Criminal Profiling

Criminal Profiling

Criminal Profiling

International Theory, Research, and Practice

Edited by

Richard N. Kocsis, PhD

Forensic Psychologist

© 2007 Humana Press Inc.

999 Riverview Drive, Suite 208 Totowa, New Jersey 07512 www.humanapress.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise without written permission from the Publisher.

The content and opinions expressed in this book are the sole work of the authors and editors, who have warranted due diligence in the creation and issuance of their work. The publisher, editors, and authors are not responsible for errors or omissions or for any consequences arising from the information or opinions presented in this book and make no warranty, express or implied, with respect to its contents.

This publication is printed on acid-free paper. 

ANSI Z39.48-1984 (American Standards Institute) Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Production Editor: Amy Thau Cover design by Karen Schulz

For additional copies, pricing for bulk purchases, and/or information about other Humana titles, contact Humana at the above address or at any of the following numbers: Tel.: 973-256-1699; Fax: 973-256-8341; E-mail: [email protected], or visit our Website: www.humanapress.com

Photocopy Authorization Policy:

Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by Humana Press Inc., provided that a base fee of US $30 per page, is paid directly to the Copyright Clearance Center at 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923. For those organizations that have been granted a photocopy license from the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged and is acceptable to Humana Press Inc. The fee code for users of the Transactional Reporting Service is: [978-1-58829-684-9/07 $30].

Printed in the United States of America. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 eISBN 978-1-59745-500-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007927140

Dedication

Ezt a konyvet neked irtam Anyukam szereto fiad Rihard.

v

About the Editor

Richard N. Kocsis, PhD, is a forensic psychologist in private practice. He is the author/co-author of close to 90 scholarly publications (articles, book chapters, etc.) on the topics of criminal profiling, serial violent offenders, and their criminal investigation. He has served as an expert consultant to law enforcement, emergency, and prosecution agencies as well as private law firms.

In addition to his clinical and forensic work, he has held various academic positions in the areas of forensic psychology and criminology including Lecturer in Investigations (Policing). In 2000, he was awarded the Australian Museum’s prestigious Eureka prize for critical thinking in recognition of his scientific research in the area of criminal profiling.

vii

Preface

International Perspectives into the Practice and Research of Criminal Profiling

Today criminal profiling is no longer viewed as some secretive, mysterious technique that police from the United States of America exclu- sively indulge in when seeking to solve high-profile aberrant forms of crime.

Although popular culture representations of criminal profiling still mostly favor such depictions by emphasizing this context, the reality is that individuals from a range of occupational and disciplinary backgrounds from around the world are involved in the practice loosely referred to as “criminal profiling.”

Different nomenclature is adopted from time to time to describe essentially the same practice such as “offender profiling,” “psychological profiling,” “person- ality profiling,” and “crime analysis,” and indeed different techniques are often employed, but nonetheless as an endeavor profiling has expanded both in appli- cation and in popularity across the world.

Criminal profiling has evolved chiefly because researchers and commen- tators from around the globe have spent many years examining the perpetrators of serious crimes such as murder, rape, and arson. In particular, they have concentrated their efforts on studying the motivations and actions of violent offenders while seeking to document the experiences of both the victims and the perpetrators of crime. Many have also sought to assess the input of inves- tigative experience employed in criminal investigations and the influence of expert witnesses on jury decisions and examined at length the assessment and treatment of the protagonists of crime. Although many practitioners such as criminologists, sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and police have devoted much of their time to examining these important issues, many have done so within the context of criminal profiling and how such studies can better inform the practice of profiling.

Criminal profiling at its core is concerned with understanding crime from the perspective of both the perpetrator and the victim. Specifically, it is concerned with identifying, that is, predicting who is most likely to offend in

ix

x Preface given ways and who may be most at risk in terms of being a victim of crime.

Societies all around the world have historically been interested in understanding and explaining the phenomenon of crime and its myriad of manifestations which is why perhaps the profiling of all manner of crimes has gathered so much interest around the world and continues to occupy our collective fascination.

This book has sought to focus this interest in criminal profiling by bringing together some of the more interesting analyses undertaken in countries such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, and of course the United States of America by drawing together the work of international authors in the field of criminal profiling. Put simply, the aim of this book is to highlight differing perspectives and challenges in profiling by discussing work that has been undertaken to date and identifying the research that remains to be done if criminal profiling is to be developed into a robust, scientific endeavor. This book is not confined to examining simply the various applications of profiling and discussing the various techniques it employs but endeavors to explore the legal and policy dimensions concerning its admissibility in various criminal jurisdictions and the theoretical assumptions underpinning its practice. The broader intent of this book is to encourage continued interest in criminal profiling with the view to promoting its further development to the point where it can be used in a reliable, responsible manner. Ultimately, it is hoped that criminal profiling will assist in improving our comprehension of crime in its many and varied forms and help societies the world over to prevent and combat crime in the future.

Richard N. Kocsis, PhD

Contents

Preface . . . . ix Notes on Contributors . . . . xv

Part I Profiling Crimes of Violence

C HAPTER 1

Homicidal Syndromes: A Clinical Psychiatric Perspective

George B. Palermo . . . . 3 C HAPTER 2

Offender Profiles and Crime Scene Patterns in Belgian Sexual Murders Fanny Gerard, Christian Mormont, and Richard N. Kocsis . . . . 27 C HAPTER 3

Profiling Sexual Fantasy: Fantasy in Sexual Offending and the Implications for Criminal Profiling

Dion Gee and Aleksandra Belofastov . . . . 49 C HAPTER 4

Murder by Manual and Ligature Strangulation: Profiling Crime Scene Behaviors and Offender Characteristics

Helinä Häkkänen . . . . 73 C HAPTER 5

Criminal Propensity and Criminal Opportunity: An Investigation of Crime Scene Behaviors of Sexual Aggressors of Women

Eric Beauregard, Patrick Lussier, and Jean Proulx . . . . 89

xi

xii Contents Part II New Techniques and Applications

C HAPTER 6

Case Linkage: Identifying Crimes Committed by the Same Offender

Jessica Woodhams, Ray Bull, and Clive R. Hollin . . . 117 C HAPTER 7

Predicting Offender Profiles From Offense and Victim Characteristics

David P. Farrington and Sandra Lambert . . . 135 C HAPTER 8

Criminal Profiling in a Terrorism Context

Geoff Dean . . . 169 C HAPTER 9

Geographic Profiling of Terrorist Attacks

Craig Bennell and Shevaun Corey . . . 189

Part III Legal and Policy Considerations for Criminal Profiling

C HAPTER 10

Criminal Profiling as Expert Evidence?: An International Case Law Perspective

Caroline B. Meyer . . . 207 C HAPTER 11

Criminal Profiling: Impact on Mock Juror Decision Making and Implications for Admissibility

Anne Marie R. Paclebar, Bryan Myers, and Jocelyn Brineman . . . . 249 C HAPTER 12

The Phenomenon of Serial Murder and the Judicial Admission of Criminal Profiling in Italy

Angelo Zappalà and Dario Bosco . . . 263

Contents xiii C HAPTER 13

Criminal Profiling and Public Policy

Jeffrey B. Bumgarner . . . 273

C HAPTER 14

The Observations of the French Judiciary: A Critique of the French Ministry of Justice Policy Report into Criminal Analysis

Laurent Montet . . . 289

C HAPTER 15

The Image of Profiling: Media Treatment and General Impressions

James S. Herndon . . . 303

Part IV Critiques and Conceptual Dimensions to Criminal Profiling

C HAPTER 16

Contemporary Problems in Criminal Profiling

Richard N. Kocsis and George B. Palermo . . . 327

C HAPTER 17

Fine-Tuning Geographical Profiling

Jasper J. van der Kemp and Peter J. van Koppen . . . 347

C HAPTER 18

Skills and Accuracy in Criminal Profiling

Richard N. Kocsis . . . 365

C HAPTER 19

Investigative Experience and Profile Accuracy:

A Replication Study

David Gogan . . . 383

xiv Contents C HAPTER 20

Schools of Thought Related to Criminal Profiling

Richard N. Kocsis . . . 393

Index . . . 405

Notes on Contributors

Eric Beauregard PhD is an assistant professor in the Department of Crimi- nology at the University of South Florida, USA. He has been involved in the assessment of sex offenders for 8 years while working as a clinical criminologist for the Correctional Service of Canada. His research and clinical work center on sex offenders, sexual homicide, psychological and geographic profiling, and the hunting process of sex offenders.

Aleksandra Belofastov has a Doctor of Psychology degree in Clinical Psychology (with a specialization in Forensic Psychology) from Monash University in Victoria. She has been working in a medium/low-secure forensic mental health hospital in the United Kingdom for over 3 years. Her clinical work involves the assessment and treatment of individuals detained under the Mental Health Act (1983); many of whom have committed sexual offenses.

Clinical and research interests include psychological understandings of symptoms of severe mental illness and their potential relationships to criminal behavior, rehabilitation utilizing the Good-Lives framework, and victim-related issues.

Craig Bennell PhD is an assistant professor of psychology at Carleton University, where he directs the Police Research Laboratory. His research examines the validity of psychologically based investigative techniques such as geographic and criminal profiling, police decision making in critical incidents (and the development of decision aids), and the application of cognitive load theory to police training.

Dario Bosco MSc received his legal qualifications from University “Federico II,” Naples, Faculty of Law. Additionally, he possesses a Masters degree in Criminology and Forensic Science from the Università di Roma Sapienza, Faculty of Medicine. He is a registered criminal lawyer with the Naples bar at law. He is also a crime analyst. He has undertaken scholarship in the production of research and publications related to the topics of criminal profiling, criminal law, and forensic science.

Jocelyn Brineman received her BA in Psychology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and is presently completing her PhD in Clinical- Health Psychology at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research

xv

xvi Notes on Contributors interests are in the area of forensic psychology. She has researched such topics as jury decision making and false memories of early childhood events and has an article in press in the Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice.

Ray Bull PhD is a professor of forensic psychology at the University of Leicester. His major research topic is investigative interviewing. In 1991, he was commissioned by the Home Office (together with a Law Professor) to write the first working draft of the Memorandum of Good Practice on Video Recorded document Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings: Guidance for Vulnerable or Intimidated Witnesses, Including Children (ABE). In 2002–2003, he led the small team commissioned by government to produce an extensive training pack relating to ABE In 2004, he was commissioned by the Scottish Executive to draft guidance on the taking of evidence on commission. In 2005, he received a Commendation from the London Metropolitan Police for innovation and professionalism whilst assisting a complex rape investigation.

He has authored and co-authored many articles in quality research journals and has co-authored and co-edited many books including Investigative Interviewing:

Psychology and Practice (1999—a second edition is now being written). In recognition of the quality and extent of his research publications, he was, in 1995, awarded a higher doctorate (Doctor of Science). Interviews With Child Witnesses for Criminal Proceedings. He was part of the small team commis- sioned by the Home Office in 2000 to write the 2002 government.

Jeffrey B. Bumgarner earned a BA in Political Science from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), an MA in Public Administration from Northern Illinois University, and a PhD in Training and Organization Development from the University of Minnesota. He is an associate professor of criminal justice at Texas Christian University in FT. Worth, TX. He has several years of experience in local and federal law enforcement as a patrol officer, criminal investigator, and trainer. He has authored several works on police practice and professionalism.

Shevaun Corey, BSc (Hon), is a Masters student in the Department of Psychology at Carleton University. Her research examines the validity of inves- tigative techniques such as geographic and criminal profiling, the application of cognitive load theory to police training, and the development of personnel selection tools for specialized police units (e.g., emergency response teams).

Geoff Dean PhD is a senior lecturer in the School of Justice Studies

in the Faculty of Law at the Queensland University of Technology in

Brisbane, Australia. He specializes in investigative psychology and policing,

criminal/offender profiling, terrorism, and international crime.

Notes on Contributors xvii David P. Farrington, OBE, is a professor of psychological criminology at the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University, United Kingdom. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, of the Academy of Medical Sciences, of the British Psychological Society, and of the American Society of Criminology.

He has been President of the British Society of Criminology, President of the American Society of Criminology, President of the European Association of Psychology and Law, President of the Academy of Experimental Criminology, Chair of the Division of Forensic Psychology of the British Psychological Society, and Vice-Chair of the US National Academy of Sciences Panel on Violence. He has received the Sellin-Glueck and Sutherland awards of the American Society of Criminology, the Joan McCord award of the Academy of Experimental Criminology, and the Beccaria Gold Medal of the Criminology Society of German-Speaking Countries. He received his PhD in Psychology from Cambridge University and has published 46 books and monographs and over 380 articles on criminological and psychological topics.

Dion Gee has a Masters of Science degree from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and a Doctor of Psychology degree in Forensic Psychology from the University of Melbourne, Victoria. For the past 3 years, he has worked in a medium/low-secure forensic mental health hospital in the United Kingdom.

His clinical work involves the assessment and treatment of individuals detained under the Mental Health Act (1983); the majority of whom have committed violent and/or sexual offenses. Clinical and research interests include psychological profiling, risk assessment/management, assessment of and inter- vention for sexual offenders, and offender rehabilitation within the Good-Lives framework.

Fanny Gerard is a Masters graduate in psychology (with high distinction) from the University of Liege in Belgium. Her research interests include the study of sexual and sex-related homicides as well as the development of psycho- logical techniques that may assist in the criminal investigation of these violent crimes.

David Gogan obtained his BA in Psychology from the University College Dublin and his MA in Forensic Psychology from the University College Cork.

He is currently undertaking a PhD at the University College Dublin, studying risk assessment in unconvicted perpetrators of sexual abuse as part of a cross- border collaboration between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Helinä Häkkänen, PhD, is a forensic psychologist and Academy Research

Fellow at the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation. She is the group leader

of the Forensic Psychology Research Group at the Department of Psychology,

xviii Notes on Contributors University of Helsinki, where she also holds an adjunct professorship. She has published several scientific and general articles dealing with offender profiling and violent crime issues. She has assisted the police in several arson, rape, and homicide investigations and has lectured on offender profiling within the university and the police administration in different countries. Her current research interests include risk assessment, critical incident decision making, personality and psychopathic features of violent offenders, violent re-offending, and investigative interviewing.

James S. Herndon has a PhD in industrial/organizational psychology from Old Dominion University and EdD in counseling psychology from the University of Sarasota. He has been a police psychologist for 20 years. He served as the Staff Psychologist for the Orange County (FL) Sheriff’s Office from 1992 to 2002.

Prior to that, he was the Executive Director of Police Psychological Services of Hampton Roads, Virginia. He is a Past President of the Council of Police Psychological Services (COPPS) and a Past President of the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology (SPCP). He holds a diplomate in police psychology from SPCP and is the Chair of the Diplomate Committee. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology. Additionally, he holds diplomate status from the American College of Forensic Examiners.

He currently consults with law enforcement agencies on organizational and operational issues and serves as an adjunct professor at four colleges and universities in Florida.

Clive R. Hollin, PhD, alongside his various academic appointments at the universities of East London, Birmingham, and Leicester has worked as a psychologist in both the Prison Service and the Youth Treatment Service and as a clinical scientist with Rampton Hospital Authority. In 1998, he was the recipient of the Senior Award for distinguished contribution to the field of legal, criminological, and forensic psychology presented by the Division of Criminological and Legal Psychology of The British Psychological Society. He is currently Head of the School of Psychology at The University of Leicester, where he holds a personal chair as Professor of Criminological Psychology.

He has published over 200 academic papers and 17 books, including the text Psychology and Crime: An Introduction to Criminological Psychology, and he edits the academic journal Psychology, Crime, & Law.

Sandra Lambert received her MPhil in Criminology from Cambridge

University and worked for the Police Foundation and the Cambridge University

Institute of Criminology as a researcher for several years. She has also worked

as a research officer at the Home Office Police Research Group and as a

Notes on Contributors xix criminal intelligence analyst for the Metropolitan Police. She is currently the Head of Intelligence Analysis at Hampshire Constabulary.

Patrick Lussier, PhD, is an assistant professor in the School of Crimi- nology at Simon Fraser University, Canada. He has been involved in research and clinical activities at the Philippe Pinel Institute of Montreal, a maximum security psychiatric institution. His research interests include the developmental pathways of antisocial behavior and interpersonal violence, risk assessment of sexual violence, and quantitative research methods.

Caroline B. Meyer finished Basel University Law School in Switzerland in June 2001 (M. Law summa cum laude), after being editor of the University’s Law Review for two years. From 2001 to 2004, she was employed as a scientific research assistant at Basel University and as a tutor for students in private and criminal law; published papers and book chapters. In 2003, she began her PhD project on comparative law approach regarding personality and publicity rights in North America, Germany and Switzerland. The same year, she was elected by the government of Basel as chairwoman of the Dispute Resolution Tribunal on Landlord and Tenant Law. In 2005 and 2006, she clerked at a well-known law firm (where she is presently working again) and at the Criminal and the Civil Court in Basel in preparation for the Swiss bar exam. Her thesis was completed and submitted in March 2007. More information is available at www.criminalprofiling.ch.

Laurent Montet, MSc, is a certified expert in the field of criminal profiling and criminology as applied to the investigation of crime and operates as a judiciary and/or private expert investigator within the French criminal justice system. He is a co-ordinator of several criminology courses in various French Universities and Police Academies and is the author of six French books concerning the topics of criminal profiling; four of which were published by the Presses Universitaires de France. He is the Director of the Institute of High Studies in Criminology (IHECRIM) (http://www.ihecrim.fr). In 2002, he was the co-organizer of the first scholarly international conference about criminal profiling in France and founder of the first school of criminal analysis and profiling in Paris.

Christian Mormont, PhD, is a psychologist from the University of Liège,

Belgium, where he teaches clinical psychology especially applied to sexual and

forensic fields. He and his collaborators are involved in the treatment of sexual

offenders. He is also Vice-President of the International Academy of Law and

Mental Health.

xx Notes on Contributors Bryan Myers received his PhD in Experimental Psychology in 1998 from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He is an associate professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. His research interests are in law and psychology and has published research on jury decision making in journals such as Law and Human Behavior, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, and Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. Since 1998, he has served as an associate editor of the Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice.

Anne Marie R. Paclebar received her PsyD in Forensic Psychology in 2004 from the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University, Fresno, CA. She is a staff psychologist at Napa State Hospital, Napa, CA. Although her interests lie mainly within the clinical aspects of her work, her research interests include criminal profiling and serial sex crimes.

She has also published in the areas of serial sex crimes and paraphilias.

George B. Palermo graduated from the University of Bologna Medical School, Bologna, Italy, and was trained in general medicine and psychiatry in the United States. In 2004, he received a Master of Science Degree in Crimi- nology from the University of Rome, La Sapienza. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Psychiatry and a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Examiners and of Forensic Medicine. He is presently Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology and the Medical College of Wisconsin, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Nevada Medical School and Adjunct Professor of Criminology and Law Studies at Marquette University in Milwaukee. He is a member of various national and international psychiatric and criminological organizations, and he has published numerous articles and books on forensic psychiatry and criminology. He is the director of the Center for Forensic Psychiatry and Risk Assessment in Milwaukee and in Henderson, Nevada.

Jean Proulx, PhD, is a professor and director of the School of Criminology at the University of Montreal, Canada. From 1991 to 2005, he published more than 60 papers or book chapters in the field of sexual aggression. His research interests include the following: phallometric assessment, offending process in child molesters, rapists, and sexual murderers, predictors of recidivism, treatment compliance, and criminal career parameters in sexual aggressors. In addition, since 1987, he has worked as a clinical psychologist at the Philippe Pinel Institute of Montreal.

Jasper J. van der Kemp is a psychologist and is preparing a PhD dissertation

on geographical profiling. He has been working at the Netherlands Institute for

the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) in Leiden, the Netherlands,

Notes on Contributors xxi for some years and recently moved to the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology of the Free University Amsterdam.

Peter J. van Koppen , PhD, is senior researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) at Leiden, The Netherlands, Professor of Law and Psychology at the Department of Law of Maastricht University, and Professor of Law and Psychology at the Department of Law of the Free University Amsterdam. Formerly he has been Professor of Law and Psychology at the Department of Law of Antwerp University, Belgium. He is a psychologist. He studied law in Groningen, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam. He now serves as President of the European Association for Psychology and Law.

His research encompasses the broad area of social science research in law.

Jessica Woodhams, MSc, is a lecturer in Forensic Psychology at the University of Leicester. Prior to commencing her post at Leicester in 2002, she worked as a crime analyst for the London Metropolitan Police, specializing in the analysis of stranger sexual crime. Her major research topics reflect her previous employment. She has conducted and continues to conduct applied research into investigative techniques for sexual and non-sexual crimes, the behaviors of offenders and victims during adult and juvenile sexual offenses, and the identi- fication of false allegations. She has advised police forces on the development of databases for linking crimes and local Youth Offending Teams working with juvenile sexual offenders. She has written many research papers and book chapters on her research topics and has presented her findings at both national and international conferences.

Angelo Zappalà, MSc, is a forensic psychologist and crime analyst. He graduated in clinical psychology from the University degli Studi di Torino in 1999. In 2002, he received his specialization (3 years) at the University of Milan in clinical criminology. In 2003, he received his specialization (4 years) at the Clinical Center (Centro Clinico Crocetta Torino) in cognitive psychotherapy.

He now teaches Italian investigative psychology and criminology in many

Italian universities such as the Università di Roma Sapienza. He is an honorary

Judge in the Surveillance Tribunal of Turin and works as a clinical psychologist

and expert witness.