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Criminal Profiling And Its Relevance In The Nigerian Criminal Justice System
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1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This
research, which is undertaken in the light of the above stated problems
and questions, is a qualitative one. It adopts an analytical approach
and a comparative analytical approach.
The standard legal research
method of case analysis is been used. This involves extensive case
analysis. Cases that involved offender profiling is been analyzed. This
method provides adequate background information on the relevance of
criminal profiling in the criminal justice system.
The study will
also be based on both primary and secondary legal sources. These primary
sources include various legislations relating to the criminal justice
system in Nigeria and other jurisdictions and countries most especially
the USA and the UK. Secondary sources will include reference to
textbooks, journals and articles written by leading authors and scholars
in the area of criminal and offender profiling. Online articles,
journals, abstracts and books will also serve as a secondary information
source in this study.
The limitation to this project is the
inability to carryout interviews with crime scene analysts and criminal
profilers due to the rarity of such experts in the country. This
limitation affects the access to first hand and up to date information
on the different approaches to criminal profiling.
11 1.6 LITERATURE REVIEW
Canter
notes that ‘criminal profiling’ is a term coined by the FBI in the
1970’s to describe their criminal investigative analysis work.32 He
maintained that “when FBI agents first began this work they invented a
new term to grace their actions: criminal profiling. By doing so they
created the impression of a package, a system that was sitting waiting
to be employed, rather than the mixture of craft, experience and
intellectual energy that they themselves admit is at the core of their
activities‖.33
Canter sees criminal profiling as ‘criminal shadows’.
He maintained that a criminal “leaves psychological traces, tell-tale
patterns of behaviour that indicate the sort of person he is. Gleaned
from the crime scene and reports from witnesses, these traces are more
ambiguous and subtle than those examined by the biologist or physicist.
They cannot be taken into a laboratory and dissected under the
microscope. They are more like shadows, which undoubtedly are connected
to the criminal who cast them, but they flicker and change, and it may
not always be obvious where they come from. Yet, if they can be fixed
and interpreted, criminal shadows can indicate where investigators
should look and what sort of person they should be looking for‖.34
Canter and Heritage also maintained that “a criminal leaves evidence of
his personality through his actions in relation to a crime. Any person’s
behaviour exhibits characteristics unique to that person, as well as
patterns and consistencies which are typical of the subgroup to which he
or she belongsâ€.35
Ainsworth defined criminal profiling as “the
process of using all the available information about a crime, a crime
scene, and a victim, in order to compose a profile of the (as yet)
unknown perpetrator.36 For Davies, “criminal profiling (more technically
known as Criminal Investigative Analysis) is the name given to a
variety of techniques whereby information gathered at a crime scene,
including reports of an offender’s behaviour is used both to infer
motivation for an offence and to produce a description of the type of
person likely to be responsible.
32 Ibid at 25
33 ibid
34 ibid
35 ibid at 26.
36 Peter .B. Ainsworth, 2001, Offender Profiling and Crime Analysis, 7, Devon Willian Publishing.
37
Anne Davies, 1992, Rapists Behaviour: A three Aspect Model as a Basis
for Analysis and Identification of a Serial Crime, Forensic Science
International, 173.
Geberth sees a criminal personality profile
as “an educated attempt to provide investigative agencies with specific
information as to the type of individual who may have committed a
certain crime.38 Turvey, writing from a behavioural evidence analysis
point of view, defines criminal profiling as “the process of inferring
the personality characteristics of individuals responsible for
committing criminal acts‖.39 For Grubin, criminal profiling refers to
“information gathered at a crime scene, including reports of an
offender’s behaviour, used both to infer motivation for an offence and
to produce a description of the type of person likely to be
responsibleâ€.40 According to Douglas and Olshaker, “Criminal profiling
is the development of an investigation by means of obtainable
information regarding an offence and crime scene to compile a
psychosomatic representation of the known architect of the crime‖.41
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The Nigerian criminal justice system is not entirely ignorant or unaware of the use and the merits of the application of criminal profiling as a tool in crime investigation. However, criminal profiling in Nigeria has not nearly reached the level of recognition, functionality or institutionalization that it has attained in other jurisdictions.This study aims to increase the awareness, explore the import, feasibility and the practicality of offender profiling in criminal acts especially those of v ... Continue reading---
