Criminal Profiling and Archaeology

Investigating Myth and Ritual - Main Page

In recognition of the fact that the majority of violent and sexual criminals are male, the masculine pronoun will be used throughout this work when refering to these criminals.

Criminal Behaviour and Personal Mythology

“… the motivations behind the acts of a madman possess their own logic. The psychotic murderer does not act wholly irrationally. There is a method to his madness: there is a logic, a rationale, hidden behind what he does and how he does it, however wildly bizarre and completely without reason it appears to be…”

Brussel, James A. (1968), Casebook of a Crime Psychiatrist. New York: Bernard Geis Publishing Company

Criminal behaviour can be very difficult to understand especially when some sort of psychopathology is involved. For example, consider a case in which the perpetrator eviscerated his female victims, drank their blood and ate parts of their bodies. The behaviours and motivations surrounding this type of crime cannot be fully understood without taking into account the criminal’s view of what he was doing; the criminal’s personal mythology if you will.

“According to the suspect, the reason for his vampire-like activity and grisly behaviour was that flying saucers were drying up his blood through some sort of radiation and that in order to survive he had to replenish his supply.”

Geberth, Vernon J., (1996), Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques 3rd Edition. CRC Press: Boca Raton, Florida.

In this case, the perpetrator’s personal mythology is far more complex than the one sentence summary given by Geberth. It does not include some of the perpetrator’s other behaviours including why he did not mutilate his male victims and why he believed he was performing surgery when mutilating his female victims. Without a fuller knowledge of the criminal’s personal mythology, most of his bizarre behaviours will remain outside of our understanding.

A poor understanding of a criminal's personal mythology can even lead investigators to misinterpret the criminal's behaviour. For instance, in one recent case (see West Memphis 3 site), investigators were so flummoxed by a triple homicide that they incorrectly concluded that it was a satanic ritual. The investigators promptly arrested three local teens that regularly dressed in black and listened to heavy metal music. So, the investigators were unable to understand the criminal’s personal mythology and they imposed a convenient but incorrect one - satanism.

Criminal Profiling and Archaeology

A criminal views his crime (ritual) through his personal mythology A Criminal Profiler view the same crime (ritual) through the crime scene

Criminal profiling is one approach to investigating a crime and understanding the perpetrator’s behaviour. By examining evidence a criminal profiler can often reconstruct a crime and make educated inferences about the perpetrator. Similarly, archaeologists examine evidence and try to reconstruct ancient sites and make educated inferences about ancient civilizations.

Ancients viewed their rituals through their mythology Archaeologists view ancient rituals through ancient sites

Some archaeologists base all of their conclusions on evidence that is excavated from ancient sites. However, other archaeologists have found that ancient myths contain useful information and have used these myths along with evidence excavated from ancient sites to obtain a clearer understanding of ancient civilisations - what they did and why they did it. This speaks to the thesis of this work - that criminal profilers can obtain the clearest understanding of a criminal by looking both at the crime scene(s) and the criminal's personal mythology.

The goal of this work is to address some of the difficulties of teaching criminal profiling and understanding criminal behaviour. This goal will be achieved by drawing parallels between archaeology and criminal profiling. By looking at archaeology as an investigative process in which mythology plays a major role, students can become familiar with many of the concepts that are necessary in criminal profiling. It is also hoped that using the familiar domains of mythology and archaeology to introduce students to unusual human behaviour will reduce the initial shock and confusion that regularly arises when teaching criminal profiling.

This work is divided into the following pages. An index of important cases and examples in each section is provided on the right if you would like to jump directly to them.

Ideas Case index: Odysseus mutilates and kills suitor, Achilles mutilates Hector's corpse, Ancient ritual sacrifices, Jeffery Dahmer, Red Dragon/Manhunter (movie).

Practices Case index: Homer's many roles, Europe's mythical life, The mystery of the Minotaur, Pelops inspires Olympics, Ted Bundy, Heinrich Schliemann, Arthur Evans,

Artifacts Case index:

Ideas	Case index: Odysseus mutilates and kills suitor, Achilles mutilates Hector's corpse, Ancient ritual sacrifices, Jeffery Dahmer, Red Dragon/Manhunter (movie).
Practices	Case index: Homer's many roles, Europe's mythical life, The mystery of the Minotaur, Pelops inspires Olympics, Ted Bundy, Heinrich Schliemann, Arthur Evans,
Artifacts	Case index:

Eoghan Casey was a graduate student in the Educational Communication and Technology Program at NYU. Eoghan also taught for Knowledge Solutions, an on-line and off-line training provider, and an information resource for law enforcement, the forensic sciences, the legal community, the mental health community, and any students of those or related disciplines.