Criminal psychological profiling is a technique used by law enforcement agents to obtain an offender's psychological and behavioral profile. Using this tool helps law enforcement agents examine a crime scene and identify perpetrators' involvement in the crime. Criminal profiling in the US is carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to support the investigation of a crime scene ( Turvey, 2011) . Every offender has a unique personality and behavioral patterns, making it difficult for investigators to make generalizations. With this technique, the investigators can narrow down their area of investigation. Usually, profiling is applied more in violent and serial crimes. Profiling takes two approaches, namely deductive and inductive profiling.
Deductive profiling entails the reconstruction of the criminal event. This criminal profiling approach relies on the forensic evidence related to the crime scene and the victim ( Warikoo, 2014) . With this evidence, the law enforcement agents combine the data obtained from the crime scene and the victim to generalize the perpetrator's characteristics. The deductive profiling technique focuses on a specific case before a generalization can be made. Thus, the profiler can understand the conditions a specific crime occurs. This approach's success depends on the profiler’s skills to identify the behavioral patterns and mechanisms used by criminals in their acts and the offenders' behavioral patterns. An example of a deductive profiling technique includes after a homicide has occurred. The federal agents go to the crime scene and take photographs or rely on the autopsy to profile the criminal.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Inductive profiling involves using empirical and statistical analysis of several solved cases to deduce patterns that led to the criminal event being investigated ( Warikoo, 2014) . This profiling approach is based on analyzing criminal behavior models derived from criminal reports gathered previously from crime scenes, victims’ reports, autopsy, etc. With these reports, the special agents involved with investigating the crime scene can generalize. An example of inductive profiling would be; assuming that a study over the last three years in the area shows that 90% of rapist attacks have been perpetrated by white serial rapists, who target victims of their age, and they only rape women of their race. If a mid-aged white woman is raped in her apartment, the investigators would most likely conclude that the rapist is a middle-aged white man.
The goal of any Forensic Analysis is to find facts that lead to the reconstruction of a criminal event. The profiler can only unearth the truth by exposing the traces (evidence) left after a criminal event. This evidence can be used in legal proceedings to convict a criminal of the crimes they have done. That said, forensic analysis is based on the Locard ’ s exchange principle, which dictates that a transfer of material happens when two objects interact. In criminality, when the perpetrator enters or exits a crime scene, they take and leave something. This principle also true in digital forensics, where perpetrators leave digital traces after their illegal activities.
That said, more often than not, crime investigators are faced with evidence dynamics at crime scenes. According to Malin et al. (2013), evidence dynamics in crime scenes is characterized by perpetrators attempting to destroy evidence, victims trying to remediate the destruction caused by the perpetrators within the crime scenes, or the first responders interfering with crucial evidence that can be used in the reconstruction of evidence and tracing of the offenders. Such situations pose a challenge to law enforcers in conducting their investigations. Therefore, in such cases, the law investigators apply the Locard ’ s exchange principle in looking for traces from a crime scene that may help solve it.
Serial killers and mass killers have several characteristics that differentiate them. By definition, a serial killer is a murderer who, out of psychological thrill or pleasure, kills people at separate events. There should be a break between the murders, and the same perpetrator should commit these killings. For instance, a serial killer may murder four people within a month. Such murderers lack empathy or guilt, as evidence in the sentencing of Nikko Jenkins. The perpetrator committed four murders in August 2013 in Omaha, Nebraska. Jenkins committed these murders in one month and was convicted to death in 2017. However, Jenkins showed no remorse or the feeling of guilt in his trial as evidence of the footage (KMTV News Now, 2017) . In fact, his character appeared egocentric during the trial. The perpetrator started these killings only two weeks after prison release, where he had been serving ten years for robbery with violence and carjacking.
On the other hand, mass murders occur simultaneously in a centralized location; that is, it is a one-time event. However, except in some cases, most mass murders end with the perpetrators' death on crime sites. Most mass murderers have poor social skills, and their friendship circles are small. Motives behind mass killers are not obvious compared to serial killers. A common pattern with mass killers is that they are full of anger and vengeance and plan in advance the execution of the offense ( Knoll IV & Annas, 2016) . Likewise, unlike serial killers, these criminals appear paranoid ( Knoll IV & Annas, 2016). Moreover, mass killers are loners, and an uncontrollable event triggers their actions. Mass murders occur in many forms, such as government agents unarmed protestors, bombings, like the ones committed by extremist groups, such as al - Qaeda, Boko haram, or Al Shahab jihadists.
However, mass murders can also be perpetrated by individuals who act alone. For instance, the Oregon School Shooting, perpetrated by 15-year-old Kipland Kinkel, opened fire at his school mates, killing two African Americans and wounding several in Thurston High School ( Wilson, 2018) . The perpetrator was arrested and convicted to more than one hundred years in prison. This incident occurred eleven months before the Columbine massacre by two students, Eric David Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold. The perpetrators shot themselves dead at the crime scene, leaving thirteen dead and several wounded ( Wilson, 2018) . These are some examples of mass killings.
I would use an inductive approach to profiling mass murders. Often, most mass murderers mimic the tactics used in the previous mass killing events. For instance, most school shootings follow a similar pattern. Since inductive profiling relies on reports from crime scenes of previous and similar incidents, this can easily identify the perpetrator. This information is crucial to identify the shooters. For instance, most school shootings are executed by males, and most of these perpetrators have a relationship with the schools; that is, they are either active or recent students in the said schools ( Paolini, 2015) . Likewise, the shooters have no specific targets when perpetrating their heinous acts. Moreover, most of these shooters have a history of bullying ( Paolini, 2015) . This makes inductive profiling the most suitable approach to profiling mass murderers.
On the other hand, I would use an inductive profiling approach for serial killers. The law special enforcement officers would have to study the crime scene to identify consequential killings patterns.
References
KMTV 3 News Now. (2017). Nikko Jenkins sentenced to death . YouTube. https://youtu.be/wNfq4mlfU6k
Knoll IV, J. L., & Annas, G. D. (2016). Mass shootings and mental illness.
Malin, C. H., Casey, E., & Aquilina, J. M. (2013). Malware forensics field guide for Linux systems: digital forensics field guides . Newnes.
Paolini, A. (2015). School Shootings and Student Mental Health: Role of the School Counselor in Mitigating Violence . https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/vistas/school-shootings-and-student-mental-health.p
Turvey, B. E. (Ed.). (2011). Criminal profiling: An introduction to behavioral evidence analysis . Academic Press.
Warikoo, A. (2014). A proposed methodology for cybercriminal profiling. Information Security Journal: A Global Perspective , 23 (4-6), 172-178.
Wilson, C. (2018). Little Has Changed In 20 Years Since Thurston High Shooting . Opb. https://www.opb.org/news/article/school-shootings-oregon-thurston-high-20-year-anniversary/
