From Right to Left it Had No End: Pre-Dispositions

 

Providing answers to a criminal inquiry requires systematization of information at hand. Using this information we want to arrive at rational conclusions rather than depending on suppositions. But, why should Investigative Process Management be a matter of the systematization of question-resolving conjecture with experience? The answer lies in the consideration that systembuilding is not an end in itself, it is a process subject to objectives and the systematization of data in its original form.

 

The starting point in any police inquiry is set by factual questions about the case, to which we need to have the best available answers. At this juncture a “this-or-nothing” argument comes into operation. The investigator’s only access to information about cases is through his interaction with past criminal cases. The same applies to those individuals who have studied criminal behavior in a clinical environment. Such interaction is what experience is all about. Here, of course, “experience” must be broadly construed to encompass the entire gamut of interaction with nature-generated clues that serve as grist to the mill of inquiry. The investigator, researcher, or clinician must have knowledge of nature, and experience is the only source of that knowledge that is available. The empiricist insight holds good: we have no alternative but to fall back on experience as factual information about the world.

 

To be sure, experience alone cannot do the whole job. For one thing, it only relates to particular cases. Questions about the world usually involve some element of generality, and empiricists have always had to confront the vexing problem of rationalizing the cognitively crucial step from particular experiences. There is no alternative to relying on experience for the reference points of the theoretical triangulation through which our knowledge of the world is generated. If information about criminal matters of objective fact is obtained, this must be on the basis of experience supplemented by principles of inductive systematization to make rational exploitation possible. Past observations are our only avenue of contact with what happens in the world. If anything can validate claims to generalized factual knowledge, then experience, while limited and imperfect, can do so.

 

 

On the whole, extant classifications reviewed in this chapter are inherently flawed due to weak operational definitions and inferred deductive assumptions made about offender actions and characteristics. In its present form, this leads to empirically unsound and misleading profiling of serial murderers for police investigations. For example, as mentioned earlier, fantasy is the motive for serial murder, however, there is no literature to support this theory. 

 

The serial murder typologies seem rather vexing. No explanations are given regarding how the offender’s criminal personality is formed. Some researchers argue that the offender is affected by some manifestation of mental illness, while others argue that pre-dispositions and sometimes fantasy is the motive for murder. The problem is that neither mental illnesses nor fantasies are motives, therefore, it is not possible to specify exactly what is responsible for the serial murderer’s actions. An offender who is mentally ill may have different reasons for murder than an offender who appears normal, yet may be driven by fantasies.

 

The IPM approach is genuinely ampliative rather than inferential; it does not unravel the inner ramifications of the pre- existing state of informational affairs, but relies on bringing new information to our disposal. Accordingly, inductive profiling in this vein is the operative method of a goal-oriented method of classifying serial murders; it is at bottom a matter of praxis, a process of ultimately practical rather than strictly theoretical character. This fact is critically important from the standpoint of justification or validation research. Experience plays a substantial role in filling in the gaps. Thus, while recognizing that humans sometimes see illusory associations between variables when actually there are none, it is important to recognize that associations between variables may go unnoticed due to lack of experience.

 

An alternative to classifying serial murderers into rigid types, organized and disorganized, for example, is the inductive thematic Facet Model that sees the criminal’s behavior as shaped by daily life experiences and interpersonal relationships with others. In other words, the way the individual treats others when he is not offending may affect the way he carries out his crimes.

 

 

 

Acknowledgements:

www.aivd.nl    AIVD ©

Algemene Bestuursdienst – @Erik Akerboom ©

www.politie.nl  Politiekorpschef  @Janny Knol©

www.politie.nl WEB Politie - @Henk van Essen©

https://english.marechaussee.nl  Royal Netherlands Marechaussee    @Willem-Alexander King of the Netherlands©

PolitieAcademie - https://www.politieacademie.nl/en©

 Author: W.R. Łaskawiec ©

 

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