Geographical Profiling

450 Words2 Pages

Explain in detail how the technology of Geographical Profiling has evolved over the past 20 years and how it is being used successfully today by law enforcement.
When an offender commits multiple crimes he/she leaves a footprint that could benefit investigators in locating him/her. According to Turvey (2012), investigators use nomothetic data and assumptions as a method to find the offenders home location, place of work, or other relevant anchor points based on geographic region known as geographic profiling. Offenders often stick to the same pattern when they do not get caught for their crime, known as modus operandi (MO), which in return guides investigators to link cases together (Barrow & Rufo, 2013). Investigators use these patterns, and marks left behind at each crime scene location into Over the years, geographical profiling has evolved using technology. There are different programs that are used to input data. Dr Kim Rosmo developed a special computer software that accesses a three dimensional feature of a crime called the Criminal Geographic Targeting (CGT) (Barrow & Rufo, 2013). Another useful program that was created is the Geographic Information System (GIS) that is an automated system for capture, storage, retrieval, analysis and display of spatial data (Rossmo, 1999). Computer Statistics …show more content…

According to Rossmo (1999), the first geographic profile was prepared in 1990 by the Vancouver Police Department. Since then it has assisted the Scotland Yard FBI, New York Police Department, RCMP in over 100 investigations, involving 1500 crime. Request for assistance with geographic profiling training has come from all over the world including Canada, Britain, Germany, Greece, Belgium, New Zaeland, Middle East,

More about Geographical Profiling

Open Document