Practical Profiling and Serial Homicide Investigation for Police Investigators
Instructor: Pat Brown
Investigative Criminal Profiler
The Pat Brown Criminal Profiling Agency
CEO/The Sexual Homicide Exchange
Director of CAPTURE:
Coalition for Apprehending Predators Through Utilizing Resources Effectively
Author of Killing for Sport: Inside the Minds of Serial Killers
Signature, offender typologies, modus operandi, crime scene indicators, victimology, etc; learn these concepts in a week long course on profiling serial homicides and any investigator will be able to psychologically analyze crime scenes through crime classifications and inductive inputs and be able to easily identify the offender!
Highly unlikely.
Although, a class like this is usually taught by a PhD who has spent years studying the subject, these confusing and difficult concepts are presented in overwhelming three-to- five day seminars and touted as a practical methodology to solving crime. While these seminars may increase officers' CEUs, the cost to the department in seminar costs and lost work hours rarely justifies the time spent learning impractical psychological theories.
Criminal profiling, as it has been historically used, has not been proven to be effective in solving serial crimes and is thought by many to be nothing but a hoax concocted by psychologists and FBI profilers. One wonders, therefore, why police departments continue to bring in folks to teach “criminal investigative analysis”, “crime scene analysis”, or “behavior evidence analysis” - all euphemisms for the tarnished criminal profiling label– if doing so does not improve the actual closure rate of serial homicides.
Most likely the answer lies in those abysmally low closure rates. In spite of all the hard work and incredible number of man-hours put out by investigators on these cases, rarely are serial killers caught. In a desperate attempt to find a silver bullet to identify suspects in stranger homicides, police departments hope the “mysteries” of profiling might be revealed in these classes and allow the investigator to suddenly pull the killer out of the seemingly indistinguishable criminal population and close a string of unsolved homicides that has been a source of ongoing frustration for that particular jurisdiction.
Unfortunately, these classes, while interesting, are not effective solutions to the problem. Studying fanciful “explanations” of a killer’s psychological state, developing convoluted and questionable explanations for crime scene elements and motives, and basing investigative decisions on inductive statistics and computer generated probabilities is wrongheaded and damaging to an investigation.
Investigative Criminal Profiling as taught by Pat Brown (aka Practical Profiling) uses facts, logic, and effective deductions based on hands-on experience with crime scenes, investigations, forensics, and criminal behavior in the real world, the purview of the homicide investigator. The actual solving of serial homicides requires excellent crime scene management, thorough handling of the casework, proper evidence collection and photography, special serial homicide investigative methods, good police communications with the public and media, aggressive inter-jurisdictional networking and suspect data bank inputting, and practical investigative criminal profiling skills that increase proper suspect identification and decrease wasteful investigative avenues.
PRACTICAL PROFILING AND SERIAL HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION FOR POLICE INVESTIGATORS is a eight hour class aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the police investigator’s present skills by practically applying investigative criminal profiling and serial homicide investigative techniques to better address a serial homicide investigation. Many actual cases and crime scene and autopsy photos will be used in this class to illustrate, analyze and debate the issues presented in each segment of the seminar. Myths of profiling will be exposed, psychological jargon will be nonexistent, and the methodology taught in this class can be easily understood and used by any investigator in the field.
This one day seminar cuts straight to the heart of the matter. Investigators will come away with useful tools that can apply to any homicide investigation in their caseload and a methodology for sexual homicide investigation that will bring increased results.
Seminar Syllabus
Participants will analyze real cases, using crime scene and autopsy photos to study investigative issues and the elements of crime scene reconstruction and profiling.
Morning – Practical Profiling
(The Use of Profiling in Classifying and Solving Homicides)
Hour One: What exactly is criminal profiling? - Can you do it yourself? - When should you call in an expert? - The truth about profiling and profilers - Inductive and deductive profiling
Hour Two: What is a serial killer? - Serial killer typologies: myth and reality – Sex and serial killers – How to identify psychopaths
Hour Three: Crime scene reconstruction -Use of ballistics, blood spatter pattern, and experts to understand the crime scene -Using physical evidence to develop a profile of the crime and suspects
Hour Four: Victim and community Relations – The use of citizens, family, and the media to further case closure
Afternoon – Serial Homicide Investigation (A New Approach to Handling and Solving Serial Homicides)
Hour Five: Myths of catching serial killers -Why serial homicides are rarely closed -The failure of VICAP.
Hour Six: Basic rules of sexual homicide investigation – Evidence and the crime scene – Methodologies for handling the early, middle, and late stages of a serial homicide investigation – Inheriting a cold case
Hour Seven: Linking serial Homicides -Eliminating linkage blindness
Hour Eight: Establishing the CAPTURE program in your department
Fees: Serial Homicide is a serious problem - our only interest is to stop these crimes from happening. Because of this, we offer this 8-hour seminar for a straight department fee of $500 (plus travel expenses; this cost can be lowered if Pat Brown has other seminars, casework, or speaking engagements scheduled for your city in the same time frame).
Please feel free to contact us via e-mail, by writing, or calling:
The
Sexual Homicide Exchange
1730 New Brighton Blvd #325
Minneapolis, MN 55413
651-653-4099
fax 443-342-1277
Email information@sheprofilers.com
