![]() Most notably, they developed the idea of the "organized/disorganized dichotomy": Organized crimes are premeditated and carefully planned, so little evidence is found at the scene. From 1976 to 1979, several FBI agents-most famously John Douglas and Robert Ressler-interviewed 36 serial murderers to develop theories and categories of different types of offenders. ![]() ![]() In 1974, the FBI formed its Behavioral Science Unit to investigate serial rape and homicide cases. Did they come from broken families? Did they have school behavioral problems? I listed as many factors as I could come up with, and then I added them up to see which were the most common." I listed how old were, whether they were male or female, their level of education. Schlossberg, who developed profiles of many criminals, including David Berkowitz-New York City's "Son of Sam"-describes the approach he used in the late 1960s and 70s: "What I would do," he says, "is sit down and look through cases where the criminals had been arrested. It was used as early as the 1880s, when two physicians, George Phillips and Thomas Bond, used crime scene clues to make predictions about British serial murderer Jack the Ripper's personality.Īt the same time, profiling has taken root in the United States, where, until recent decades, profilers relied mostly on their own intuition and informal studies. Informal criminal profiling has a long history. But in recent years, many psychologists-together with criminologists and law enforcement officials-have begun using psychology's statistical and research methods to bring more science into the art. "In some ways, is really still as much an art as a science," says psychologist Harvey Schlossberg, PhD, former director of psychological services for the New York Police Department. Investigators might use profiling to narrow down a field of suspects or figure out how to interrogate a suspect already in custody. The description can include psychological variables such as personality traits, psychopathologies and behavior patterns, as well as demographic variables such as age, race or geographic location. The term "profiling" has caught on among the general public, largely due to movies like "The Silence of the Lambs" and TV shows like "Profiler." But the FBI calls its form of profiling "criminal investigative analysis" one prominent forensic psychologist calls his work "investigative psychology" and another calls his "crime action profiling."ĭespite 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. Its practitioners don't always agree on methodology or even terminology. As a science, it is still a relatively new field with few set boundaries or definitions. Nowadays profiling rests, sometimes uneasily, somewhere between law enforcement and psychology. At the same time, though, much of the criminal profiling field developed within the law enforcement community-particularly the FBI. ![]() In the following decades, police in New York and elsewhere continued to consult psychologists and psychiatrists to develop profiles of particularly difficult-to-catch offenders. The profile proved dead on: It led police right to Metesky, who was arrested in January 1957 and confessed immediately. For instance, he said that because paranoia tends to peak around age 35, the bomber, 16 years after his first bomb, would now be in his 50s. While some of Brussel's predictions were simply common sense, others were based on psychological ideas. Brussel came up with a detailed description of the suspect: He would be unmarried, foreign, self-educated, in his 50s, living in Connecticut, paranoid and with a vendetta against Con Edison-the first bomb had targeted the power company's 67th street headquarters. In 1956, the frustrated investigators asked psychiatrist James Brussel, New York State's assistant commissioner of mental hygiene, to study crime scene photos and notes from the bomber. Metesky planted more than 30 small bombs around the city between 19, hitting movie theaters, phone booths and other public areas. For 16 years, "mad bomber" George Metesky eluded New York City police.
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