ABSTRACT
Crime analysis is based on the concept of using crime data such as location, time, and other characteristics to help find patterns in where and when crimes are occurring.
The crime analysis process, or intelligence cycle, consists of information intake, data categorization, data analysis, information communication and distribution, and knowledge application.
Crime analysis tools include telephone record analysis, timeline flow charts, relational database analysis, crime bulletins, crime records, and computer-aided dispatch, among others.
Criminal investigative analysis (CIA) developed out of the FBI’s behavioral analysis program. Today it includes a range of services in addition to the original unknown subject (unsub) profiling.
The behavioral dimension of CIA provides a means of narrowing an investigation, focusing resources, and advising investigators about how a subject might behave or react in various situations.
Training in CIA is carried out through the FBI Academy’s Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) and the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship (ICIAF), and covers a wide range of investigative subjects and services.
CIA techniques have been applied to solving cases of serial arson, cold case murder, and prison fugitives, among a great many others.
Various studies have been conducted to assess the accuracy of offender profiling. However, the objective of profiling is not to pinpoint the individual who committed the crime; rather, it is to help make decisions to (1) narrow down an unsub investigation or (2) predict how a known suspect is likely to behave or react in certain situations.
