Where will the terrorist attack?

The idea that it is possible to draw inferences about an offender, especially a serial offender, ¹ is the cornerstone of ‘offender profiling’. Offender profiling was developed by agents working out of the FBI Behavioural Science Unit during the 1970s. During the early years, offender profiling was characterised by a ‘criminal investigative approach’ which combined the evidence collected at the crime scene with the investigator's knowledge to draw inferences about the type of offender that may have committed the crime. Gradually, formal expression was given to the framework used to generate inferences about the unknown offender. This framework is called the organised/disorganised typology. The organised/disorganised typology, developed from interviews with offenders, suggests that the organised offender leaves behind an organised crime scene and vice versa (Douglas et al. 1986). ² Furthermore, inferences can be drawn about the type of person who may have committed the crime because his organised or disorganised nature is consistent across his criminal and non-criminal activities. It is possible to say, therefore, that an offender who leaves an organised crime scene is an organised offender and, by inference, an organised person. Being an organised person, he will lead an organised life. He will be more likely to have a skilled job. He will be more likely to be socially adept with stable relationships with family and friends and so on (Canter et al. 2004, pp. 293–294). In this way, a picture of the offender is constructed on the basis of the nature of the crime scene.