The criminal profiling technique (criminological profile) was created by the FBI and its Behavioral Sciences Unit as a tool to assist in investigations. Basically it consists of a technique to describe the behavior and probable characteristics (physical, psychological, geographical, social…) of the unknown perpetrator of a murder or a series of murders. Subsequently, due to its lack of standard methodology, different related concepts have been generated that are used interchangeably as Criminal investigative Analysis, offender profiling, behavioral evidence analysis, criminal profile.
To carry out criminal profiling, the profiler must analyze various elements of the crime, including the analysis of the crime scene. This work aims to look at this analysis, showing what the phases would be, the questions that must be asked and the information that can be extracted for profiling. This PiscologíaOnline article shows crime scene in criminal profiling. Specifically, the typology of crime scenes, police and forensic work and their analysis for profiling are detailed. We also show a classification of crime scenes widely used by the FBI
Typology of crime scenes
The crime scene is, as its name suggests, the place that the murderer has chosen to kill his victim. The scenes can be several if the murderer has used several locations from the time he catches his victim until he leaves her. He can trap her in one place, torture her in a second, kill her in a third and move her to a room to abandon her there (Jiménez, 2006). There are several crime scene typologies depending on the criteria we use to classify them.
First of all, following Turvey (2008)we can establish a crime scene location typologytaking into account the environment in which it is located, thus we would have:
- Indoor scene: Those that occur inside a structure such as houses, apartments, buildings, warehouses…
- Vehicle scenes: Those that occur inside transport vehicles such as cars, trucks, boats, trains…
- Outdoor scenes: Those that occur in open fields in parks, forests, deserts…
- Underwater scenes: Those that occur in the aquatic environment such as swamps, rivers, wells, sea…
In the investigation, a very specific crime scene is essential, which is the scene where the body is found. This is a scene that can provide very valuable data for the investigation both at the level of forensic evidence and for profiling the criminal himself. Turvey advises visiting this scene to establish spatial relationships within the scene itself as well as with the rest of the crime scenes that may exist. Later we will see what kind of questions the profiler should ask about this and other scenes. Add regarding this scene, it is necessary to determine if the corpse was abandoned in that scene and therefore attacked in another or if, on the contrary, the scene where the corpse is found is also the primary scene.
Considering the contact that occurs between the aggressor and the victim, Turvey (2008) distinguishes three types of scenes:
- Primary scene: It is where there is greater contact between the aggressor and the victim, where the most time is invested and where the greatest number of attacks are carried out on the victim. Due to these characteristics, it is an important scene at the level of forensic evidence and criminal profiling. It is possible, as we have commented above, that it is also the scene where the body is found.
- Secondary scene: It is a scene where interaction is established between aggressor and victim but in a smaller amount compared to the primary one. If it is the scene where the corpse is abandoned, it is both a secondary scene and a scene of abandonment of the body. Within the same crime there may be several secondary scenes.
- Intermediate scene: It is an intermediate scene between the primary scene and the scene of abandonment of the body. It is a type of secondary scene that generally serves to move the corpse from the primary scene to the scene where the body will be left. It is important to analyze the transfer that can occur from the primary scene to this scene and between it and the scene of abandonment of the body.
As mentioned above, it is very convenient for the profiler to physically visit these scenarios. Below we point out the questions that must be raised to carry out criminal profiling in relation to the crime scene.
Police technical inspection at the crime scene
The study of the crime scene, with everything that it encompasses, is what is normally known as a technical police inspection. Also ocular inspection or judicial recognition, when it is carried out by the Judicial Authority itself. The work carried out at the crime scene is of utmost importance and will impact the rest of the criminal investigation process.
When the police arrive at the scene of the crime, the first thing they do is a general observation of the situation, recording this observation through photographs or videos of all parts of the scene. From here on, all the time the researcher needs should be used to pay attention to everything that is considered relevant. An important aspect in the police technical inspection is time; the examination of the crime scene must be done as early as possible (Verdú et al. 2006).
It is important to cordon off the area and establish the space of the crime scene, allowing only personnel who have to do something in it to enter that area. Obviously the priority is to safeguard the safety of possible living victims and of the agents themselves. For this reason, it is essential not only to secure the area, but also to establish the actual death of the victim, otherwise a medical team must arrive at the scene. In this situation, it is essential that health workers report all the changes they may have made at the crime scene to be taken into account, changes in the victim’s position, removal of object, footprints, contact with areas… It is basic preserve the scene from possible disturbances and contamination.
At this time, identification work will also be carried out on the victim, possible witnesses and any person involved in the incident, obviously also the possible aggressor.
This phase of identification, security and protection of the scene continues until the arrival of the officers in charge of the investigation. Officers in charge of the scene must document all activities and observations carried out at the scene: entrances and exits, positions, objects, weather and lighting conditions, witness statements, evaluation of possible requests for search warrants, searches, limits from the scene…
The officers in charge of the scene must also assess what forensic police resources they will need to collect evidence at the scene.
Work at a crime scene must be slow, extensive and scrupulous (Verdú et al. 2006).
The team in charge of the technical police inspection must establish the characteristics of the crime, adjusting it as much as possible to the criminal type in question a priori, they must provide initial information on the possible avenues of investigation that must be established to avoid possible destruction of evidence or escape of the culprit/s.
The scientific police delimits its field of work for collecting evidence. Depending on whether they are closed or open scenes, they are usually used different techniques:
closed scenes
- Point-to-point method: the investigator goes from one target area that may contain a clue to another in no particular order.
- Zone method: the scene is divided into zones like grids.
Open scenes
- Spiral method: from an initial and central point in the scene, you advance in a spiral outward.
- Grid method: researchers divide the scene into strips or grids and approach them at the same time. It is also possible to grid the scene as if it were an archaeological site. Doing it in a circular shape is also appropriate for large areas and with that geometry. This type of method is carried out when you have to work on a large surface.
As a general rule, technicians should collect evidence that may be more perishable first, using a method of processing and collecting evidence from least intrusive to most intrusive.
The manipulation of physical evidence It must be done correctly and in the best possible conditions so that valid and reliable results can be obtained from said evidence.
As previously mentioned, the security of the scene must focus, among other things, on guaranteeing the non-contamination of the evidence. To achieve this, professional, slow and especially meticulous work is necessary on the part of the officers in charge, the scientific police. and all those people who may be at the scene at any time (court staff, forensics, etc.).
Once the evidence has been collected using the appropriate procedure, it must be packaged for subsequent shipment to the laboratory. Once again, the packaging phase must also be guaranteed by good practice since it can cause a well-collected important clue to become unusable when it arrives at the laboratory because it arrives poorly packaged.
In this packaging phase, the evidence must be correctly documented through labeling and reports. From here, it is necessary to establish a chain of custody for security, control and transport of evidence.
Forensic clues at the crime scene
From the crime scene/s, the scientific police will collect a series of clues that will be fundamental for the development of the investigation. For the purposes of a criminal investigationan indication or vestige will be considered any object, instrument, remains, footprint, mark, signal… that is used and/or produced in the commission of an act, capable of being collected and from whose analysis they will be obtained. data on the existence of the criminal act, on the identity of the perpetrator of the acts, on the modus operandietc.
Signs can be classified basically in: biological, traces and non-biological. Below we are going to carry out a brief review of the signs that can provide the most information in carrying out criminal profiling, as well as what information can be obtained from them.
Biological
- Blood: In addition to identification issues, traces of blood at the crime scene can provide valuable information regarding how and with what instrument the aggressor injured the victim, how the events occurred, movements, modus operandi of the criminal, sadistic behavior, revenge… It is important to carry out a study of the blood stains and the information they can provide. Blood stains can be classified by their production mechanism:
- Projection: those that are generally produced by action…