Case Assessment Guidebook Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Case Assessment Guidebook - Essay Example This study of the criminal profile and behavioral patterns of the criminal assists the investigator in distinguishing him from the rest of the crowd to create the initial suspect list which is the first step in the investigation. Criminal profiling helps in narrowing down the list of suspects in any major investigation. Based on certain studied and proved facts which point to a specific type of crime like a serial murder or offender the clues are studied to identify the person or group, the gender, race and social status of the criminal which help in identifying the person faster. The first stage would be to make sure that a crime has been committed or not and if so the type of crime has to be determined followed by the study of the crime scene to determine the nature of the killer. This evidence is then presented in court which involves an in-depth look into the behavioral profile at all stages which could be interview techniques, lie detection etc. To study the behavior patterns of a particular suspect it requires a sound knowledge of psychology and law at the same time. The motive which plays a key role comes into focus when we start looking into the criminal psychodynamics and psychopathology. The important factor to be kept in mind is the fact that there is no common profile for any type of criminal as each one is a different individual and unique in their own manner. To be close to accurate in the profiling the investigative information has to be faultless. This information coupled with the FBI’s massive database on criminal behavior offers a dis tinct analysis of the behavior profile of the criminal. There are two ways of profiling it could be inductive and deductive reasoning. Inductive is based on the fact that a particular type of crime e.g. serial murders have a behavioral profile that would be similar to all such