Profiling The Fraudster: Removing the Mask to Prevent and Detect Fraud

Chapter 17The Use of Offender Profiling in Forensic Investigations

FORENSIC INVESTIGATIONS can be defined as inquiries aimed at ascertaining the facts that will lead to the reconstruction of a crime, usually referring to a court-driven process for the purposes of instituting criminal and/or civil proceedings in a court of law.

Collation of Information

Offender profiling is a method of collating various pieces of information and data relating to an offender, with the intention of establishing the most likely offender who committed the crime. It is the identification of actual or potential offenders on the basis of behavioral or other attributes. It is used to understand why and how the crime was committed. This profiling may be carried out by retrospectively identifying an offender after a crime has taken place or it may be predictive in nature by attempting to identify and thereby inhibiting potential criminals.

The term forensic is derived from the Latin word forensis meaning “public” or “of the forum.” In ancient Rome, the forum was a generic term for the meeting place where the law courts were located. The Concise Oxford Dictionary appears to follow this theory and describes forensic as being used in connection with courts of law. From this we can deduce that a forensic investigation is an inquiry aimed at ascertaining the facts that will lead to the reconstruction of a crime for presentation to a court of law. Certainly, the integrity of any evidence gathered during an ...