Benefits of criminal profiling in serial crimes
Criminal profiling helps serial crimes exclusively because of their major differences from other crimes:
- Serial crimes are stranger-to-stranger crimes. Normal crime investigations begin with the relationships of the victim, but this usually provides useless information in serial crimes. All information on the criminal has to come from evidence from the crime scene. A criminal profile can help narrow the pool of suspects in the investigator's somewhat blind search.
- Usually involve a "ritual" or "signature." The ritual or signature is something the criminal always does to the victim. This could include a position the victim is always left in, or a certain mark left on their body. In a normal crime, this is rarely found. With a criminal profiler interpreting the crime scene, the ritual or signature can reveal a motive of the criminal.
- Include a "cooling-off" period. Once a crime is committed, the criminal is not on the run. The serial criminal will go back to his normal life between crimes known as a cooling off period. Most serial criminals stay in a single location to commit all of their crimes. Because of this a geographic aspect can be factored into the profile to learn where a criminal might generally live. With a cooling off period and geographic information profiles can easily help investigators locate a criminal before his next crime