CRJU 4200: PROFILING THE SERIAL OFFENDER

 

Final Profiling Project:

Serial Offender Criminal Profile

Instructions: Choose ONE serial offender (serial killer, serial rapist, serial stalker, serial arsonist, mass murderer) for your project. To do this assignment you will need to find CREDIBLE documentaries, news articles, and/or other information (e.g., court documents, credible online sources, books) about your chosen serial offender. You MUST choose an offender that HAS been caught (Zodiac and Jack the Ripper, etc. are not allowed). You may choose a serial offender that operated outside the U.S. (e.g., your choice is NOT limited to U.S. offenders). Your task is to analyze the crime based on the available information about the offense behavior/ crime scene evidence.

How you will be graded : You will be graded on your ability to utilize what you have learned in the course to develop a detailed comprehensive profile of your chosen serial offender based on the existing knowledge available on criminal behavior, typologies, and profiling. Your analysis/profile should be organized as outlined for you in the instructions.

Formatting:

 

· Title page using APA style with your name, date, and course AND name of your offender. Place a picture (or a selection of pictures) of your offender (or suspected offender) on your cover page. No abstract needed. Header required. Page numbers in the top right corner.

· MUST be a MINIMUM of 10 pages (most papers will be much longer than this) EXCLUDING the cover page and reference page.

· Typed, double spaced, 12pt. Times New Roman only, 1” margins on all 4 sides of paper

· Reference page at the end on a separate page that follows APA formatting

· PROOFREAD: spelling, grammar, punctuation, and proper capitalization count

· One full letter grade will be docked for failure to follow formatting guidelines.

· Internal citations using APA formatting is required for ALL SECTIONS!

 

NOTE: No student can choose the same serial offender. Therefore, your chosen offender MUST be approved by me. Approval must be attained by me by March 19, 2023 in the discussion forum in Module 2 although I strongly recommend choosing earlier. This is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Final Written Project and Video Presentation are DUE by 11:59pm Thursday Apr 27, 2023. This assignment is connected to Turnitin.com You will submit your written document in an MS Word document (NO PDFs accepted). You will also submit a file with your video presentation. This can be a document with a link to your presentation on YouTube or can be an MP4 attachment. Double check your work submitted.

The easiest way to submit your project is to upload it to YouTube (make it unlisted so that I can see it, but the public cannot) and provide the link in a separate word document).

Absolutely NO LATE WORK will be accepted.

 

WRITTEN PORTION OF YOUR PROFILE

How your profile should be formatted:

Label EACH section as follows:

INTRODUCTION : Introduce your chosen offender and the case/crimes. This is to be a basic intro (no more than one paragraph to one page). This section must be in PARAGRAPH FORM.

OFFENDER CHARACTERISTICS : This section must be done in bullet points.

· Name (including all aliases and any nicknames given)

· Race

· Sex

· Date of Birth (DOB)

· Age (at time of first killing or rape & age when apprehended)

· height/weight

· hair color & eye color

· occupation & socioeconomic status

· residence

· Knowledge of/Familiarity with Location Skill Level

· Knowledge of/Familiarity with Victim

· Other relevant information

 

BACKGROUND/TIME LINE : In paragraph format , complete a comprehensive background of your offender such as a thorough discussion of his/her childhood. Using information you learned from class, explain what caused your offender to be the way he/she is.

· Next, in bullet points in chronological order , complete a comprehensive background of each murder/rape such as ALL pertinent dates of incidents, evidence recovery, and investigative actions.

VICTIMOLOGY : This section must be done in bullet points.

· Demographics (For each victim provide all the following that is known)

· Name

· Race

· Sex

· Date of birth (DOB)

· Age

· height/weight

· hair color & eye color

· occupation & socioeconomic status

· residence (if known)

· location(s) of crime

 

Provide an overview of the characteristics listed below involving the victims (Is there a pattern? Are the victims different in all of these categories or are they relatively similar?)

· Relationship Status

· Lifestyle & Incident Risk (Do the victims have a low or high risk of victimization based on their lifestyle? Explain.)

 

 

THE INVESTIGATION: This section must be done in paragraph format.

· Briefly discuss the investigation of your chosen offender from start to finish. Things to consider:

· How did the investigation begin? What leads were there?

· What actions were taken by investigators to solve the case? What agencies were involved in the investigation?

· Were there any stalls/roadbumps in the case?

· What ultimately lead to the offender’s capture (if caught)?

 

SCENE CHARACTERISTICS : This section must be done in bullet points.

· Location (scene of the crime)

· Point of Contact

· Weapons found or not?

· Victim resistance

· Method of Approach

· Method of Attack

· Methods of Control

· Sexual Acts

· Evidence of Planning or Precautionary Acts

· Scene Types (Organized, Disorganized, both? Explain and elaborate.)

 

 

EQUIVOCAL ANALYSIS OF AUTOPSY FINDINGS : (If available) This section must be done in bullet points.

· What physical evidence was found on each victim?

· What wounds were found on each victim (e.g., knife wounds, gunshot wounds, strangulation, etc.)? How many wounds did each victim have?

· What was the cause of death for each victim (e.g., asphyxiation, drowned, poisoned, gunshot wounds, knife wounds, etc.)?

· Any other autopsy information?

 

CRIMINAL PROFILE/CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS : This section is meant for a discussion (in bullet points) of characteristics of the offender inferred based on available evidence with attention to criminological theories, behavioral theories, typologies, and concepts discussed/learned in class. YOU MUST ANSWER EACH IN THE ORDER PRESENTED BELOW. Analysis should include all of the following:

· Modus Operandi (M.O.)

· Method of approach

· Method of attack

· Weapon

· Protection of offender identity

· Facilitation of offender escape

· Fortifying factors of M.O.?

· Destabilizing factors of M.O.?

· Any X-factors? (If none, state this)

· Any evidence of “staging”? (If none, state this)

· Personation/Signature (if none, state this)

· Motive for the crimes

· Offender Personality Type (Organized/Disorganized; psychopath/sociopath)

· Mental Disorder or Mental Psychosis (yes, there is a difference); describe in depth

· Situational/Contextual Factors (refers to situations/contexts that led your offender to be the way he/she was)

· Which typology (or typologies) does your offender best fall under? Explain your reasoning.

· Anything else you see pertinent to the case

 

THE OUTCOME: This section must be done in bullet points.

· What was the outcome of the case ?

· Did the offender plead guilty or go to trial?

· Convicted?

· What was the sentence, if convicted?

· Where is he/she incarcerated?

· If sentenced to death, is he/she still on death row? Die of natural causes on death row? Executed?

 

REFERENCES : Provide a reference list of all materials used and cited in the analysis using APA style format (see OWL Purdue APA formatting). This page belongs at the end of your report (does not count as part of the length of the assignment). Regarding references, note the following:

· All non-academic sources are strictly prohibited. You are specifically restricted from using Wikipedia or any other similar encyclopedic sources (e.g., about.com, ask.com, yahoo.com, etc.).

· Information regarding your offender should come from reputable/credible news sources, documentaries, and/or books.

· Any use of non-academic sources such as those listed above will result in an automatic zero on the assignment.

FINALLY, you will create a video presentation of your semester project. See directions below.

Guidelines for the Video Presentation :

This will be a formal presentation that you will video record. You must be visible in the video presentation AND you must show a valid form of identification visible at the beginning of the video (e.g., Driver’s license or Student ID). This is used for student ID verification to make sure it is you. Since this is a formal presentation, you must dress the part, meaning you must dress professionally—this is meant to help you prepare for job/career interviews. If you do not have business casual wear, it’s up to you to notify me the first two weeks of class. You must use some sort of program to outline your video presentation (e.g., PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.). In other words, you cannot just “wing it” with your words. Critical thought must be put into the written portion of your presentation. Your written presentation should be in an outline format so that you are NOT reading fully from your written presentation . Your video presentation shall be between 9-13 minutes. You will be deducted points for being under time and over time. This makes it imperative that you practice your presentation before the final version.

For video recording, you can use PowerPoint, Prezi, or if you are a Dalton State student you can use a video room in the library (the library recommends reserving the room so the room is guaranteed during the time you need it). If you choose this option, you can reserve the room using this link: Reserve a Video Room in Roberts Library. If you are not a Dalton State student, you can contact your library to see if they have video recording rooms for presentations. Most university libraries have this available. You can also use Screencast-O-Matic which offers up to 15 minutes of free recording or you can use Canva which is also free. If you have any questions about any of these, you can contact librarian Amy Burger at aburger1@daltonstate.edu or call her office at 706-272-4459 (even if you are not a Dalton State student—she can point you in the right direction).

You must provide evidence of reading course material in your presentation. The presentation must be organized, free of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization errors. You must also consider the style of your presentation—you want it to look professional, so use professional layouts and professional font. You will also be graded on your use of uhhs and umms. We are all guilty of this, so this is a great assignment to help you tackle those bad habits now. The purpose of this assignment is to strengthen your speaking, presentation, and communication skills, which are transferable skills such as interviewing and other communication endeavors.

 

***NOTE: Let me make it clear that this is a LONG and tedious project. The earlier you start on it, the better you will do. I can guarantee you that if you wait until the last minute, you will not do well. You will regret waiting until the last minute if you do. If I were you, I’d work on this week by week as you learn the material. Let me remind you that this project is worth 20% of your final course grade.