Write as senior level criminology student

PAPER DETAILS

The final class paper has some rules and you should focus on these when doing your project.

1. Written in a senior level criminology student style.
2. Grammar, spelling and organization are critical.
3. Use of subheadings to identify the parts of the profile is essential.
4. Demonstrating the parts noted in lecture is mandatory.  You can add parts, but what was discussed in lecture on the forth brief is important and must be addressed.
5. Double spaced.
6. I suspect this document to be about 4 to 5 pages of text, not a lot of extra spaces.
7. Use a title page and no running headers at the top of each page.
8. By deadline listed in moodle.
9. Use of outside research is helpful.  Outside research is from peer reviewed literature, not junk like newspapers and such.  Print out full copies of articles used.
10. My rules for determining peer reviewed articles are listed below.

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My personal rules for an article or source to be used in this class and for your project are as follows.  These must be:

1. full text,

2. at least 6 pages long (not counting title page, charts, and references),

3. have at least 8 references/sources,

4. be from academic journals or book chapters (no magazines or newspapers allowed)

5. and be focused around your particular work product related topic/profile.

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Lastly, I offer an organization form below to assist in organizing your thoughts and additional materials that may help you form YOUR profile. 
Sociological Profiling

Remember we are looking at five types of profiles:

Diagnostic Evaluations – a.k.a. DE – a profiling term used to identify the work of psychologists and psychiatrists.

Criminal Investigative Analysis (CIA) – or the FBI method moves beyond individual analysis and towards more systematic research.

Investigative psychology – IP – based on stats and experiential psychology methods.

Geographic profiling – Geo or GP

Behavioral Evidence Analysis – BEA – deductive model, most recent, based on work of Brent Turvey.

Forensic evidence + victimology + crime scene characteristics = recognizable behavior patterns = offender characteristics.

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Another aspect is what type of research are we conducting?

Inductive methods – seek to understand the offender from reference to similar offenders from the past.

Deductive methods – uses logic and reasoning to assess the evidence and interpretation of the evidence (the scientific method).

Both Inductive and Deductive methods use premises (piece of evidence or information) and conclusions (as their building blocks).

Both also use the principles of validity (on target evidence – you measured what you wanted to) and reliability (use of the same test/tool would yield same results).

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Lastly, I have a lecture I do about crime analysis of prison radicalization, basically what is behind a profile.  I have included it below to assist you in understanding the process of profiling.   Crime analysts are NOT profilers, they are entry level jobs and many times not sworn office positions.  They are also a great place to gain experience doing deductive and inductive analysis and getting ready for future profiling experiences.

CRIME ANALYSIS

a.k.a. Dave’s Advice

Crime analysis can be many things to many people.  This outline is offered to better help you understand what local law enforcement (a.k.a. LLEA) thinks on this topic and is designed to offer the LLEA perspective to you as a class and in advance of your projects.

1. Goals of crime analysis for LLEA’s:
2. Apprehension of criminals.
3. Prevention of crime.
4. Reduce crime and social disorder.
5. Evaluation of these efforts by law enforcement.

In the case of prison radicalization the apprehension of the perpetrators is not necessarily the best option, prevention is more critical to prevent a terrorist operation.  The evaluation of the prevention efforts, or any crime effort, is a methodological task (think about your Soc 202, Soc 364/364L, and Soc 497/497L classes).  This methodological task is rarely done in social scientific terms by local law enforcement since they do not have that many trained criminologists on staff.  In truth I believe evaluations are general a process wherein “everyone” likes to congratulate themselves on a job well done and equals more of a feel good evaluation.  Sociologists and criminologists evaluate the effectiveness of policies, program and initiatives regardless of the outcomes – good, bad, happy or sad.  They are sometimes not well liked since they may tell police their efforts are less than good, a message no one likes to hear.

1. Geographic Information Systems, GIS, are a set of computer tools that allow a crime analyst to modify, visualize question and ultimately analyze data collected about crime, potential crime or criminal behavior. Crime mapping then is the process of conducting special analysis using such computer tools.  Your first assignment is designed to offer a task of this task – the data is generated by LAPD but offered by a third party vender, in this case the LA Times.  Why is crime data not offered by the crime fighting institutions like LAPD?  It is about costs – LAPD had done this service for years but with recent budget cuts and lack of resources, this task has moved over to the LA Times.  This is why the crime data and the homicide data are located where you found them.  In the future this may change as the LA Times is under bankruptcy and could decide they cannot continue to offer this public service.

• History

People using maps to chart, track or follow crime are almost as old as criminology, the scientific study of crime.  The cartography school of criminology owes its founding to such theorists as lawyer and statistician Andre-Michel Guerry, Belgium mathematician Adolphe Quetelet and Chicago School theory giants Shaw and McKay.  Shaw and McKay’s concentric zone theory of how crime manifested itself in Chicago is a critical criminological foundation for crime analysis.

As the decades progressed since that pioneering academic work, various federal efforts have tried to map crime and help LLEA’s with crime analysis (some long past current uses).  These include:

1. DMAP – Drug Mapping Analysis.
2. MAPS – A DOJ program from the 1990’s.
3. CMAP – Crime mapping and analysis program.
4. COMSTAT – NYC Program.

These efforts changed as the technology changed – namely they morphed from aggregate data analysis to the analysis of discrete criminal events/locations as the technology of computers became increasingly able to handle large datasets and data queries.

1. Crime Analyst qualifications. A good analyst has a wide range of skills to draw upon when looking at crime.  These may include:
   1. Knowledge of police operations, procedures and policies.
   2. Quantitative and qualitative research skills.
   3. The technological capabilities to operate GIS software and other analysis platforms.

Typically the job of a crime analyst is a civilian position – a sworn officer may be in charge of the analysis unit, but the analysts are not necessarily police officers.  One reason for this is the nature of police work – job rotations for many sworn officers means they will be in a position a relatively short time – several years – then moved to new duties.  That means the analytical training given to these officers is lost and new officers must be trained to replace them.  A second factor is costs – civilian workforces are cheaper than sworn officers – not just salaries but also benefits like retirement and so forth.  This may be the main reason for this fact.

1. Crime analyst is an entry level position in many LLEA’s. It can be about simple data entry and not necessarily a career choice many would opt for when leaving the university.  During this “dues” period, a good analyst will learn about data collection, data manipulation, the connections between statistics and data, the theory behind the data analysis and they will hone their research methods skills.   Means of professional entrée and various levels of positions/careers in this professional include:
   1. Internships with LLEA’s.
   2. Assistantships with LLEA’s.
   3. Entry level data entry positions.
   4. Entry level analysts.
   5. Experienced analysts.
   6. Specialty analysts (tactical, sex crimes, school safety, GIS, etc.)
   7. Supervision of analytical operations.

One critical way to gain more experience is to lateral transfer – working at one organization and then taking those newly acquired skills to a new agency to hone them and gain additional skills as you move up the professional ladder.  This is one ways to get into the agency you want to – if you cannot walk into the door right out of school, work your way there.

1. The process of crime analysis is not done in a vacuum, rather in many cases it is theory driven. These are some common theoretical perspectives used in crime analysis:
   1. Problem Analysis Triangle (also known as the crime triangle) comes from routine activities theory. This theory, created by Cohen and Felson, suggests that crime occurs when an offender (likely criminal) and victim (suitable target) come together in a specific time and place, without a capable guardian (agent of social control or police) present.
      1. This may be an interesting approach to understanding prison radicalization – what is the critical mass of perpetrators, victims and lack of guardians that allow for radicalization to occur?
   2. Crime Pattern Theory (a derivative of routine activities theory combined with rational choice theory).
   3. Rational Choice Theory.
   4. Situational Crime Prevention
   5. Repeat Victimization (Parento Principle).

• Crime analysis and forms of policing strategy. Different philosophies about how to do patrol will help define types of analysis.  Newer forms of police patrol strategy have changed how we think about policing, mainly based on data analysis of effectiveness, crime control and resource mobilization to counter social disorder.  These patrol strategies include:
  1. Standard patrol model.
  2. Community Policing.
  3. Broken Windows.
  4. Hot Spots.
  6. Problem Orientated Policing.

Each of these strategies looks at several layers of analysis – short term (repeat offenses and pattern analysis) and more long term data (location analysis, offender analysis, victim analysis, problem property analysis, etc.).  The key is usually the effectiveness of patrol – does it change the patterns of crime – so you need to recognize those patterns first to alter then.  In our case the identification of the literature on prison radicalization and then the location of potential “hot spots” where that can transpire is an example of these ideas.

• The process of analysis has distinct steps and types of analysis depending on the goals of the effort. The Process is generally summarized by:
  1. Collection of data (accurate, appropriate, timely, computing new variables from merged/altered original data).
  2. Collation is the cleaning and converting data into an electronic format for computer programs to assist and store. This is where data is converted in geocoding that allows for spatial analysis in GIS.
  3. Analysis (see rest of this document for some idea of the scope of this activity).
  4. Dissemination of the work product. This is where reports are distributed for use and abuse.  In many cases such analysis can cause, well shall we say a critical response from those who feel criticized!  No one likes to be told they are ineffective, especially those who work hard to protect the public order.  In some cases such criticisms are labeled in a way to make it less personal and more focused (see types of analysis directly below for examples).
  5. Feedback is the final step in the process of analysis. It is necessary to operationally check the findings?  Do they match reality?  Do they miss the mark, will they be acceptable?
  6. Types of analysis (ways to make the medicine go down better). Understanding what your audience is for the work product is critical to acceptance of the findings and gathering valuable feedback.  Some of the different types include:
     1. Intelligence analysis.
     2. Criminal investigative analysis (profiling).

• Factual crime analysis.

1. Strategic crime analysis.
2. Operational analysis.
3. Administrative analysis.

1. Terminology of data analysis. Everyone needs to be speaking the same language when it comes to crime analysis.  Defining the terms will help everyone “speak” the same language.  Some of the key terms include:
   1. Data matrix’s, databases, secondary data, primary data, geographic data, tabular data, crime incidents, arrests, call for service data, accidents, and reported activity.
   2. These all have a variety of definitions but standardizing those is a good task for analysts. The results are better understood by others and the analysis more meaningful.  For example calls for service v. arrest data – in many cases when a police unit is dispatched no arrest is made, yet the act of dispatch is a distribution of resources – understanding the ratio of calls v. arrests is an administrative task, especially given scarce resources (manpower).
   3. Making sure the data fits into Federal data collection protocols (i.e., Uniform Crime Report – UCR) is one way to standardize data collection. Others include different programs designed to track crime (NIBRS, etc.)
   4. Some use standardized processes, standardized operating procedures (SOP’s) like SART (Scanning, analysis, response and assessment) to help refine the collections/analysis process in a similar attempt to get better data form more SOP’s.
2. The work product for an analyst is not always a report, rather several work products are normally used depending on the task assigned. These can include:
   2. Periodic reports.
   3. Annual reports.
   4. Special reports.
   5. Research reports.
   6. Evaluation reports.
   7. Problem reports.

These report forms general have similar structures and features:

1. Title page.
2. Tables, graphics, maps.
3. Findings of the analysis.
4. Disclaimers about the data.
6. Data and analysis files.
7. Credits for those who worked on the project.
8. Several considerations should be in the back of any analyst’s mind when producing reports. These include:
   1. Audience – who is the report written for, it is NOT the analyst. Rather it is for the client who tasked this report.  That is the audience and should always be in the forefront of the analyst’s mind.
   2. Purpose of the report. This can be one of many including informational, alerts, crime prevention and decision making.
   3. Never forget the social context of your analysis. You should be aware of the:
      1. Social climate.
      2. Political climate.

• Legal concerns.

1. Practical concerns.

• Finally in terrorism research an acronym is a helpful memory device when looking at the data. Clarke and Newman suggested EVILDONE as a means to understand terrorism and risk analysis of potential targets for attacks.  This acronym focuses on eight factors to consider and stands for:
  1. Exposure – is the site/target open to attack?
  2. Vital – is the site of critical social importance?
  3. Iconic – does this site have significance of a social/historic sense?
  4. Legitimate – does the target have a legitimate chance of attack?
  5. Destructible – is the site or target able to be destroyed?
  6. Occupied – are humans on site and thus part of the target profile?
  7. Near – is it in close proximity to the perpetrators?
  8. Easy – an assessment of the ease of attack? Is it a “soft” target, which is it is not infused with high levels of security.

In assessing prison radicalization it is difficult to use the EVIL DONE idea to assess the target, but if a violent attack is to succeed, go operational if you will, it will focus on such targets and their vulnerability to attack.  Knowledge of the ways to assess risk of attacks will help the analyst to better understand the data they are looking at.  Futuristic analysis, looking for trends that are emerging, is an added complexity, but again such analysis is done with target selection in mind – terrorists are only somewhat inventive, they use what they know and what they know is what has worked in the past or what they think they can do better because someone else failed.  I use the 10% rule here – they do not have to reinvent the wheel, just change their tactics a little bit, 10%, to gain an advantage in their attempts to perpetrate violence.   For example, the attacks of 9/11 were the second on the World trade center, the first attempt failed to bring them down or do significant damage, but change the tactic – use an airliner instead of a car bomb – well we know the outcome of that change.