M2_A1
MODULE 2 OVERVIEW
In Module 2, you will examine the work of criminal investigators who were at the forefront of their profession. You will also consider the proliferation of popular stereotypes, the influence of these stereotypes upon the media, and, in turn, the influence of the media on the general population. After seeing popular shows on television, such as NCIS, Lie to Me, and Criminal Minds, and watching how fictional detectives easily solve crimes in less than an hour, you might expect the same from real detectives, along with excellent and unimpeachable evidence, during a trial. Unfortunately, life rarely imitates art. In real life, experts disagree with each other after examining ambiguous evidence.
The other side of the coin is what investigators and researchers would call junk science—the assumptions people make on the basis of what they learn from popular media or their own prejudiced views of the world. At the same time, popular media might focus on the police, accusing law enforcement officers of racial profiling after an increase in arrests of minority individuals. What the media does not do is examine the details of these arrests. If the arrests are in minority neighborhoods, there will obviously be more minority arrests. If the suspect was described as a member of a particular minority group, there will obviously be more individuals stopped and questioned by the police who fit that description. What will not happen are indiscriminate arrests or detentions of minority individuals in a large geographical area. If that were to happen, it would constitute racial profiling.
Imagine two crimes occurring on the same day in different parts of a town. There may be other crimes that took place that day, but let us focus on these two. The first one involves a female jogger who is assaulted and raped early in the morning in a large park. The perpetrator is wearing a black ski mask. The jogger regains consciousness to find herself lying in the bushes, bleeding. However, the perpetrator has not left any physical evidence. Later that evening, a liquor store is robbed on the other side of town. The store video surveillance records the burglar wearing a black ski mask. The burglar leaves no physical evidence.
Are these crimes related? Were they committed by the same person? Were there other similar crimes committed recently in these two areas or in different areas? Is the black ski mask enough information to group these two events together? Since the crimes took place at different times, two different shift investigator teams may be involved. In addition, the first crime is an assault and rape and the second one is a property crime. In a small town, the same investigators will be on the cases. In a larger town or city, there are different precincts and different teams of detectives.
Imagine now that a week later, an individual wearing a ski mask is spotted going into a restroom at a different park by a group of joggers. The police are called, and the individual is detained and questioned. A ski mask is found in his pocket, but he claims that he was drunk the night before when he was walking home from a bar and fell asleep on a park bench. He was wearing the ski mask for warmth. It is late fall, but could this man be lying? Does his story make sense? The female victim cannot identify him as her attacker, and there is no other evidence against him.
The man is a local resident, and his story is verified, and it is found that he was at a nearby bar the night before. However, the detectives still feel uneasy about this man and suspect that he lied, but there is no evidence connecting him to either crime. One of the detectives says that he has "a gut feeling" that this man committed the crimes. Nevertheless, the man is released. He lives alone, and his apartment is located approximately halfway between the locations of the two crimes.
How do we understand the crimes? What do we make of the information gathered so far? Is there a system to help us do that? Yes, there is.
In the first assignment of this module, you will continue to explore racial profiling. You will examine erroneous assumptions that influence opinions and racial profiles. For the second assignment, you will examine the processes adopted in the portrayal of profiling in the media and compare them to the commonly accepted and practiced profiling techniques. In the third, nongraded assignment, you will identify verbal and nonverbal components of deception and nondeception and describe emotions that are easy to control and those that are difficult to control.
Compare the difference between how law enforcement personnel and forensic mental health professionals would conduct assessment and criminal investigative procedures.
Identify pertinent ethical standards in various scenarios involving criminal profiling and criminal investigation.
Identify specific personality characteristics that have been found to be linked with specific criminal behavior patterns, while discerning less salient personality characteristics that do not reliably inform psychological profiling.
Explain how an offender's cognitive functioning, diagnosis, and environmental factors might contribute to the offender's criminal offense behaviors.
Read Nightclub Murders
Assessment and investigative procedures: Assault and Murder
Law enforcement personnel and forensic psychologists may be involved in the same criminal case but at two different points in time. Police detectives conduct the investigation of a crime and arrest the suspect. Forensic psychologists evaluate this person (now a defendant) to answer a variety of psycholegal questions.
Scenario
A young schoolteacher (who had called in sick to work) is found murdered by strangulation in her top-floor apartment. The killer had sexually assaulted and then mutilated the body.
There is no sign of a break-in. Either the victim opened the door, or the killer had a key. The apartment is next to the fire exit stairs that lead to the roof. Bloody clothes are found on the roof—they are linked by deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) evidence to the victim. It is possible to walk along the roof and exit through the fire escapes of adjacent buildings. All the neighbors are interviewed, but nobody heard anything.
The victim is estranged from her family and recently left her boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend is an immediate suspect as he had a key to the apartment. He was unhappy about the break-up and is known to drink heavily and become belligerent once he is drunk. However, he has an alibi—he was at work on the other side of town.
The mildly cognitively impaired adult son of the building maintenance worker is eventually arrested and charged with the crime. He is linked to the crime scene by DNA—his semen was found on the victim.
Other crime scene analyses that are performed include staging of the crime and analyzing DNA and other evidence.
Q1: Which tasks in the scenario would be performed by a law-enforcement profiler?
The profiler would interview all the neighbors, the ex-boyfriend, family, coworkers, and anyone else who may have come in contact with her. The profiler would also examine the victim’s mail, phone calls, recent purchases, and recent activities.
The profiler would contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to examine their database for similarities in the details of this crime and narrow down possible perpetrator personality types.
Q2: Which tasks in the scenario would be performed by a forensic psychologist?
The suspect is a mildly cognitively impaired young adult, who had access to keys to all the apartments. He is linked to the crime by DNA evidence. Depending on who hires the forensic psychologist (either the prosecutor or defense counsel), his tasks may vary significantly.
The defense attorney may focus on his client’s cognitive impairment, hoping to sway the jury in the direction of “lack of criminal intent.” The prosecutor may be interested in the defendant’s competency to stand trial and criminal responsibility (legal sanity). Each side may use its own experts. The role of the expert is not to investigate the crime but to evaluate the defendant’s psychological functioning.
The Radex of Criminality
Investigative psychology addresses scientific questions about criminal actions, where an understanding of the actions leads to inferences about offender characteristics. Canter and Youngs (2009) introduced the radex of criminality—a combination of quantitative and qualitative aspects of a crime. In addition, these quantitative and qualitative characteristics are viewed through the prism of development and change over time. The radex can be applied to any criminal behavior. Later in the course, you will closely examine several specific types of offenses like the ones described here.
One of the most important investigative events of the last century was the creation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI's) Behavioral Science Unit (BSU). It is known not because of its ability to solve serial murders but because of its creation of a database on which investigators around the country and even the world have relied ever since.
Microcommunications: When dealing with human deception, it is very important to be aware of microexpressions and interpret them correctly.
Visit the following pages for additional information on microexpressions:
Facial expression and emotion
Should we call it expression or communication?
References:
Ekman, P. (1993). Facial expression and emotion. American Psychologist, 48(4), 384–392. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.48.4.384 (Proquest Document ID: 614321272)
Ekman, P. (1997). Should we call it expression or communication? Innovation, 10(4), 333–344. (Proquest Document ID: 211973549)
FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit
The BSU was established at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, in 1972. The purpose of the BSU is "to inspire excellence and leadership in the applied behavioral sciences for the FBI and its partners in order to further the FBI's strategic priorities." The BSU's focus is upon attempting to better understand criminals, with an underlying goal of solving crimes and preventing future criminal activity. Since its establishment, the BSU has developed tactics, techniques, and procedures that have since been adopted as industry standards in law enforcement, intelligence, and military communities.
In 1984, the BSU was split into the Behavioral Science Unit and the Behavioral Science Investigative Support Unit. The BSU became primarily responsible for the training of the FBI's National Academy students in a variety of specialized topics concerning the behavioral and social sciences, and the Behavioral Science Investigative Support Unit became primarily responsible for the investigation of criminals.
The BSU staff consists of supervisory special agents and veteran police officers with advanced degrees in the behavioral science disciplines of psychology, criminology, sociology, and conflict resolution. The BSU staff also includes criminologists, clinical psychologists, research/crime analysts, and program management analysts.
The BSU staff provides instructions on various topics related to the application of behavioral science to law enforcement operations, including behavioral science for law enforcement, applied criminology, biopsychosocial aspects of criminal behavior, conflict and crisis management/communication, futuristics in law enforcement, youth violence, management of death investigations, the psychosocial behavior and mind-set of gangs, stress management in law enforcement, cyber criminals, and interpersonal violence. For new agents, the BSU provides basic instructions on personality traits, behavioral characteristics, and conflict resolution to help them better understand themselves and the actions of others.
The BSU's research focuses on developing new and innovative investigative approaches and techniques that will assist the law enforcement and intelligence communities in their execution of operational and training activities. Emphasis is placed on identifying offenders' behaviors and motivations, particularly through direct interviews.
Current research projects include, but are not limited to, global hostage taking, mass victimization, homicide clearance, gangs and gang violence, behavior in the cyber world and emerging technologies, the future of law enforcement, firearm offenses, counterintelligence and the insider threat, violent and aberrant behavior, behavioral computer modeling for law enforcement, statement analysis, interviewing and persuasion, and law enforcement stress and stress management.
The BSU also coordinates with and supports other FBI units, such as the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) of the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG), which provides operational assistance to FBI field offices and law enforcement agencies.
Conclusion
In this module, your readings and assignments focused on investigative psychology, medical contributions, and the FBI's BSU. You have continued to explore the differences between media depictions of criminal profiling and investigative procedures and the processes and procedures that are actually used in the field and laboratory.
