Perfil criminal

PERFILES CRIMINOLÓGICOS: EL ARTE DE SHERLOCK HOLMES EN EL SIGLO XXI
Luz Anyela Morales1, 2, Jairo Muñoz-Delgado2, 3, Ana María Santillán2, Rita Arenas2, Fernando Chico Ponce de León4, 5

"Las políticas diseñadas para el control de la violencia se basan con mayor frecuencia en perspectivas ideológicas y emocionales que en la investigación".
A. Blumstein

SUMMARY
Within the frame of aninternational interest to explain and reduce violent behavior, criminological profiles provide relevant knowledge on the characteristics and circumstances concerning violent events, their authors and victims. In this review the main lines of investigation on this subject are addressed, as well as some of the most important findings and inquiries yet to be solved. Finally, some challenges andperspectives of this type of research and the application of criminological profiles are discussed. Our conclusions include the necessity of developing a line of research to generate an insight into this subject in general, as well as to assess its applicability in specific contexts in Spanish speaking countries. Even though criminological profiles have been simultaneously supported and criticized, thefindings in this research area evince the possibility of creating useful criminological profiles with accuracies above the random level. However, the outcomes of studies related to this subject suggest a precautionary approach with respect to its achievements. This manuscript reviews the research on criminological profiles from five study areas: a) crime and delinquent typologies; b) behavioralpatterns and the theory of facets; c) spatial patterns and geographical profiles; d) temporal patterns and chrono-ecological rhythms, and e) reliability and validity. Studies in crime and delinquent typologies are marked within a clinical focus, in which deductive logic, experience of the profiler and analysis of previous cases are the keys to tackle cases of unknown aggressors. One of therepresentative models in this line is that of the FBI, which proposes a classification of murder scenes that are related with two different types of delinquents: unorganized (probably with mental disorder) and organized (probably psychopaths). This model also propounds the existence of a third type called "mixed" category, which includes characteristics from both previously mentioned types.

The maincontribution of clinical methodology has been the identification of socio-demographic characteristics common in persons committing crimes such as homicide, rape, robbery, pyromania and even terrorist acts; the selection of a victim type; characteristics of their modus operandi, and motivations referred to by perpetrators for justifying the deed. Recent research goes beyond mere descriptive studies bymeans of co-occurrence analysis of variables. From this viewpoint, hypotheses are posed and demonstrated based upon the study of large samples, this resulting knowledge is then applied to the analysis of new cases, casuistics (statistical methodology). This perspective originates the identification of behavioral patterns that initially give no support to previous classifications but propound morespecific categories. Results from different type of offenses consistently indicate the existence of some useful behavioral patterns for the identification of the various ways of perpetrating a crime and its relation to distinct types of criminals. Among the main identified patterns are: violence used, level of planning and aggressor-victim relationship. Besides, the evidence supports the idea of arelation between the characteristics in the commission of a crime (information from the crime scene and the victims) and the characteristics of those persons responsible of the crime (in terms of the useful information leading to their identification and capture). The results of an investigation from a statistical viewpoint suggest that typologies can not be seen as static or rigid and that it is...