yet, if they can be fixed and interpreted, criminal shadows can indicate where investigators should look and what sort of person they should be looking for‖.^[29] Canter and Heritage also maintained that "a criminal leaves evidence of his personality through his actions in relation to a crime. Any person's behaviour exhibits characteristics unique to that person, as well as patterns and consistencies which are typical of the subgroup to which he or she belongs".³⁵

Ainsworth defined criminal profiling as "the process of using all the available information about a crime, a crime scene, and a victim, in order to compose a profile of the (as yet) unknown perpetrator.³⁶ For Davies, "criminal profiling (more technically known as Criminal Investigative Analysis) is the name given to a variety of techniques whereby information gathered at a crime scene, including reports of an offender's behaviour is used both to infer motivation for an offence and to produce a description of the type of person likely to be responsible.^[30]

Geberth sees a criminal personality profile as "an educated attempt to provide investigative agencies with specific information as to the type of individual who may have committed a certain crime.³⁸ Turvey, writing from a behavioural evidence analysis point of view, defines criminal profiling as "the process of inferring the personality characteristics of individuals responsible for committing criminal acts‖.³⁹ For Grubin, criminal profiling refers to "information gathered at a crime scene, including reports of an offender's behaviour, used both to infer motivation for an offence and to produce a description of the type of person likely to be responsible".⁴⁰ According to Douglas and Olshaker, "Criminal profiling is the development of an investigation by means of obtainable information regarding an offence and crime scene to compile a psychosomatic representation of the known architect of the crime‖.⁴¹

Put simply, criminal profiling is a crime investigation technique whereby information gathered from the crime scene, witnesses, victims, autopsy reports and information about an offender's behaviour is used to draw up a profile of the sort of person likely to commit such crime. It is a complementary technique and is usually taken up when no physical traces were left at the crime scene. Criminal profiling does not point to a specific offender. It is based on the probability that someone with certain characteristics is likely to have committed a certain type of crime.

Personality rests on the assumption that at least certain offenders have consistent behavioural traits. Homant and Kennedy states that this consistency is thought to persist from crime to crime and also to affect various non-criminal aspects of their personality and lifestyle, thus making them to some extent, identifiable.⁴² Mischel points out that the traditional view of personality dispositions lead to assumption that individuals are characterized by stable and broadly generalized dispositions that

38 th

Vernon J. Geberth, 1996, Practical Homicide Investigations: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques, 4 edition, 46 Boca Raton, CRC Press/ Taylor and Francis.

39

Brent Turvey, 2002, Criminal Profiling: Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis, 1, San Diego Academic Press 2^nd Edition 2002.

40

Don Grubin , 1995, Offender Profiling, Journal Of Forensic Psychology 259

41

Ibid at 18 42

Homant & Kennedy, J; 1998: Psychological Aspects of Crime Scene Profiling; Validity Research; Criminal Justice and

Behaviour, 25. 319-343

endure over long periods of time and that generate consistencies in their social behaviour across a wide range of situations.^[31]

Each perpetrator commits his crime in a certain manner, therefore each time a person commits crime he will do it in the same or at least a similar fashion. This is a prodigious step in logic, and one that has been validated by tradition and common sense, both however, less than reliable sources of knowledge. Holmes and Holmes admit that not all crimes are suitable for the profiling process. It is just one of many tools and does not replace good investigative techniques. As profiling is intended as an investigative tool, it attempts to go beyond the reconstruction, to answer questions of intent and motivation.^[32] From these admittedly subjective answers it can provide a clearer picture of the offender.

Criminal profiling is used mostly by behavioural scientists and the police to narrow down an investigation to those suspects who possess certain behavioural and personality features that are revealed by the way a crime was committed. Douglas and Olshaker are of the opinion that behaviour reflects personality. Therefore, the primary goal is to aid local police in limiting and refining their suspect list so they can direct their resources where they might do the most good.^[33]

In his book ―Criminal Psychology”, Gross illustrates the importance of determining the offender‘s character, his wishes and beliefs. He contended ―Is it not known that every deed is an outcome of the total character of the doer? Is it not considered that the deed and the character are correlative concepts, and that the character by means of which the deed is to be established cannot be inferred from the deed alone?... Each particular deed is thinkable only when a determinate character of the doer is brought in relation with it – a certain character predisposes to determinate deeds, another character makes them unthinkable and un-relatable with this or that person‖^[34]. There is no simple way to predict the future behaviour of offenders.⁴⁷

Blau and Rossmo assert that the profiling process is based on the premise that the interpretation of crime scene evidence can indicate the personality type of the individual(s) who committed the

offence.⁴⁸

1.7 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY

Chapter one focuses on the background and general introduction to the study. It looks into the aim and objec