CJ 266 Deviance and Violence Seminar 8

SEMINAR OVERVIEW Welcome Final Assignment Guidelines Managing Serial Murder Cases Forensics Profiling—Benefits and Problems Signatures & Methods of Operation Solving Serial Murder Cases

Issues in Managing Major Cases Media Impact Management of Departmental Resources Multiagency Jurisdiction Unusual Complexity of the Case

Why are Serial Killer Cases Hard to Solve? High mobility across many law enforcement jurisdictions Offenders generally prefer strangers Minimal amount of evidence left at crime scenes Insufficient interagency communication to recognize a common pattern of homicides Insufficient coordination between jurisdictions in several states. Additional complexities

What is Forensics? Forensics—belonging to or used in courts of law. Forensic medicine Forensic psychology Criminal profiling Criminalistics Victimology

Types of Profiling Offender Victim Equivocal Death DNA Crime Scene Psychological Geographical

Purpose of Profiling Investigative tool Direction Psychological Insights/Advice Developing systematic computer tracking Facilitating communication Evidence corroboration

Problems with Profiling Wrong Direction—strain on resources Errors in information Rush to conclusion Misunderstood offender profiles Place specific murders cannot be geographically profiled

Signatures of Serial Murderers How does a signature differ from a MO (method of operation)? Why is this information important in a serial murder case?

Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP) VICAP—served as a national clearinghouse for reports involving solved or unsolved homicides, attempted homicides, abductions, missing persons where violence is suspected, and unidentified dead bodies involving homicides. Why did it fail? Is this something that we need?

Solvability Factors Quality of police interviews with eyewitnesses Circumstances that led to the initial stop of the murderer Circumstances that established probable cause to search and seize physical evidence Quality of the investigations at the crime scene(s) Quality of the scientific analysis of the physical evidence

Law Enforcement Performance Do you think law enforcement agencies should be criticized for their performance in solving serial murder cases? Are they successful?

WRAP UP Any Questions/Concerns? Next Week’s Topic: Sentencing Serial Killers