Learn to Understand the Complexities of Offenders with this Criminal Profiling Course

Understanding the underlying motivations behind criminal behaviour is crucial in curbing illicit activities.  Crime is a multifaceted phenomenon, spanning a spectrum of severity and intent. It encompasses impulsive acts driven by momentary lapses in self-control, as well as a range of offenses, from minor drug possession to petty theft and defamation, all the way to the gravest crimes like homicide and sex trafficking.  Criminals are influenced by various factors, including personality disorders, mental health issues, and external circumstances beyond their command.  This course will show you how profiling works, the typical profiles of a range of offenders from white collar to violent criminals, how crime scenes are analysed and much more.

This course is suitable for security personnel, law enforcement, prison wardens, even crime writers and anyone with an interest in criminal psychology and profiling.

Study Goals

• Describe the nature and scope of criminal profiling.
• Explain different methods used for criminal profiling.
• Describe how a crime scene may be analysed.
• Describe criminal offender characteristics.
• Describe different types of victims.
• Describe the common profiles of sex crime offenders and victim profiles.
• Describe the common profiles of violent crime offenders.
• Describe common profiles of white-collar crime offenders.
• Apply criminal profiling to victimless crimes, consensual crimes, and other crimes.
• Discuss the application of criminal profiling, and its importance to society.

Detailed Course Outline

This course is made up of a number of lessons or units. Each of these has self assessment questions, a set task (practical homework) and an assignment which you can upload online.

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction to Criminal Profiling

• Types of crime
• Jack the ripper
• FBI behavioural science unit
• What is criminal profiling?
• Intelligence profiling
• Other related terms
• Investigative psychology
• Crime scene profiling/crime scene analysis profiling
• Premeditation
• Crime of passion
• MMPI
• Victimology
• Linkage analysis
• Modus operandi
• Signature behaviour
• The criminal profiling process
• What is included in a profile?
• How are criminal profiles used?
• Role of profiling
• Who uses profiling?
• Contributions of psychologists, psychiatrists

2. Profiling Methods

• Top down
• Bottom up
• Nomothetic vs. Idiographic profiling
• Organised and disorganised offenders
• Behavioural evidence analysis
• Forensic analysis
• Victimology
• Crime analysis
• Offender characteristics
• Investigative psychology: statistical approach
• Behavioural investigative advice
• Geographical profiling
• The main concepts of geographical profiling

3. Crime Scene Analysis

• Crime scene evidence
• Crime scene location
• Crime scene type
• Choice of victim
• Targeted victim
• Opportunistic victim
• Method of approach
• Method of attack
• Force
• Method of control
• Patterns and linkages
• Method of operating
• Signature
• Case linkages
• Writing a crime scene analysis

4. Offender Characteristics

• Who commits crimes?
• Gender
• Age
• Relationships
• Mental illness
• Mental health and crime
• Psychopathy
• Sadism
• Learning disabilities and crime
• Gender and crime
• Why are men more likely to commit crimes?
• The general theory of crime
• Nature & nurture
• Sociological theories of why men commit more crimes than women
• Sociobiological and evolutionary theories
• Stereotyping and generalisations
• Motives
• Motivation
• Understanding motive
• Rapist motivational typology

5. Victimology

• Understanding victim profiles
• Goal of forensic victimology
• Victim backgrounds
• Victim biases
• Exposure of victims to crime
• Lifestyle factors
• Traits
• Behaviours
• Professions
• Situational factors
• Victim timelines
• Case study – knife crime
• Victims of serial killers
• Offender-victim relationships
• Problems with victim profiling
• Incorrect profile
• Stereotyping and generalisations
• Reliability

6. Offender Profiling – Sexual Crimes

• Serial crimes
• Types of sex crimes
• Rape
• Power reassurance type
• Power assertive type
• Anger retaliatory type
• Anger excitement type (sadistic)
• Serial rape
• The use of profiling in rape cases
• Finding the offender
• Profiling rapists
• Sexual murder
• Cannibalism sexual murder

7. Offender Profiling – Violent Crimes

• Murder
• Anger
• Profit
• Ideology
• Mental illness
• Serial killers or serial murderers
• Visionary killers
• Missionary killers
• Hedonistic killers
• Control or power killers
• Organised killers
• Disorganised Killers
• Mixed killers
• Stages of serial killing
• Mass murder
• Types of mass killers
• Pseudo commando
• Disciple
• Disgruntled employee
• Family annihilator
• Set and run killer
• Genocide
• Terrorism

8. Offender Profiling – White-Collar Crimes

• Blackmail and extortion
• Intimidation
• Cybercrime
• Phishing scams
• Identity theft
• Intellectual property infringement
• Cyberstalking
• Online harassment
• Hacking
• Fraud
• Insurance reports
• Unlawful sackings
• Arson
• Common profiles of white-collar offenders
• Shoplifter profiler
• Offender profile – hackers

9. Offender Profiling – Victimless Crimes, Consensual Crimes and Other Crimes

• Theft & robbery crime
• Workplace bullying
• Corporal punishment
• Domestic violence
• Initiation ceremonies
• Hazing
• Self-defence
• Neighbourhood disputes
• Softer crimes
• Case studies
• The case of the Unabomber (Ted Kaczynski)
• The case of the Beltway Snipers (John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo)
• The case of the Boston Strangler (Albert Desalvo)

10. Profiling in Action

• Profiling in action – Jeffrey Dahmer
• Gathering information
• Writing reports for divorce cases
• Criminal profiling as expert witness testimony
• Jury decision-making
• Accuracy issues
• Public perception
• Miscarriage of justice in criminal profiling
• The case of Richard Jewell (1996)
• The case of Colin Stagg (1992)
• The case of Ronald Cotton (1984)
• The case of Gary Dotson (1977)
• Why is criminal profiling important to society as a whole?
• Outlook on profiling
• Uses of profiling
• The future of criminal profiling
• Criminal profiling and artificial intelligence

When you have completed the lessons of your Criminal Profiling Course, you will be given the option of taking the optional exam. It’s okay if you don’t want the exam, we still issue your Careerline Certificate. For Advanced Certificates however, the exam is compulsory (per module) and are included in the course fee.