1. 2011CCJ Offender Profiling Week 3: Forensic Science – Behavioral Evidence Analysis (BEA)
Presented by Aaron Sell
School of Criminology & Criminal Justice
Semester 1, 2016

2. Origins of BEA Brent Turvey, forensic scientist, Bond University
Vocal critic of other profiling approaches
Established a primarily deductive method
reason from the evidence, not other crimes

3. Behavioral evidence analysis
“A deductive criminal profile is a set of offender characteristics that are reasoned from the convergence of evidence patterns within a crime... Pertinent physical evidence suggestive of behavior, victimology, and crime scene characteristics are included in the structure of a written profile to support any arguments regarding offender characteristics.”

4. Behavioral evidence analysis
Deductive – content derived from the evidence
Idiographic – primarily based on that particular crime
Does not claim to be a science exactly
Composed of four stages, note the similarities between them and CIA

5. 1. Equivocal Forensic Analysis
“examination, testing, and interpretation of any and all available physical evidence.”
do not assume investigator competence
Avoid a priori investigative bias
Investigators will document what they look for…
“If you got a dead body and you think his brother did it, you're gonna find out you're right”
“Verbal” Kint, the Usual Suspects

6. 2. Victimology
“the process of investigating, establishing, and evaluating victim traits and history.”
risk assessment
Essentially the same thing that is done in CIA
Comes in “lifestyle” and “situational” forms

7. 2. Victimology Lifestyle exposure:
Careers: Attorneys, Law Enforcement, Prostitutes, Drug dealers
Afflictions: drug addiction, alcoholism, mental disorders
Personality: aggressiveness, impulsivity, self-destruction, passivity, aberrant sexual behavior

8. 2. Victimology –lifestyle exposures
Young
Female
Old
Mentally defective
Immigrants
Minorities
Dull normals
Depressed
Acquisitive “greedy”
Wanton
Lonesome / Heartbroken
Tormentor
Extorted/victimized

9. 2. Victimology Situational / Incident Exposure: Time/location
Number of potential victims
Availability of weapons (increases exposure according to Turvey)
Victim state of mind or perception
Drug or alcohol use

10. 3. Crime Scene Analysis
“process of investigating, establishing and evaluating behavioral evidence from a crime in order to catalog it.”
Attempt to determine: method of approach, attack, control, location type, nature and sequence of sexual acts, materials used, verbal activity, and precautionary acts.

11. 4. Offender characteristics
Constructing a profile of the offender based on logical deductions from the evidence.
Turvey spends a great deal of time criticizing previous approaches to profiling and identifying errors and dangers in those approaches.
His own approach is very similar.

12. Principles of Behavioral Evidence Analysis
Principle of uniqueness
unique genetics, environment and situation
behavioral distinctiveness assumption
Principle of separation
between offender and profiler
avoid projection and displacement
Principle of behavioral dynamics
Offenders change because of circumstances
Drug use, experience, illness, mood, etc.

13. Principles of Behavioral Evidence Analysis
Principle of behavioral motivation
known in dev. psych. as “theory of mind”
conscious/subconscious, intelligent/stupid
Principle of multidetermination
an act can result from multiple motives
Principle of motivational dynamics
offenders can be motivated by different motives over the course of a crime

14. Principles of Behavioral Evidence Analysis
Principle of behavioral variance
different offenders can do the same thing for different reasons
exception/contradiction of the homology of offenders assumption
Principle of unintended consequences
Principle of memory corruption
Forgetting curve, weapon focus, cross-racial ID, self-serving bias, suggestion, expectation...

15. Potential bias Very similar to CIA approaches except:
All statements must be justified with reason
Comparisons to previous crimes are suspect unless scientifically documented
Turvey spends a lot of time documenting kinds of bias. BEA is defined, partly, by being trained to avoid these kinds of biases.

16. Biases Observation bias:
Observing what you want to see or what you expect
Correll’s study on black/white man with gun
Functional logic to this bias, but be aware of it
Confirmation bias:
Look only for evidence that supports your theory
Ignore non-confirming evidence
Ex. Cloud experiment, “other” party ignores reality
There’s a degree of functional logic to all these biases, but you should be aware of them.

17. Biases Remember when you were right, forget when you were wrong.
Memory biases
Remember when you were right, forget when you were wrong.
Turvey insists all reports be written and dated
Distinguish “Individuation” from “Classification”
Individuation: e.g. Fingerprints, DNA, photograph
Classification: e.g. Race, height, occupation

18. CIA vs. BEA CIA tends to use inductive reasoning and typologies
BEA uses deductive reasoning and explicit evidentiary reasoning
Let’s distinguish based on a test case

19. “Eklutna” Annie
Body discovered on abandoned road outside of Anchorage Alaska on July 21st 1980
4’11” – 5’3”, years old
Stabbed in the back
Clothes: knee-high reddish brown high-heeled boots, jeans, sleeveless knit top and brown leather jacket.

20. Joanna Messina + Sherry Morrow
Joanna and Sherry were both topless dancers in Anchorage working at different bars.
Joanna was half-eaten by a bear and the cause of death was unable to be determined.
Found in a gravel pit
Joanna Messina
Sherry Morrow
Knik River Road
Joanna found in a gravel pit.
Sherry Morrow worked at the Wild Cherry Bar, had ace bandages near body. Friends said someone had offered her $300 to pose for pictures. Body discovered by hunters.

21. Joanna Messina + Sherry Morrow
Sherry shot 3 times; no bullet holes in her clothes. Friends questioned. Restraints found.
Worked at Wild Cherry Bar
Had ace bandages near body
According to friends offered $300 to pose for pictures
Body discovered by three hunters
Joanna Messina
Sherry Morrow
Knik River Road
Joanna found in a gravel pit.
Sherry Morrow worked at the Wild Cherry Bar, had ace bandages near body. Friends said someone had offered her $300 to pose for pictures. Body discovered by hunters.

22. BEA uses deductive reasoning
Evidence #1: some of the women were found in areas that were accessible only by plane.
Evidence #2: those women were last seen in other areas.
Conclusion #1: those women were transported by plane.
Conclusion #2: the killer must have access to a private airplane.

23. BEA uses deductive reasoning
Evidence #1: Sherry’s clothes had no bullet holes.
Evidence #2: Sherry was dressed when found
Evidence #3: Sherry’s wounds were quickly fatal
Conclusion: Someone dressed Sherry’s nude body post-mortem

24. CIA tends to use inductive reasoning
Evidence #1: When nude victims are dressed it is usually by: the killer, family members, those who discover the body
Evidence #2: Sherry was discovered by multiple hunters who were strangers to her. They claim they did not dress the body.
Conclusion: The killer dressed Sherry after killing her.

25. CIA tends to use inductive reasoning
Evidence #1: Killers usually dress dead bodies for one of two reasons: guilt and remorse over their actions, or so that the body can be transported without raising suspicion.
Evidence #2: The bodies of some of his victims showed evidence of torture.
Conclusion: The killer dressed Sherry so he could transport her.

26. Some reasoning is ambiguous
Evidence #1: Three bodies have been found in obscure areas by chance.
Evidence #2: There has a been a large increase in missing person’s reports of young strippers and prostitutes.
Conclusion: The killer has killed many more than three women.

27. Combining deductive and inductive reasoning
All profilers use both kinds of reasoning, but emphasize them differently.
This reasoning allows you to reconstruct the crimes, and this can lead to more inferences.

28. Crime Reconstruction
Someone is conning Anchorage area young women to follow him. He then abducts them, takes them to his private plane and flies them to an obscure location. He strips them, kills them, redresses them, and dumps the body elsewhere.

29. CIA would then apply the serial killer typology
Table 1: Crime Scene Characteristics of the Organized and Disorganized Offender
Psychopathic (Organized) Crime Scene Characteristics
Psychotic (Disorganized) Crime Scene Characteristics
Offense planned
Victim is a targeted stranger
Personalizes victim
Controlled conversation
Crime scene reflects overall control
Demands submissive victims
Restraints used
Aggressive acts prior to death
Body hidden
Weapon/evidence absent
Transports victim
Offense spontaneous
Victim or location known
Depersonalizes victim
Minimal conversation
Crime scene random and sloppy
Sudden violence to victim
Minimal restraints used
Sexual acts after death
Body left in plain view
Evidence/weapon often present
Body left at death scene
What happens when we have elements of both groups in the one crime scene? This is one of the criticisms of the dichotomy and we will talk more about it next week when we look at the approach in depth.
So once the profiler has categorised the crime scene as one or the other, he then infers characteristics about the perpetrator based on the dichotomy.
(Table 1 and 2 from Ressler & Burgess 1985, as cited by Petherick, 2006)

30. CIA would then apply the serial killer typology
Table 2: Offender Characteristics of the Organized and Disorganized Offender
Psychopathic (Organized) Offender Characteristics
Psychotic (Disorganized) Offender Characteristics
Average to above average intelligence
Socially competent
Skilled work preferred
Sexually competent
High birth order
Father’s work stable
Inconsistent childhood discipline
Controlled mood during crime
Use of alcohol with crime
Precipitating situational stress
Living with partner
Mobility with car in good condition
Follows crime in news media
May change jobs or leave town
Below average intelligence
Socially inadequate
Unskilled work
Sexually incompetent
Low birth order
Father’s work unstable
Harsh discipline as a child
Anxious mood during crime
Minimal use of alcohol
Minimal situational stress
Living alone
Lives/works near the crime scene
Minimal interest in the news media
Significant behavior change
Note, that such a dichotomy is an illustration of the assumptions outlined earlier. Behavioral consistency and distinctiveness because the dichotomy assumes that we can categorise an offender, based on one or more crime scenes, and homology, because we assume that offenders assigned to either the organised or disorganised group, will have similar characteristics.

31. Robert Hansen

32. How accurate was the typology in this case?
Table 2: Offender Characteristics of the Organized Offender
Psychopathic (Organized) Offender Characteristics
Robert Hansen
Average to above average intelligence
Socially competent
Skilled work preferred
Sexually competent
High birth order
Father’s work stable
Inconsistent childhood discipline
Controlled mood during crime
Use of alcohol with crime
Precipitating situational stress
Living with partner
Mobility with car in good condition
Follows crime in news media
May change jobs or leave town
Unclear. High school graduate.
Severe stutter, few friends.
Hunter, baker, started own business
Married twice with two children.
Only child
Baker
Father was abusive, mother neglectful
Unknown
No. Timed so family was away.
Yes, wife.
Yes, and airplane.
Yes.
Did not.
Note, that such a dichotomy is an illustration of the assumptions outlined earlier. Behavioral consistency and distinctiveness because the dichotomy assumes that we can categorise an offender, based on one or more crime scenes, and homology, because we assume that offenders assigned to either the organised or disorganised group, will have similar characteristics.

33. Summary of BEA
BEA is the result of Brent Turvey’s criticisms of traditional profiling approaches
Meant to be as scientific as possible
Primarily deductive, based on forensic science

34. Summary of BEA Has four stages: Equivocal Forensic Analysis
Victimology
Crime Scene Analysis
Offender Characteristics (profile)

35. Summary of BEA
The Behavioral Evidence Analysis literature is filled with documented biases and errors that profilers can make.
The actual profiling process is very similar to other approaches such as CIA and Investigative Psychology (IP).