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

Chapter 7Using Profiling in the Fight against Crime and Occupational Fraud

REACTION TO CRIME CAN BE generally categorized as being either reactive or proactive in nature. While it is generally acceptable that prevention is better than cure, we live in a world where budgetary and skillset constraints far too often result in the placing of more reliance on reactive crime management in the form of after-the-event investigation.

While fraud is defined as the unlawful and intentional making of a misrepresentation that causes actual or potential prejudice to another, criminal investigation is the systemic search for the truth and is primarily aimed at the positive clarification of the crime situation on the basis of objective and subjective traces. The criminal investigation is reactive and occurs following the crime event. Crime intelligence is intelligence used in the prevention of crime or in the conduct of investigations in order to prepare evidence for the purposes of law enforcement and the prosecution of offenders.

The Mind of Adolf Hitler

The origins of profiling can be traced back to as early as the Middle Ages. During the 1880s, Thomas Bond, a medical doctor, tried to profile the personality of Jack the Ripper. Bond, a police surgeon, assisted in the autopsy of one victim. Dr. Bond tried to reconstruct the murder and interpret the behavioral pattern of the offender and came up with a profile and signature personality traits of the offender to assist the police in their ...