Matching Items (5)
Description
Serial killers have had a profound impact on the United States' most powerful law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Through a brief history of the FBI, the birth of the Behavioral Analysis Unit is highlighted and criminal profiling is realized as a tool to apprehend these serial killers. Four serial killer cases are presented as important representations to illustrate the contributions that were made to the FBI's investigatory procedure. As serial killings make up only one percent of the murders in the U.S. each year, it is still evident that these cases have had a profound impact on the U.S.'s top law enforcement agency. The FBI has been able to react to each case more effectively than the last. Constant learning on the job, as each impactful case happens within a short time span from the last, has been a necessity for investigators and has been a prime strength of the FBI. There is no way to tell when an individual will begin to commit serial murder, so while the FBI's methods are not perfect, the Bureau has been able to respond in full to each challenge a new serial killer case has presented and arrest the guilty party. Through an analysis of the criminal profile, stereotypes attributed to serial killers, and the application of forensic evidence to serial killer investigations, the impact of the investigations of these cases by the FBI is examined. A real world application of the FBI's recommended procedure for a serial killer investigation is spotlighted and analyzed to determine its practicality in modern-day investigations.
ContributorsMuzupappa, Joseph Raymond (Author) / Kobojek, Kimberly (Thesis director) / De Alcaraz Fossoul, Josep (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
From 1962-1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the target of an FBI surveillance campaign, led by then-director, J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI claimed that this campaign was necessary, to expose the communist influence within the civil rights movement, but this was a lie. I argue that, instead, the purpose of the surveillance was so that the Bureau could attempt to ruin Dr. King's reputation by collecting incriminating evidence about his personal life. I believe that the Bureau embarked on this campaign against Dr. King in order to maintain the United States' white supremacist racial hierarchy by neutralizing a prominent black activist. Further, I believe that today, there is the potential for the FBI to take. In order to argue this, I analyze different aspects of the Bureau's campaign against Dr. King. First, I discuss Hoover's fascination with and hatred of Dr. King. Throughout the six years this thesis focuses on, Hoover repeatedly took actions against King that went far beyond what was necessary or appropriate for an anti-Communism campaign. I argue that this is because Hoover's true goal was to damage King's reputation as much as possible, not discover if he was a communist. Second, I examine the Bureau's surveillance of Stanley Levison, one of King's closest aides. Levison was, for a time, a suspected communist. This gave the Bureau's campaign some initial legitimacy, and eventually led to the Bureau's official spy campaign against Dr. King. Next, I analyze the FBI's use of technological surveillance methods against King. The Bureau's patterns of microphone and wiretap use in their campaign against King further suggest that the intent of such actions was merely to gather information to injure King's reputation with the public. Fourth, I discuss the Bureau's use of informants to keep tabs on King's actions and plan. More specifically, I discuss Ernest Columbus Withers, a black photographer who served as an FBI informant. Finally, I argue that there is potential for the FBI to take similar actions against today's black activists. To make this point, I analyze the wording of an FBI memo made public last year. In this memo, the FBI warns of a domestic terror threat known as "Black Identity Extremists." I argue that the FBI's definition of these extremists is purposely vague, and could feasibly be applied to any black activist. Because of this, I believe there is potential for modern activists to be subjected to the same kind of harassment Dr. King endured in the 1960's. Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it, and this thesis serves as a reminder that there are forces who would stifle the First Amendment to maintain the status quo.
ContributorsWilson, Bryan (Author) / Davis, T. J. (Thesis director) / Miller, Keith (Committee member) / Lauderdale, Pat (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Since the inception of what is now known as the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1970s, criminal profiling has become an increasingly prevalent entity in both forensic science and the popular imagination. The fundamental idea of which profiling is premised – behavior as a reflection of personality – has been the subject of a great deal of misunderstanding, with professionals and nonprofessionals alike questioning whether profiling represents an art or a science and what its function in forensic science should be. To provide a more thorough understanding of criminal profiling’s capabilities and its efficacy as a law enforcement tool, this thesis will examine the application of criminal profiling to investigations, various court rulings concerning profiling’s admissibility, and the role that popular media plays in the perception and function of the practice. It will also discuss how future research and regulatory advancements may strengthen criminal profiling’s scientific merit and legitimacy.
ContributorsGeraghty, Bridget Elizabeth (Author) / Kobojek, Kimberly (Thesis director) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
The purpose of this document is to explore the aspects of the UNABOM investigation in search of the key factors that contributed to Theodore J. Kaczynski’s ability to evade capture from law enforcement for 17 years. Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was a serial bomber, domestic terrorist, intellectual, mathematician, ersatz philosopher, and published author-by-extortion of the late twentieth century. His actions resulted in the deaths of three individuals and injured twenty-three others. As such, the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched a full-scale manhunt over the span of almost two decades to catch Kaczynski. This paper analyzes the factors that allowed for Kaczynski to avoid detection through a multi-step process of first listing off the chronological timeline of events in Kaczynski’s life, then examining his three major bombings that resulted in fatalities, using results/concepts from forensic linguistics to identify key information that might allude to his ability to avoid detection, and conducting a overall analysis of the societal, economical, technological, and law enforcement capabilities of the late 20th century. This present-day look into Kaczynski’s reign of terror will not only unveil any trends, factors, and methodologies used in his crimes, but it will most importantly signify that if Kaczynski’s actions were to be repeated in the exact manner today, the manhunt would take just as long and be equally as tragic as it was three decades ago. The end goal is to reveal that the only factor that allowed Kaczynski to evade capture for as long as he did was Kaczynski himself.
ContributorsKelso, Quinn W (Author) / Broberg, Gregory (Thesis director) / Fitzgerald, James R. (Committee member) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
The transgender community is often targeted by hate crimes at greater levels thananyone else under the LGBTQAI+ umbrella but the true scope of the epidemic is far from
understood due to dramatically low rates of reported hate crimes. The current study seeks
to understand the relationship between transgender people and authorities through an indepth
analysis of historical and current trends in reporting GIB hate crimes. In
conjunction, I apply the notion of regional identity to hypothesize which US region(s)
will have the highest rates of GIB inclusive policies based on their historical identities
and socio-political underpinnings. I posit the Pacific, Mountain, New England, and Mid
Atlantic (West and Northeastern) regions will have the highest rates of protection for
transgender people from 2013-2019. Additionally, I assert there will be a moderate (0.2-
0.4 correlation coefficient) to high (0.4+ correlation coefficient) correlation between GIB
inclusive policies and reported rates of violence. A simple linear regression found a high
correlation (.934) between regional political identities and their rate of enacted GIB
policies. Furthermore, based on the annual report data provided by the FBI, the regions
with the highest tallies of GIB inclusive policies were the same regions with the highest
rates of reported GIB hate crimes with an average of 0.537 over a seven-year time span.
This study provides evidence that regional socio-political underpinnings directly affect
policy enacted regarding GIB protections and that those policies are aligned with higher
rates of reported violence.
ContributorsMiller, Kassandra Elizabeth (Author) / Comstock, Audrey (Thesis advisor) / Goksel, Nisa (Committee member) / Kramer, Zachary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021