Program Goals
The Offender Profiling (OP) intervention in Florida aims to increase burglary arrest rates by using the profiles of convicted persons to aid police in prioritizing the most probable types of suspects for a certain style of offense, as shown in prior statistical analyses of traits and offending behaviors. OP identifies the major personality, behavioral, and demographic characteristics of an individuals based on an analysis of the crimes he or she has committed to aid in solving burglary cases. The intervention was implemented in one police department in Florida.
Program Components
The program involved the application of the Statistical Patterns of Offending Typology (SPOT) for burglary developed by Fox and Farrington (2012). Burglary offense reports and arrest records were coded into four different styles with specific characteristics. Criminal history and demographic information was also collected to classify them according to burglary styles. The following four types of offense and offender descriptions were used as a starting point for targeting the individual who may have committed the crime:
- Opportunistic
- Offense description: entry left open, no preparation or tools, unoccupied residence, low-value items stolen, little evidence left behind
- Offender description: young, adolescent-onset short criminal career, low-offending frequency, does not know victim, usually male, versatility, prior petty theft/ shoplifting arrests, does not have a car
- Organized
- Offense description: clean but forced entry, tools brought to scene, no evidence left behind, high-value items stolen
- Offender description: older, adolescent-onset, high-offending frequency, limited versatility, prior arrests for theft/burglary, often has a car, cohabiting or has partner, may have met victim
- Disorganized
- Offense description: forced entry, scene left in disarray, tools and/or evidence left, low-value or no items stolen
- Offender description: young, early-onset long criminal career, high-offending frequency, versatility, past arrests for drug offense, does not know victim
- Interpersonal
- Offense description: occupied residence, the target is the victim and not objects, attempted, threatened, or committed violence at scene, personal items stolen
- Offender description: adult, late-criminal onset, solo offender, has a car, single/not cohabitating, no record, but if arrested, usually for violence, select female victims, knows victim
The police department in Florida received training sessions, “how to guides,” and one-on-one field training sessions for 3 weeks. These sessions were provided for all officers and property crime detectives in the police department.
The one-on-one field trainings included a seminar that demonstrated the purpose and use of burglary profiles, in-depth explanations and descriptions of the profiles, their intended use, and their limitations. Field training was conducted to demonstrate how to apply these profiles. The field training emphasized what specific elements to look for at each crime scene. High-ranking law enforcement officers, including the sergeant of the property crimes unit, the police chief, the deputy chief, and captains, were also given additional training on burglary profiles to oversee their continued use.
Crime analysts were also trained on burglary profiles and how to upload the profiles into their department’s electronic database. The databases and burglary profiles were combined to generate suspect lists and leads once a burglary style was determined that would lead to additional investigations by detectives. As always, additional evidence constituting probable cause had to be established in each case for an arrest warrant from a judge to be legally issued against a suspect.
