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He ' CAE ee eee Douglas et al.: Criminal Profiling from Crime Scene Analysis for the family to proceed to the phone booth the suspect had been observed in. “The instructions will be taped there,” stated the caller. The body of the victim was actually found a considerable distance from the “staged” crime scene, and the extortion calls were a diversion to intentionally lead the police investigation away from the sexually motivated crime of rape- murder. The subject never intended to collect the ransom money, but he felt that the diversion would throw the police off and take him from the focus of the rape-murder inquiry. The subject was subsequently arrested and convicted of this crime. Motivation Motivation is a difficult factor to judge because it requires dealing with the inner thoughts and behavior of the offender. Motivation is more easily determined in the organized offender who premeditates, plans, and has the ability to carry out a plan of action that is logical and complete. On the other hand, the disor- ganized offender carries out his crimes by motivations that frequently are derived from mental illnesses and accompanying distorted thinking (resulting from de- lusions and hallucinations). Drugs and alcohol, as well as panic and stress resulting from disruptions during the execution of the crime, are factors which must be considered in the overall assessment of the crime scene. Crime Scene Dynamics Crime scene dynamics are the numerous elements common to every crime scene which must be interpreted by investigating officers and are at times easily misunderstood. Examples include location of crime scene, cause of death, method of killing, positioning of body, excessive trauma, and location of wounds. The investigative profiler reads the dynamics of a crime scene and interprets them based on his experience with similar cases where the outcome is known. Extensive research by the Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI Academy and in- depth interviews with incarcerated felons who have committed such crimes have provided a vast body of knowledge of common threads that link crime scene dynamics to specific criminal personality patterns. For example, a common error of some police investigators is to assess a particularly brutal lust-mutilation murder as the work of a sex fiend and to direct the investigation toward known sex offenders when such crimes are commonly perpetrated by youthful individ- uals with no criminal record. 4. Criminal! Profile Stage The fourth stage in generating a criminal profile deals with the type of person who committed the crime and that individual’s behavioral organization with relation to the crime. Once this description is generated, the strategy of inves- tigation can be formulated, as this strategy requires a basic understanding of how an individual will respond to a variety of investigative efforts. Included in the criminal profile are background information (demographics), BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW