• To understand the Clinical and Statistical approaches of investigation
• To understand the different types of crime scenes
• To understand the phenomenon of psychological autopsy
• To understand the limits of profiling and psychological autopsy
Media Hype vs Reality
Media presents a large number of films based on successful profiling, like “Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal” e.t.c. Are they accurate depictions of forensic psychology? Perhaps the answer is no. Forensic psychologists are not able to become psychically linked with a meticulous killer and visualize their next move as the heroes in the movies or on television seem to do. So, infact there are more misses than hits and success rate is not higher than chance Forensic psychology is a discipline based on the scientific practice of psychology. And on the same time has several imitations as a science. So, while forensic psychologists get the “cool” jobs, they are far from the situations often pictured and have not many career opportunities in this area, though recently some increased.
Crime Scene Investigation
Crime scenes typology
Crime scenes can be divided into following three categories
1. Organized
2. Disorganized
3. Mixed
- 1. Organized Crime Scenes
The criminal shows planning, forethought and an exertion to avoid detection. The individual knows well, what he is doing and takes every possible step to avoid leaving incriminating evidence police could use to catch him. So, considerable precautions are made to prevent arrest or identification. Offender maintains control of himself and the victim. One other very important characteristic of organized crime scene is that victim is selected rather than being random.
Characteristics of Organized Crime Scenes
1. Planned offense
2. Transports body
3. Body hidden
4. Controlled conversation
5. Demands submissive victim
6. Missing weapon or evidence
7. Victim is a targeted stranger
8. Personalizes victim
9. Crime scene reflects control
10. Restraints used
11. Aggressive acts done before death
- 2. Disorganized Crime Scenes
The criminal shows no planning or premeditation. Motive of the crime is impulse, rage or some other intense emotional state. Spontaneous actions and turbulent assaults results in chaotic crime scene.Victim selected at random and crime scene is usually where the encounter took place. So, Victim is often by chance like is at the wrong place at the wrong time. Usually, the offender uses materials at hand. Hurried or blitzstyle attack, and crime scene is disarrayed.
Characteristics of Disorganized Crime Scenes
1. Body left at death scene
2. Spontaneous offens
3. Evidence or weapon present at scene
4. Victim or location known
5. Body left in view
6. Depersonalizes victim
8. Minimal conversation
10. Crime scene is sloppy
11. Sudden violence to victim
- 3. Mixed Crime Scene
Mixed crime scene show characteristics from both the organized and disorganized crime scenes. Can indicate the presence of two offenders, or that the offender planned the crime and was interrupted during the act. Both organized and disorganized features are present like a crime was carefully planned but later deteriorated into a disorganized crime when things failed to go as originally planned by some one’s interruption or strong emotions took over. e.g. at the scene of a planned robbery, un planned murder of resistant.
Reality is Not So Neat
According to Kocsis, Cooksey & Irwin (2002) suggested that organized-disorganized typology has limited usefulness. Reality of crime scenes is not so neat and distinguishing organized and disorganized crime is not as easy as it appears to be and crime scenes exist along a continuum with perfectly organized at one extreme and absolutely chaotic on the other.
Trophy Taking
The violent, repetitive offender often exhibits another element of criminal behavior during the crime known as “The trophy taking” .This criminal conduct is a unique and integral part of the offender's behavior and goes beyond the actions needed to commit the crime. A crime scene trophy is a meaningful souvenir taken by the offender to remember the incident, to psychologically control the victim or both. Piece of clothing, a photograph, a piece of jewelry, even a body part of a murdered body is taken by the offender some time as a signature and challenge “yes this is me catch me if you can”.
Staging
To over shadow the reality, people stage the whole crime scene. Staging can be defined as the purposeful alteration of the crime and crime scene by the offender in order to mislead authorities and redirect the investigation. Staging is a conscious criminal action on the part of an offender to ruin an investigation. When a crime scene is staged the responsible person is not someone who just happens upon the victim. It is almost always someone who had some kind of association or relationship with the victim. This offender will further attempt to steer the investigation away from him by his conduct when in contact with law enforcement. Motives of staging can be several like a family is interesting in getting the money of insurance and the person who is insured has committed the suicide and the company has the policy to detach the family from insurance money so, this leads the family to make a suicide look like a murder. Sometimes family members are trying to protect a relative or the reputation of the family and murder is made to look as suicide.
Red Flags
Offenders who stage crime scenes usually make mistakes because they arrange the scene to resemble what they believe it should look like. In doing so, offenders experience a great deal of stress and do not have the time to fit all the pieces together logically and reasonably. As a result, inconsistencies and clues in forensic findings are found in the overall "big picture" of the crime scene. These inconsistencies can serve as the "red flags" of staging, which serve to prevent investigations from becoming misguided.
• To understand the different types of crime scenes
• To understand the phenomenon of psychological autopsy
• To understand the limits of profiling and psychological autopsy
Media Hype vs Reality
Media presents a large number of films based on successful profiling, like “Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal” e.t.c. Are they accurate depictions of forensic psychology? Perhaps the answer is no. Forensic psychologists are not able to become psychically linked with a meticulous killer and visualize their next move as the heroes in the movies or on television seem to do. So, infact there are more misses than hits and success rate is not higher than chance Forensic psychology is a discipline based on the scientific practice of psychology. And on the same time has several imitations as a science. So, while forensic psychologists get the “cool” jobs, they are far from the situations often pictured and have not many career opportunities in this area, though recently some increased.
Crime Scene Investigation
Crime scenes typology
Crime scenes can be divided into following three categories
1. Organized
2. Disorganized
3. Mixed
- 1. Organized Crime Scenes
The criminal shows planning, forethought and an exertion to avoid detection. The individual knows well, what he is doing and takes every possible step to avoid leaving incriminating evidence police could use to catch him. So, considerable precautions are made to prevent arrest or identification. Offender maintains control of himself and the victim. One other very important characteristic of organized crime scene is that victim is selected rather than being random.
Characteristics of Organized Crime Scenes
1. Planned offense
2. Transports body
3. Body hidden
4. Controlled conversation
5. Demands submissive victim
6. Missing weapon or evidence
7. Victim is a targeted stranger
8. Personalizes victim
9. Crime scene reflects control
10. Restraints used
11. Aggressive acts done before death
- 2. Disorganized Crime Scenes
The criminal shows no planning or premeditation. Motive of the crime is impulse, rage or some other intense emotional state. Spontaneous actions and turbulent assaults results in chaotic crime scene.Victim selected at random and crime scene is usually where the encounter took place. So, Victim is often by chance like is at the wrong place at the wrong time. Usually, the offender uses materials at hand. Hurried or blitzstyle attack, and crime scene is disarrayed.
Characteristics of Disorganized Crime Scenes
1. Body left at death scene
2. Spontaneous offens
3. Evidence or weapon present at scene
4. Victim or location known
5. Body left in view
6. Depersonalizes victim
8. Minimal conversation
10. Crime scene is sloppy
11. Sudden violence to victim
- 3. Mixed Crime Scene
Mixed crime scene show characteristics from both the organized and disorganized crime scenes. Can indicate the presence of two offenders, or that the offender planned the crime and was interrupted during the act. Both organized and disorganized features are present like a crime was carefully planned but later deteriorated into a disorganized crime when things failed to go as originally planned by some one’s interruption or strong emotions took over. e.g. at the scene of a planned robbery, un planned murder of resistant.
Reality is Not So Neat
According to Kocsis, Cooksey & Irwin (2002) suggested that organized-disorganized typology has limited usefulness. Reality of crime scenes is not so neat and distinguishing organized and disorganized crime is not as easy as it appears to be and crime scenes exist along a continuum with perfectly organized at one extreme and absolutely chaotic on the other.
Trophy Taking
The violent, repetitive offender often exhibits another element of criminal behavior during the crime known as “The trophy taking” .This criminal conduct is a unique and integral part of the offender's behavior and goes beyond the actions needed to commit the crime. A crime scene trophy is a meaningful souvenir taken by the offender to remember the incident, to psychologically control the victim or both. Piece of clothing, a photograph, a piece of jewelry, even a body part of a murdered body is taken by the offender some time as a signature and challenge “yes this is me catch me if you can”.
Staging
To over shadow the reality, people stage the whole crime scene. Staging can be defined as the purposeful alteration of the crime and crime scene by the offender in order to mislead authorities and redirect the investigation. Staging is a conscious criminal action on the part of an offender to ruin an investigation. When a crime scene is staged the responsible person is not someone who just happens upon the victim. It is almost always someone who had some kind of association or relationship with the victim. This offender will further attempt to steer the investigation away from him by his conduct when in contact with law enforcement. Motives of staging can be several like a family is interesting in getting the money of insurance and the person who is insured has committed the suicide and the company has the policy to detach the family from insurance money so, this leads the family to make a suicide look like a murder. Sometimes family members are trying to protect a relative or the reputation of the family and murder is made to look as suicide.
Red Flags
Offenders who stage crime scenes usually make mistakes because they arrange the scene to resemble what they believe it should look like. In doing so, offenders experience a great deal of stress and do not have the time to fit all the pieces together logically and reasonably. As a result, inconsistencies and clues in forensic findings are found in the overall "big picture" of the crime scene. These inconsistencies can serve as the "red flags" of staging, which serve to prevent investigations from becoming misguided.
