Criminal Profiling

Criminal Profiling The term “serial killer” was derived from a man named Robert K. Ressler, who, in the 1970’s deemed this term because of the term the English used; “crimes in a series” and because of the serial films he grew up watching. (Freeman, 2007) Prior to the term serial killer, people would use the terms, mass murders and stranger-on-stranger crime. The definition of a serial killer, according to dictionary.com is; “a person who attacks and kills victims one by one in a series of incidents.” Obviously, we understand that a serial killer commits murder more than once, and on different occasions, but what helps police and investigators differ between stand alone murders compared to a serial murder case? What techniques do police and investigators use when defining these differences? How do police and investigators track down serial killers? These questions, along with understanding how police, investigators and the FBI profile a serial killer, are the main topics I will be discussing. Robert Ressler served in the Army as a Criminal Investigator in Washington D.C. prior to working for the FBI in 1970. He began working in the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) that dealt with psychological profiles of violent offenders. After about ten years of being with the FBI, Ressler began interviewing thirty-six incarcerated serial killers. This is where he began to form different opinions and develop a more detailed profiling tool to help investigators. He always admitted that there is no sure way to catch a serial killer, and the system he had was not always accurate, but it helped narrow suspects down for the investigators. It allowed the criminology path to be much more smooth for the investigators involved in the case. A criminal always leaves a path of something behind when committing a crime; but it may not be in the form of physical evidence. A criminal profiler will inspect the scene of a crime and try to get try and see what is going on

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