Running head: CRIMINAL PROFILING 1

Criminal Profiling

Name:

Institution:
Abstract

Criminal profiling is intended to produce information on a culprit of a delinquency,

ordinarily a serial perpetrator, through an examination of the crime scene left by the

lawbreaker. The two fundamental ways to deal with criminal profiling- investigative psychology

as well as scene examination- are inspected for the presence of a worldview and the likelihood

of falsifiability to figure out if they can be considered as science. An advancement's survey of

criminal profiling exhibits that reporting crime has never been a logical procedure. It basically

takes into account a summary of sound judgment instincts and defective hypothetical

presumptions. While it is exceptionally hard to discover situations where profiling made a

significant commitment to an examination, there are numerous situations where a profile,

consolidated with prosecutorial and investigative interest, overturned the examination and even

added to genuine premature deliveries of equity. Due to this, police organizations ought to

deliberately consider whether the improvement of in-house profiling ability, or utilization of

outer specialists to give such administrations, is supported. This paper is a discussion of high-

profile criminals and the developmental, biological, as well as situational factors that may have

led to their behavior. It will also discuss the psychological theories and research that led to the

trepidation, trial, understanding and/or treatment of the chosen criminal.

Introduction

Offender profiling/criminal profiling is an investigative and a behavioral tool that is

proposed to enable investigators to precisely foresee and profile the qualities of unknown

criminals. Detectives usually have a background in investigative or forensic psychology, which

offers them with the skills required to identify the personality traits of wrongdoers on crime

scene substantiation. Usually, high profile lawbreakers are widely covered by the mass media,

which gives them a kind of celebrity status. So intrigued are individuals with murderous stories

that Jack the Ripper “name given to unidentified serial killers” remains a hot issue of debate to

date. Other serial killers such as Ted Bundy were so notorious to the extent that films and books

were based on his life (Bartol & Bartol, 2011). The story of Jim Jones keeps intriguing

psychologist until today. This discussion is an overview of Ted Bundy criminal profile and how

psychologist contributed to his prosecution.

Ted Bundy-Life Story

Theodore Robert Bundy (Ted Bundy) was born on 24th November 1946 in Burlington,

United States. He died on 24th January 1989. Ted Bundy is one of the well-known notorious

rapist and a serial killer of the late 20th Century in the history of lawbreakers in America. He was

born to Eleanor Louise Cowell, who was then 22 years and unmarried. His family- A Methodist-

felt disgraced by his mother having a child out of wedlock; therefore, his grandfather pretended

that he had him adopted. Bundy later moved with his mother to Tacoma, who then married

Johnie Bundy and had four kids. Bundy grew up in a working- class environment from all

appearances. Some of his classmates remember him as a very intelligent, happy, and popular

student who performed well in school (Carbajal, 2010).

lost his self-control and confidence, became withdrawn, and failed in class. He shared some of

his characters with other learners, who also became serial killers. Bundy started stealing and was

not secure about his financial status; therefore, he wanted to get rich in a way that he wished he

was from an upper-class family. Bundy graduated from high school and joined the University of

Washington in 1965. In 1966, he met a wealthy, beautiful young girl from California whom he

fell in love with. She was the real definition of what he wanted (class, influence, and money).

Although the two were seemingly in love, the relationship did not last long. Bundy was

devastated by the breakup, so he returned to Tacoma. At this time, he started disabling cars and

taking part in unhealthy activities.

His last interview before execution showed that he was addicted to violent, pornographic

material, and this had a significant effect on him and the development of his dreams turning them

into reality (Whitman & Akutagawa, 2007). Despite his breakup and the poor job, he discovered

that he was interested in politics and campaigns. Bundy was employed in September 1971 at

Seattle Crisis Clinic where he met the famous coworker, Anne Rule. In 1972, he graduated from

the University of Washington with a degree in Psychology and got a chance at Utah College of

Law where he reunited with his first love. He had been fantasizing about the things his girlfriend

would be and now that he knew what the fantasy was, he realized it was no satisfactory.

Bundy started hunting for casualties. He was not interested in love but wanted to have

that ownership and control of the body, the real object. All through his murder “career”, he did

not change. He would request for help with his books, boat, and he would sometimes fake a

broken arm and this enabled him to knock his victims unconscious and take them to the wild
places where he would assault, sodomize and choke them (Whitman & Akutagawa, 2007).One of

the key facilitator`s of his behavior was alcohol, he always acted under the influence.

Ted Bundy Behavior

Ted Bundy criminal behavior may have been triggered by several factors. This could be

biological, situational, or even developmental. Bundy murdered and sexually assaulted more than

30 women. He had a trick of faking an injury to win his victims trust before sexually assaulting

and slaying them to death. He would later revisit some of the dead bodies to engage with them

sexually until they were decomposed or destroyed by wild animals. Ted had this behavior of

traveling around the country in a quest of his perfect victim. He is reported to have escaped

prison twice before being executed in 1989.

Bundy`s behavior may have been contributed by numerous life experiences. In other

words, these experiences gave him the need to strike out acquitted women in vengeance to the

affliction he thought he brought in addition to rejection and frustration build up. Despite the fact

that he was wise and scored well in his psychology and law classes, he needed social aptitudes

and experienced relational indifference, starting from the day he was conceived (Carbajal, 2010).

Even though he made a façade of being socially competent, he preferred being alone and thought

that it was hard to take up with other individuals, especially after breaking up with his girlfriend.

The denunciation is said to have rekindled his childhood memories, anger and frustration, seeing

his first casualty killed as an outcome of these hazardous feelings.

According to Birnbaum (2007), it is evident that genetics plays a role in psychopathy

development. Some reports showed that Bundy`s grandfather often punished the family cat by

beating it and hung his neighbors by their tails. His actions may have influenced his learning,

inflicting animal and people violence as acceptable. Also, his grandmother reported cases of his
grandson smiling at kitchen knives although he did not commit any homicide until in his early

20`s. As a teenager, he spent his time reading pornographic materials and books with maimed or

dead bodies.

A child`s attachment disruption can lead to what is referred to as an affectionless

psychopathy. This is the lack of ability to generate a significant emotional relationship,

accompanied by deficiency of remorse, poor impulse control as well as chronic anger. Ted

Bundy at his fourth year was separated from his parents to avoid shame. He resented the move

despite the fact that there was no bond between him and his grandparents. He suffered

psychological and physical abuse during those years (Whitman & Akutagawa, 2007). This is

what contributed to his poor social behaviors or trust.

His mother married a cook and due to this, he had to change his surname to Bundy to

avoid embarrassing question from strangers. After the birth of his siblings, Bundy felt deprived.

Ted became aware of his illegitimacy during his teenage years and was resentful (Burton & Lyn,

2008). He was aggravated after finding that Louise was his real mother and not sister. Bundy did

not get along with his stepfather, so he distanced himself and became even more emotionally

detached with his family. Children who are neglected by their mothers are at a high risk of

becoming violent and antisocial as they find inward comfort, seek for happiness elsewhere and

develop fantasies, which they find more pleasurable and controllable.

Even in adulthood, Bundy was not able to have a close relationship with people. He,

therefore, did not understand the relevance of interpersonal relationships. His first girlfriend who

he adored rejected him. From this, we can conclude that serial killers start manslaughter due to

increased rejection feelings, powerlessness, anger, and frustration. Ted killed after his girlfriend

rejected him. He felt that he did not have any control over his environment and did not have
anyone to share his feelings with (Burton & Lyn, 2008). All his life, Bundy never had someone

he could look up to or someone who could show him the necessary emotional skills for

maintaining healthy relationships. There are various psychopathic attributes which seemed to

have stabilized out in Bundy, which could have been exacerbated by his adolescence fixation on

savage and sexual pictures in which showed his wiped out imagination.

Psychological Theories and Research

Despite being well-known obstinate homicides, Bundy was charged guilty of intensified

sexual acts, abduction, and deprivation of liberty. The psychological point of view of the modern

personality trait theory is based on cognitive and behavioral process, personality disorders as

well as mental illnesses (Birnbaum, 2007). For instance, Schizophrenia minimizes the ability of

the criminal to recognize his victim’s facial expressions which enable them to assault them.

Bundy case can be connected to Schizophrenia by looking at the way he handled at his targets.

He was arrested severally and did not perform well on emotional identification tests.

Asperger disorder is a type of autism, associated with continued and severe deficiency in

social interactions. This in some way was used to apprehend Bundy as he showed repetitive

behavioral patterns, activities, and interests. The above discussed disorders ( Asperger and

Schizophrenia) leads to impaired social relationships and therefore results in heightened criminal

behavior since the offender lacks the knowledge on how to relate well to his people or

individuals within his social environment (Birnbaum, 2007).

Social process theory is a psychology phenomenon that was used in the research and

understanding of Bundy`s behavior. The theory presents that the acts of crime are a function of

individual’s connections with several institutions, process, and organization in the society

operations. The theory in the criminality viewpoint premises that all people own the potential for
criminal actions. However, the persons are brought socially determines who they become in the

future. Socialization deficiencies impact the capability of an individual to develop criminal

behavior. According to research conducted by Arrigo and Griffin (2009), the regular presence of

the male parent during their childhood reduces or rather prevents violent behavior during the

adulthood of that child. Bundy lacked that father-son attachment. His relationship with his

grandfather and step-father can be described as fearful and insecure and connected with anger

and resentment. To conclude this theory, parent-child relationships seem to be related

meaningfully to the development of violent character traits.

Having graduated from a psychology school, Ted Bundy was a very sharp person. He

was familiar with the questions that any psychologist would ask during criminal interviews. One

of the Utah State Prison psychologists, Carlisle was determined to do study Ted Bundy

psychology (Arrigo & Griffin, 2009). Bundy`s psychological assessments were clear, and

Carlisle did not see anything in them that was typical of a killer, but information from other

sources convinced him that he was dangerous. Rather than sending him on probation, he was

sent to a maximum-security unit following his plan to escape. Carlisle continued to study his

personality-forming ideas that would later contribute to a theory about all serial killers. Despite

the fact that Bundy blamed his actions on pornography addiction, Carlisle concluded that there

was more to that.

Carlisle interest lies in showing how the serial killer and rapist crossed the line from

simple sexual fantasies to necrophilia and murder. Since he spent most of his time learning

Bundy`s character, he concluded that the behavior to carry out repetitive crimes and at the same

time act as an aspiring governor developed through three primary processes. One is fantasy,

dissociations (Ted avoided uncomfortable memories and feeling), and compartmentalization

between them. Serial killers can present a real character to the public but are very dangerous on

the inside. They develop a dark side that lets murderous illusions to reign freely. Since they have

painful memories of disappointments, rejections, bullying, frustration, humiliation, or abuse, they

turn to fantasies to find their own comfort (Carbajal, 2010). They develop a different identity that

enables them to feel powerful. In Bundy`s case, he had hero fantasies that resulted to sexual

possession.

Conclusion

Fantasies accommodate the countenance of unsuitable driving forces, aspirations as well

as desires. As ordinary life becomes exhausting, baffling or frustrating, the dream life can turn

out to be more appealing. Inevitably, the merciless measurement may acquire substance through

mental practice or opportunity, and the unhindered vision can form into an insatiable fixation.

Serial killers like Bundy learns how to divert people from finding their inner secrets. They devise

diverse sets of qualities for distinctive life outlines. They can then carry on an abnormal state of

working even while they look for casualties and take part in perversity. Research shows that

serial killers are selective individuals who have the ability to commit atrocious crimes due to

events during early stages of childhood development. Nevertheless, if you investigate Ted Bundy

line of murder, it would be easy to determine how environmental, and biological factors can lead

to criminal activities. The factors led to life Bundy chose to live and offset into his violent sexual

assaults upon the rejection by her mother and his first girlfriend. This opened a hazardous door

into the addiction to fantasy and revenging the past rejection and anger.
 References

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Burton, D. L. & Lyn, T. S. (2008). Adult attachment and sexual offender status. American

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