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Robert W. House
Detective Sergeant
Username: Robhouse
Post Number: 84
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 9:55 pm: |       |
I just saw something on TV about the FBI techniques of using some type of computer program to come up with a serial killer's likely location of residence. This had something to do with weighing the killer's "comfort zone" against the danger of drawing too much suspicion on his place of residence. In other words, that he would generally kill in an area he was familiar with, and comfortable in, somewhat near his residence, but not so close as to draw too much suspicion etc.
Has anyone ever applied these ideas to Jack the Ripper. Maybe matching up likely areas of residence with the residences of some suspects (Kosminski, Barnett, Chapman, etc)
I think the show was actually about the Washington DC (Beltway) sniper case, so maybe it is more of a modern thing that would not apply in victorian era whitechapel.
Well, any thoughts are appreciated.
Rob H |
Glenn L Andersson
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Glenna
Post Number: 1789
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 14, 2004 - 10:52 pm: | |
John Douglas and Hazelwood have tried this in their JtR profiles.
Also Martin Fido used this approach rather thoroughly in his book, arguing for Kaminsky/Cohen.
Geographical profiling is a completely theoretical method that has little value. The fact that a killer acts within his "comfort zone" is no sure thing whatsoever -- in many cases this has turned out to be wrong. But most of all, it depends on the killer's character type; comfort zones are, according to FBI, merely referred to in connection with what profilers call "disorganized" perpetrators, like paranoid schizofrenics. However, other types of killers move around to great extent. In those cases geographical profiling is useless.
Personally I think it is hard to find a clear pattern of the Ripper's operations. To establish that you first need to be sure of which victims you can contribute to the killer -- depending on which victims you attribute to the Ripper the center and the boundaries of the "comfort zones" can be placed almost anywhere. It can rather easily turn into quite constructed and theoretical exercises.
The whole idea is based upon that the killer lives in the centre of this comfort zone, which is clearly not something that can be stated with certainty anyway.
All the best
Glenn Gustaf Lauritz Andersson
Crime historian, Sweden |
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