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Douglas et al.: Criminal Profiling from Crime Scene Analysis 405 Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Mike Hammer, and Charlie Chan) have been modeled on them. Although Lunde (1976) has stated that the murders of fiction bear no resemblance to the murders of reality, a connection between fictional detective techniques and modem criminal profiling methods may indeed exist. For example, it is attention to detail that is the hallmark of famous fictional detectives; the smallest item at a crime scene does not escape their attention. As stated by Sergeant Cuff in Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone, widely acknowledged as the first full-length detective study: At one end of the inquiry there was a murder, and at the other end there was a spot of ink on a tablecloth that nobody could account for. In all my experience . . . | have never met with such a thing as a trifle yet. However, unlike detective fiction, real cases are not solved by one tiny clue but the analysis of all clues and crime patterns. Criminal profiling has been described as a collection of leads (Rossi, 1982), as an educated attempt to provide specific information about a certain type of suspect (Geberth, 1981), and as a biographical sketch of behavioral patterns, trends, and tendencies (Vorpagel, 1982). Geberth (1981) has also described the profiling process as particularly useful when the criminal has demonstrated some form of psychopathology. As used by the FBI profilers, the criminal-profile- generating process is defined as a technique for identifying the major personality and behavioral characteristics of an individual based upon an analysis of the crimes he or she has committed. The profiler’s skill is in recognizing the crime scene dynamics that link various criminal personality types who commit similar crimes. The process used by an investigative profiler in developing a criminal profile is quite similar to that used by clinicians to make a diagnosis and treatment plan: data are collected and assessed, the situation reconstructed, hypotheses formu- lated, a profile developed and tested, and the results reported back. Investigators traditionally have learned profiling through brainstorming, intuition, and edu- cated guesswork. Their expertise is the result of years of accumulated wisdom, extensive experience in the field, and familiarity with a large number of cases. A profiler brings to the investigation the ability to make hypothetical for- mulations based on his or her previous experience. A formulation is defined here as a concept that organizes, explains, or makes investigative sense out of in- formation, and that influences the profile hypotheses. These formulations are based on clusters of information emerging from the crime scene data and from the investigator’s experience in understanding criminal actions. A basic premise of criminal profiling is that the way a person thinks (i.e., his or her patterns of thinking) directs the person's behavior. Thus, when the in- vestigative profiler analyzes a crime scene and notes certain critical factors, he or she may be able to determine the motive and type of person who committed the crime. VOL. 4, NO. 4+ 1986 11