Criminal Profiling Of Psychopathic Serial Killers

Monal, Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad

ABSTRACT

A method to produce details about the person committing the crime, typically a psychopath serial killer, by analyzing the crime scene and studying the pattern and nature of the crime performed is termed criminal profiling. The two main techniques of criminal profiling are either by doing the analysis of the crime scene or by investigating the psychology of the crime scene.1 Criminal profiling of psychopathic killers is interesting to study as it differentiates between the on-screen display in books, novels, series, documentaries, movies, etc., of how it is, from what it actually is in real life. Many stakeholders, such as judges, police officers, professionals, scientists, and psychologists, do not recognize profiling as an investigative technique. Criminal profiling is considered both science and art, differentiated by how we look at it.

With the rise in the number of crimes in our country, like India, criminal profiling proves a non-disposable technique for the investigation of violent crimes and ones with similar patterns that need to be in practice. It is crucial for criminals identified with mental disorders, such as in cases of psychopathic serial killers, to be first examined by an eligible psychologist and get treated. People who do criminal profiling of psychopathic killers are called when no conclusion can be drawn from the evidence from the crime scene. It is shocking to hear that there are 73,000 cases still left before the Supreme Court of India only due to lack of investigation or, we can say, due to lack of proper style of investigation required at a certain time.3 Most of the mental disorders are not even recognized, which creates a need to classify them properly. A lot of cases involving horrendous crimes are recorded to be performed by serial killers and people with mental illness, but they are not reported as done by psychopaths in India and all across the world. Some countries, like the U.K. and the U.S., have different statutes for psychopaths.

With the increase in the severity of psychopathic crimes, there is a need to create an infrastructure to predict them properly and take the required steps and also how technology is playing a role in doing so. The gender neutrality part of psychopath killers is also a part to be explored due to the fact that it is generally regarded that male members of society are psychopathic killers and not females, but there are proven instances that make it gender neutral for both. For instance, Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit were sisters. That is, they were females who killed over six toddlers and many kidnappings.4 Wrong decisions are happening due to less knowledge in the field of criminal profiling. It is necessary to introduce criminal profiling as a compulsory practice for the investigation of a case rather than to just depend on the police and judiciary.