SERIAL KILLER MIND

  Crime Classification Manual Part II Chapter 6 B 105 A STANDARD SYSTEM FOR INVESTIGATING AND CLASSIFYING VIOLENT CRIMES SECOND EDITION   The offender may have made small attempts to conceal his identity, like blindfolding the victim, but the sequence of events culminates with the triggering event: the surprise or panic of the offender and the subsequent murder. There are often paradoxical elements present at the crime scene. Entry into the residence or business may be skillful and meticulous, in contrast with a hasty, panicked retreat that leaves physical evidence such as finger- prints and footprints, often depicting a running retreat. There would be uncompleted acts—for example, stereos unhooked and pulled out from wall units, jewelry, and money on the victim, all left behind.

  Crime Classification Manual Part II Chapter 6 15 A STANDARD SYSTEM FOR INVESTIGATING AND CLASSIFYING VIOLENT CRIMES SECOND EDITION   Profiling is, in fact, a form of retro classification, or classification that works backward. Typically, we classify a known entity into a discrete cate- gory, based on presenting characteristics that translate into criteria for assignment to that category. In the case of homicide investigation, we have neither the entity (for example, the offender) nor the victim. It is thus necessary to rely on the only source of information that typically is available: the crime scene. This information is used to profile, or classify, an individual. In essence, we are forced to bootstrap, using crime-scene-related data, to make classifications. This bootstrapping process is referred to as profiling. There have been no systematic efforts to validate these profile-derived classifications.

  Crime Classification Manual Part I Chapter 4 15 A STANDARD SYSTEM FOR INVESTIGATING AND CLASSIFYING VIOLENT CRIMES SECOND EDITION John E. Douglas, Ann W. Burgess, Allen G. Burgess, and Robert K. Ressler, Editors     A Framework for Defining the Worst of Crimes Many of the aggravators noted denote behavior that distinguishes a particularly unusual criminal at work. As such, perpetrators who meet such aggravators earn membership in a narrowed class of defendants. Other aggravators, however, speak more to the goals of society than the exceptional nature of the crime. A police officer is armed, for example, and engages with criminals and in hazardous duty. Society has an interest in protecting law enforcement. Yet when a perpetrator kills a police officer in attempting to escape, that clearly does not reflect an unusual criminal mentality or ensure that such a crime was anything more than a spontaneous, if dramatic, choice. In other words, some aggravators, such...