Profiling Violent Crimes

An Investigative Tool

Ronald M. Holmes, Stephen T. Holmes

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781452276816
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

"Excellent book, I have used this for my Criminal Behavior course for a number of years. Very authoritative."
—Harry Cramer, Quincy University The Fourth Edition of this best-selling text provides students with the most up-to-date information on the increasingly popular field of psychological profiling. Well-known authors Ronald M. Holmes and Stephen T. Holmes build upon their continued research and involvement in field investigation as a source of relevant and often high-profile case studies to illustrate theory and application of the methods discussed. The text is particularly readable and engaging, making frequent use of illustrative tables and figures and presenting occasional photos. New to the Fourth Edition

• Offers a new chapter on Lizzie Borden (Chapter 14), analyzing this historic murder case with fresh insight and a unique analysis while retaining the chapter on Jack the Ripper, a classic unresolved serial murderer
• Covers more recent events such as the killings at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech
• Provides a new section on Santeria and the occult to understand the dogma and icons of these teachings and investigates reasons behind crimes committed by some followers
• Offers guidance to students for online graduate programs, seminars, and degrees in criminal profiling
• Includes updated tables and crime statistics throughout the text
• Presents new photos to offer authentic representations of violent crimes and offenders

Intended Audience
This best-seller has long been a successful supplemental text for undergraduate criminology and criminal justice courses, including Criminal Investigation, Criminal Profiling, Violent Crimes, Criminal Behavior, Field Investigation, and Forensic Psychology.

1

Psychological Profiling

An Introduction

Inductive Versus Deductive Profiling

Inductive Criminal Investigative Assessments

Deductive Criminal Investigative Assessments

Goals in Profiling

Goal 1: To Provide the Criminal Justice System With a Social and Psychological Assessment of the Offender

Goal 2: To Provide the Criminal Justice System With a Psychological Evaluation of Belongings Found in the Possession of the Offender

Goal 3: To Provide Interviewing Suggestions and Strategies

Profiling: An Art, Not a Science

Conclusion

Historically, crime and criminals have galvanized the attention of law-abiding citizens. Whatever the reason, be it the romance of a Capone or a Dillinger, or the utter lack of any understanding of how or why criminals can do what they do, books, TV, and movies flood the market with police and crime. Russell Vorpagel (1998), an ex-FBI agent, speaks of his own contributions to the development of psychological profiling in the early years with the FBI. In his book, Profiles in Murder: An FBI Legend Dissects Killers and Their Crimes, he claims that he along with Ressler, Douglas, and others were pioneers in the process of crime scene analysis. Further, Vorpagel states that he was instrumental in helping Detective Ray Biondi in Sacramento, California, with the Richard Trenton Chase murder case. Unfortunately, Vorpagel was not able to profile Chase’s suicide by pills while Chase was in Vacaville prison.

Robert Ressler, another retired FBI agent, speaks of the same Richard Chase case in his book co-authored with Tom Shachtman, Whoever Fights Monsters (1992), but with only one line devoted to the help of Vorpagel in developing a separate profile, amazingly similar to Ressler’s own: “The fact that Chase so precisely fit the profile that I had drawn up in conjunction with Russ Vorpagel was gratifying to me...” (p. 9). Ressler continues to mention other serial killers, such as Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, David Berkowitz, Edmund Kemper, Peter Sutcliffe, Jeffrey Dahmer, and mass killer Richard Speck. Unfortunately there is no mention of an interviewing methodology used in the meetings. Ressler has published another book with Shachtman entitled I Have Lived in the Monster: Inside the Minds of the World’s Most Notorious Serial Killers (1997). In this book, interesting stories abound that relate to Ressler’s work with many serial killers during his career in the FBI.

Not to be outdone, John Douglas and his co-author Mark Olshaker wrote Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit (1995). In this book, Douglas lays claim to a friendship with Thomas Harris, the author of Red Dragon (1981), The Silence of the Lambs (1988), and Hannibal (1999). He takes the reader along the steps in his work in several major cases and the effects that the profiling work has on mind and health. The book jacket claims that he is the model for Jack Crawford in Harris’s book The Silence of the Lambs, a claim, however, that Harris denies (T. Harris, personal interview, June 20, 2000). The book jacket also says that Douglas has interviewed dozens of serial killers and assassins—Richard Speck, Charles Manson, and James Earl Ray among them. He has published two other books, The Cases That Haunt Us: From Jack the Ripper to JonBenet Ramsey, the FBI’s Legendary Mindhunter Sheds Light on the Mysteries That Won’t Go Away (Douglas & Olshaker, 2000) and The Anatomy of Motive: The FBI’s Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals (Douglas & Olshaker, 1999). Douglas and his co-author lead the reader through several celebrated unsolved homicides. One is the JonBenet Ramsey case, in which Douglas offers reasons for his belief that JonBenet’s parents were not involved in the murder of the young beauty queen. He reacts with some vigor to the criticisms of his own professionalism and reacts to the criticism aimed at him by his former colleagues in the FBI. Douglas also offers a profile of his own on the infamous Jack the Ripper case. Both books address Douglas’s law enforcement career and his involvement with serial murderers.

The Evil That Men Do: FBI Profiler Roy Hazelwood’s Journey Into the Minds of Sexual Predators is another book written by a retired FBI profiler, Roy Hazelwood, along with Stephen Michaud (2001). Hazelwood was known as a profiler of sexual predators, especially rapists. In this publication, the reader is once again privy to the special talents of the FBI agents and the manner in which they were of aid to police departments across the world in the successful resolution of their cases.

As profilers, we have met many people involved in the field. Some of these encounters have been pleasant and some not. As a general rule, we have found that those who don’t advertise their rates in their Web pages are the most reputable. Colleagues like Eric Hickey, Steve Egger, and a few more enjoy favorable reputations in the criminal justice system.

Regardless, there is a tremendous amount of interest in the field of profiling. But we must remember that it is only one tool and by itself has never solved a murder case, despite the statements made by some.

Profilers are often also seen on TV. These shows illustrate the work of a profiler and how neatly the whole crime is resolved in a one-hour program. But unlike a vintage Dragnet episode, criminals are not always brought to justice. Every killer is not peacefully arrested with nothing more than an MO or a quick confirmation of the identity of the perpetrator. This MO (method of operation or modus operandi) holds to a basic principle: Each perpetrator commits his crime in a certain manner. Therefore, each time a person commits a crime, he will do it in the same or at least 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.

For the homicide investigator, where the motives of normal killings are absent, a psychological profile may be the investigative tool essential to a successful resolution of the case (Douglas & Burgess, 1986; Douglas, Burgess, Burgess, & Ressler 1993; Palmiotto, 1994; Sears, 1991). How accurate are the profiles? This will obviously depend on the expertise of the persons involved in such an assessment. Kocsis, Orwin, and Hayes (2000) reported that profilers appear to have higher skills when compared to other groups. They claim the most accurate groups are, in order of accuracy: professional profilers, psychologists, students, police officers, and self-declared psychics. That psychologists ranked second in the study suggests that psychologists are better at this endeavor than police officers, perhaps because of their understanding of human behavior. The researchers also reported that psychics are the least reliable of the groups. They apparently depend more on the stereotypes of murderers than a true understanding of the mind and mentality of a killer. The research also suggests that police probably would do better at profiling if they were educated in the principles of the process (Peterson, 1997).

Thus profiling, or criminal investigation assessment, is an educated attempt to provide investigative agencies with specific information as to the type of individual who committed a certain crime (Geberth, 1981).

Of course, profiles are not suitable in all cases, even in some murder cases (Holmes & Holmes, 1992, 2000). They are usually more efficacious in cases where the unknown perpetrator has displayed indications of psychopathology (Geberth, 2006; Holmes & Holmes, 2000). Crimes most appropriate for psychological profiling are those where discernable patterns are able to be deciphered from the crime scene or where the fantasy/motive of the perpetrator is readily apparent. Table 1.1 suggests a few of these appropriate crimes; however, this list is not exhaustive, and any of these specifically mentioned crimes may not present enough evidence to develop a useful profile.

It is important to come to a general understanding of the type of person who would commit an offense such as a lust murder or spree killing. Inherent within the premise of the validity and reliability of a profile is that the person who commits these crimes has a personality that reflects pathology. In some cases the crimes may be thoroughly planned and executed, as in many of the recent school shooting cases (e.g., Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois). In other crimes, chaos, the lack of planning, mutilations, and other elements reflected in the crime scene are also usually reflective of his/her personality. Therefore, the crime scene itself reflects pathology.

Table 1.1 Crimes Most Suitable for the Development of an Offender Profile

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Suggested Crimes for Profiling

Sadistic sexual assaults
Sexual homicide
Postmortem cases of abuse and humiliation
Motiveless fire settings
Lust and mutilation murders
Rape
Occult and ritualistic crimes
Child sexual abuse including pedophilia
Bank robberies
Anonymous obscene communications

THE SHOOTINGS AT NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

In February 2008, 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak, a former graduate student majoring in sociology at Northern Illinois University, entered a lecture hall and shot 21 students and then killed himself. Four females and one male student were killed. The killer carried his weapons in a guitar case. Kazmierczak, well liked by other students and the professors at the university, was reported to have recently stopped taking medication for depression.

There are no known reasons for his action; however, he did have a history of mental problems, and he had been admitted to a psychiatric setting after high school, but he stayed only a short time. He enlisted in the army in 2001 but was discharged 6 months later for unspecified reasons. One possible motive could be that he broke up with his girlfriend a few days previous to the mass murder. Students put up six white crosses on campus in front of the Holmes Student Center; one had no name: Kazmierczak’s.

As we will mention later in this text, each offender will leave part of him-or herself at the crime scene. Additionally, we have discovered in the crimes we have profiled for various police departments across the world, now over 600, that offenders commit their crimes in certain manners. If it is a serial crime, the crimes are similar—not always identical, but similar. It is the responsibility of the profiler to offer insight from the physical evidence of the pathology exhibited in the crime scene (Michaud, 1986).

Also worthy of note is the fact the crime profiles are usually completed after the fact. While the police and other public health officials often know that people are not right and are capable of very heinous violence, there is no simple way that we or any psychologist or psychiatrist can predict the future behavior of these offenders. Hence, even the development of a psychological profile of the two most recent school shooters before their murderous events would not have been of much use to police or other officials before they went on their homicidal sprees.

Of course, a good criminal investigative assessment will also depend to some extent on the working relationship between the police agency desiring a profile and the profiler. This should be self-evident, but nonetheless it is important to state and understand. One reason for this is that if the police agency has no faith in the process or the profiler, information may not be included that is vital to the profile itself. This omission can be simply negligence or it could be intentional; hopefully, it is usually unintentional.

THE VIRGINIA TECH SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

On April 16, 2007, 23-year-old Seung Hui Cho killed two students at West Ambler Johnson resident hall and then returned to his dorm room and changed his clothes. He then mailed a package to NBC News in New York containing an 1,800-word diatribe, pictures of himself, and various video clips.

He then marched across campus to Norris Hall and chained the three exit doors shut from the inside. In the next 11 minutes, the shooter killed 30 more students and himself, firing between 15...