5 Things Writers Should Know About Criminal Profiling
I’ve always been interested in what makes people tick.
To me, the heart of any crime story isn’t who or how but rather, why. Motivation fascinates me more than any other aspect of a narrative. It’s why I love shows like Criminal Minds and Mindhunter. And why I decided to study criminal profiling and psychology before writing my first novel.
Understanding what drives a person means thinking about their patterns of speech and how their words can reflect the inner working of their psyche. How their body language speaks to their mindset. And how other characters react to them.
In Truly, Darkly, Deeply, I tap into my understanding of criminal profiling and psychology to explore what makes good people do bad things and how perpetrators are able to dupe those close to them.
Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]
Are you interested in writing about the hunt for a killer or fiction that is psychologically true? If so, I hope these five things every crime author needs to know about profiling will help you!
1. What plus why equals who
FBI agent and unit chief John Douglas, who many see as the father of criminal profiling, coined the expression: “What plus why equals who.” In other words, what we do and why we do it goes to the heart of who we are.
A profiler will examine patterns in a crime or series of crimes to build up a picture of an offender’s personality and attributes. Examining a scene is the best way to do this, since by understanding how a murder is commissioned you can then begin to understand the sort of person who might be behind it.
2. Crime scenes are psychological portraits
When a perpetrator commits a crime, they cannot help but leave behind clues that paint a picture of who they are. It’s what profiler Robert Keppel refers to as leaving a “psychological calling card” at the scene.
The way an offender poses the victim is an example of a calling card. For instance, a killer who poses a victim naked and spreadeagled feels the need to demonstrate their power over them, which points to an underlying sense of inadequacy. While a blitz attack and massive overkill (where an offender uses more force than is necessary) can indicate pent-up rage or mental illness.
3. Learn to identify a signature and M.O.
M.O. (modus operandi) is how a perpetrator commits a crime—such as stabbing a victim or using anti-forensic techniques like wearing gloves.
As John Douglas says, modi operandi are the actions that are necessary to carry out the crime.
A signature, which is often confused with an M.O., refers to the “extras”—actions a perpetrator feels compelled to undertake on top of simply killing the victim. Mutilating a corpse, for example, or taking trophies. Behaviors that play to their fantasies.
M.O. may change over time as an offender fine tunes their process. But the fundamental signature always stays the same.
4. Organized vs disorganized offenders
Murders can be broadly divided into two categories: organized and disorganized—although clearly there are some murders that cross over to a degree.
An organized killer will plan their crime in advance, and in the case of serialists, their crimes are born out of fantasies that have been building for years. Organized killers tend to target strangers, and victims conform to a type. These perpetrators are often able to hold down a job and can even have marriages and families.
Conversely, disorganized killers act impulsively. They don’t plan their crimes in advance or stalk their victims. Oftentimes, they will use a surprise attack as opposed to employing a ruse to lure their target and they don’t make an effort to conceal the body. They are likely to be of below-average intelligence and sexually unconfident.
5. Why do serial killers keep killing?
Paradoxically, the act of killing increases rather than diminishes a serialist’s desire to murder again.
For these people, killing is like a drug. They are always trying to recapture the thrill of their first high yet nothing ever quite measures up to that high or the fantasy that drives them. This means they must keep finding new ways to try and match it.
Writing a novel that speaks to a killer’s psyche requires an understanding of the criminal mindset. I hope these profiling pointers will help you do that so you can launch your reader into a fictional world they completely believe in—whether it’s a story like Truly, Darkly, Deeply, in which the protagonist’s father figure may or may not be a serial killer, or an adrenaline-soaked thriller centered around the hunt for a murderer.
Happy writing!
Do you want to write an enthralling thriller that your readers can’t put down? In Writing the Thriller Novel, a six-week course, you will get the tools you need to get your thriller project off the ground or take your current project to the next level. Examine the structural elements that create a successful thriller, learn how to build compelling conflict and suspense into your story, find out what helps a story engage a reader, and much more. Readers today want fast-moving intense drama, filled with character conflict that grabs their attention and holds it from the first sentence to the last. This course can help you to write the novel that today’s readers crave—the novel that will put your book on the best-seller list. With in-depth lectures and feedback from your instructor, you’ll be ready to write nail-biting suspense and complete a thriller novel that agents can’t resist.