Geographical Profiling Helpful In Criminal Investigation - Essay Example

GEOGRAPHICAL PROFILING HELPFUL IN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION Violation of law enforced by government is referred to as crime. The main concern of human safety and security requires the most competent people and technologies to deal with this surging dilemma. Law enforcement agencies are constantly striving to learn better skills of investigation. In doing so, they consolidated from several professional disciplines and have realized the benefits of assessing spatial mobility and patterns of crime. Societies and communities follow different set of rules; therefore crime can vary from country to country. To investigate a criminal or crime scene, one needs to divide the investigative case into several categories done by specific professionals. Profiling is one of the major purposes which include case management, database development, cause and pattern analysis, forensic demography, typology validation, personality evaluation, principles of geocoding, numerical predictions and the ethics of annoyance and interrogation/ interview strategies. To minimize crime level different strategies and methods have been used. Endless researches are going on as to reduce and prevent criminal activities. Geographical profiling is one of the investigative methods adapted for the same purpose. It uses the locations associated to a string of criminal activities and shows the most apparent regions, a crook can reside in. This evaluation method enables the law enforcement to connect the zone of criminal activity area with the location of criminal neighborhood which serves as a base for investigation. This method is mainly used for the serial violent crimes such as bombing, rape, murder, robbery, arson, fraud but it can also be used for single crime which involves several environmental characteristics. Geographical profiling requires a complete setup. Police Agencies use popular software programs for this purpose such as Regal, Crimestat, compstat and Dragnet.(Mazeika,2010) Geographical profiling works at a crime site or premises, this provides police substantial evidences to move along with their investigations. It determines the likeable places criminal can access and traveling routes. It includes both objective and subjective components of an investigation. This enables them to reform and understand offender’s perspectives through mental map. It also requires physical evidences which are thoroughly examined by a team of specialist. It aids the trail and can provide major leads in shortest span of time. Primary technique of geographical profiling is Criminal Geographic Targeting (CGT) System. Rossmo the founder of CGT technique combined the concepts of environmental criminology with a mathematical model based on, distance decompose function formatted from the murder occurrence places to hint the location of criminal’s rest The psychological principles of Rossmo’s work were derived from the hypothesize propounded by Brantingham. Brantingham’s research suggested that victims are perhaps in close proximity to criminal’s home. This theory was illustrated in a study by the Brantingham’s in 1981 in Washington, DC, where they found that criminals generally victimized in familiar areas, focusing on targets within their instantaneous surroundings environments. This theory proves that a criminal is less likely to commit crime in an unfamiliar environment. Figure 1 Another principal proposed by Rossmo was that serial killers avoid committing murders in familiar or similar areas. The reason to it is that they want to mislead the investigators and eliminate the traces which lead the crime towards them. Environmental and ecological criminology has so far played vital role in geographical profiling but a conflict is seen in Rossmo theories as well. This is identified by people, not in a favor of geographical profiling. Criminals possess two types of tendencies. One in which a criminals keep less distances from house and the other vice versa. These two lead to a predictable distance but not necessary the criminal himself. These findings are tangible and geographical profiling seems to be missing the emotional inclination of a criminal which can entirely change the location of his intended crime place or residence. Figure 2 Figure 3 The main features of CGT are spatial data, distance and movement to or from the crime site; which is carefully assessed to produce a model known as jeopardy surface. This three dimensional model hold color and height possibility codes which are used on a map (criminal activity zone) determines the prospect location of a criminal residence or work place. This system is only managed by professionals therefore it is difficult for an outsider to understand the underpinning geographical profiling. The profilers are important component of investigation they act as an advisor to the cops. They link or manage the geographical profiling and hands over the data to police for action to be taken upon. To put the efforts of police in right direction, the establishment of the probability of a criminal, living in different areas and displaying those results on map allows the police to focus on prioritized suspects and patrol zones where predators are active. This mechanism develops and detects leads in unsolved cases and predicts the behavior, mood and pattern of a criminal. Geographical profiling in a criminal investigation follows a specific procedure. Initially a crime is investigated through traditional means afterwards is examined for connection which link it to the other crimes occurred. Psychological profile and geographical profile of unknown offender is made. From there onwards investigative strategies are made and finalized to pursue the aim of catching the target or subject. To prepare a geographical profile a numeral procedure is followed. This includes examination of the case file, witness statement, autopsy reports and psychological profile, inspection of crime scene. A geographical profiler needs to be in constant contact with the lead investigator. Frequent visits to the crime site and study of street zoning are necessary to trace any rapid transit maps. Keeping in view the local crime statics and demographic data overall analysis is made and thus submitted to the lead investigator. It is used as a foundation of several investigative strategies. Some of them are suspect and tip prioritization patrol dispersion and supervision address-based searches department of motor and vehicle searches canvasses and searches mass DNA screening and prioritization ZIP code precedence Information request It is essential to remember that geographical profiling does not solve cases but acts as a active component in the process of investigation. Thus providing the information in bulk and managing it in a systematic order to attain desired results. Its significance can not be denied or challenged, as this strategy provides the most powerful support to detective and is best applied with other methods as well. Geographic crime patterns are cues that decode a mental mapping of a target and thus results in capturing of culprit.(Miller,2011) Currently, geographic profiling services are accessible from the Vancouver Police Department, Geographic Profiling Section and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Pacific Region VICLAS Section, also in Vancouver; and the Ontario Provincial Police, Behavioral Sciences Section, Orillia, Ontario, Canada. It will be available in the near future from the British National Crime Faculty, Bramshill, United Kingdom. A research done in 1985, showed crime trips of uptown crooks were more twisted. The argumentative debate about the validity of geographical profiling has helped in rectifying the strengths and weaknesses of the system. Thus the software developers, practitioners and researchers are constantly working on the limitations it held and the advances which can be fruitful in future investigation. Even though a variety of methods exist in breaking up and implementation of the known raw data, geographical profiling is profitable to the investigating bureau in several ways. For example, it is capable of scrutinizing a large amount of complex data such as multiple victims, abduction points, assault sites, and dumpsites. Similarly, it considerably maximizes resources, namely time and operating expense to the investigating bureau by being able to quickly examine and manage big amount of data, avoiding information overload, often incurred with large scale investigations involving operation forces. Additionally it can generate a chain of events based on the existing data and sustaining collateral information (e.g., psychological profile, and forensic analysis), allowing the bureau to rule in or out suspects based on their every day route patterns, thereby reducing the rate of false positives in arresting suspects. Finally, geographical profiling can prioritize suspects, allowing the investigating agency to concentrate their efforts within a reasonable geographical area by increasing their patrol in the area the criminal is most active. The overall goal is to generate the habitual journey track of a criminal around his surroundings for example residential place, works, or social mingling up place. This enables investigators to catch criminals who are active; coupled with a proactive strategy which will increase the likelihood of identifying and apprehending the suspect. Research has shown such journeys also reveal the intention of criminal’s next predictable crime. Geographical profiling assists the investigation in numerous ways and may generate leads by prioritizing suspects, suggesting areas to saturate patrols and stakeouts, and neighborhoods to canvass. Likewise, the agency may find it useful to cross reference their generated outcomes with various police information systems (e.g., sex offender databases), peripheral agencies (e.g., parole and trial records, and mental health clinics), as well as consuming postal zip codes as a means of prioritizing their search . Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and potential of geographical profiling will only aid investigating agencies in managing and delivering their resources in a well-organized manner. It should be understood that geographical profiling is only another means in the investigators toolbox and may considerably support the investigation depending on the state of the case. Terrorism and crime in current era are universal problems. Therefore it requires utmost efforts in advancement of technologies which will prevent and control crime rate in a complex environment. Computational criminology is an emerging blend of computer science and applied math. However there have been numerous accomplishments with geographic profiling, there have also been a number of instances where geographic profiling has either been wrong on predicting where the criminal lives/works or has been inappropriate as a model. Therefore none of the geographic profiling software packages have been subject to accurate independent or comparative tests to assess their precision reliability, validity, utility, or appropriateness for various situations. Updating every step which leads to the way of crime is a Bayesian approach of geographic profiling, with the use of probabilities based on the distribution of criminals residing in the same area (Levine&Block, 2011) this is the best approach that can be applied for geographical profiling so far because it is different from the previous approaches in a way that it deals with larger data sets of solved crimes to depict a more general view of offenders geographical crime pattern. According to the analysis done by Bayesian approach various similarities were found between offenders selection of location for a particular crime so the approach has practical implications as well. This provides a best example of investigative and criminal psychology interlink as well because to investigate a crime, investigator has to think like a criminal himself.(Canter D,2009) Word count: 1,809 Figures: 3 BIBLIOGRAPHY Top of Form LEVINE N & BLOCK R. (2011). Bayesian Journey-to-Crime estimation: An improvement in Geographic profiling Methodology. Professional Geographer. 63, 213-229. Top of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form CANTER D. (2009). Developments in geographical offender profiling: Commentary on Bayesian journey-to-crime modelling. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling. 6, 161-166. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form MAZEIKA, D., BARTHOLOMEW, B., DISTLER, M., THOMAS, K., GREENMAN, S., & PRATT, S. (2010). Trends in police research: a cross-sectional analysis of the 2000-2007 literature. Police Practice and Research. 11, 520-547. Top of Form MILLER, L. S., HESS, K. M., & ORTHMANN, C. M. H. (2011). Community policing: partnerships for problem solving. Australia, Delmar Cengage Learning. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More