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The Importance of Understanding the Human Mind in Law Enforcement
March 7th 2019
Coleman Neill
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Abstract
In today’s world of Law Enofrcement we have been left with many stories and other learning
materials to be able to preform our job’s to the best of our ability. We also learned to not make
the same mistakes from our past and I believe that to be a key importance because if Law
Enforcement officials make the slightest mistakes the public and media will jump all over them.
My family has been in Law Enforcement for over 100 years, I grew up listening to different
theroies and stories from different cops and family members. I learned one bigger picture is that
history always repeats itself so its important we prepare for that. My attention always caught
Violent Crimes, what urges someone to commit such horrorendous acts on people? The most
highlighted time in History is the 20th century when Serial Killers were on the rise and had
communities on edge across the nation. What is it that we can learn from such cases like the
Kidnapping of Adam Walsh or the Murder of JonBenét Ramsey? Such crimes like mentioned
above have changed and molded a new form of Law Enforcement. This paper will focus on
Violent Crimes and Serial Killer’s of our past and will divulge into the Moral Correctness of
Serial and Violent Crime Teaching, Parents and the Behavioral and Warning Signs of Juvenile
Delinquency and on-going Criminal Behavior, and The Need for Behavioral Science or Analysis
in Law Enforcement.
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The Moral Correctness of Serial or Violent Crime Teaching
In today’s world we see the influence that famous Serial Killer’s such as Ted Bundy,
Jeffery Dahmer, and John Wayne Gayce left behind even after death. They had amped Criminal
Justice officials to officially notice the need for Specialized Professionals in Law Enforcement
who strictly analyze Behavior. That is something is taught, the certain ticks and signs of behavior
that distinguish certain individuals. Since this is something that is taught in order to become an
expert, so is it morally correct to teach the history of Serial Killers or Violent Crimes? I believe
that yes it is but we all are entitled to our own opinions. If we are taught this particular subject
then we can go back in History and divulge into the lives of the known Serial Killers or any
person that commits violent crimes and we can understand what went so wrong. I understand
why it could lead to more problems and be morally inncorect but I find it to be a necessary evil,
it could come off as if we are idolizing the Crimes of such mentally unstable people.
College is one of the best places to encourage moral devolpment, specifically the
development of professional ethics (Perry, 2014). College is the place when young adults find
out who they are and the next questions could teaching of such individuals create monsters like
the ones mentioned above? Believe it or not there are people in this world who idolize such
people like Jack the Ripper, The Zodiac Killer, and even Son of Sam. In my opinion I believe
that if a child is going to grow up to commit terrible crimes then that is something that is built at
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Everyone in life is a fan of something or has a hero, my own personal hero is Ronald
Reagan. It does not matter who or what your hero is or what you are a fan of, it serves as a
specific fandom. I am a huge fan of studying the behavior of an individual or the ability to look
at a crime and build a psychological profile. The problem in hand is that Serial Killer’s of our
past have received “Celebrity like” recognition and people worship that and this could push an
individual into wanting to grow up and be like them.
Parents needing to know the Behavioral and Warning Signs of Juvenile Deliquency and on-going
Criminal Behavior
In today’s world we may be disconnected from this idea but having a child is pure gift
from our God and that is the truth no matter what people think or say. How do we prepare to
have this child though? Every parent in today’s world should be aware of the danagers that could
be going in your child’s mind and even going in their physical everyday life. Some say it is the
parents fault that an individual grows up to be such a monster and this is not always true. Ted
Bundy for example grew up in a very middle class family in Tacoma, Washington and claimed
his father was a drunk and beat him, that was not the case at all. When a child shows signs of
Deviant Behavior rather than sit back and watch your child spiral into life of cime, stand up and
home. What pushed Dylan Roof to walk into that church in Charleston South Carolina and shoot
and kill 9 African American individuals? It is simple he grew up in a family who taught him such
hatred and such rascist ideas and he wanted to make a point, that is something he was taught at
home.
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The Need for Behavioral Science or Analysis in Law Enforcement
be responsible and get your child the help he or she requires. The signs are much broader than a
child becoming a Killer of some sort but rather the fact that the child could just take on a life of
crime and not be a functioning member of society.
Believe it or not Criminal Profiling and the study of behavior in Law Enforcement is a
rather new field, Howard Teten and Patrick Mullany are credited with making the earliest
Behavioral Analysis for difficult cases. “By about 1960,” Teten says, “ I had developed a
hypothesis that you’d be able to determine the kind of person you were looking for by what you
could see at the crime scene.” (Ramsland, 2014.) There is a need for Behavioral Science or
In 2004, 2.2 million adolescents were arrested (Crosswhite and Kerpelman 2013). While
this number has dropped this is a clear sign that parents should be acting on the Behavioral
problems a child might be showing. This is to protect that child’s life and those around him or
her. It is not unheard of for a child to kill his entire family, the human mind is a very powerful
thing even at a young age and it is something that should be acknowledged if it is troubled. I will
reference back to October 31, 2016 when a Female Teenager had killed both her parents, this was
rare indeed because she had no previous problems with crime, but behavior was an obvious
issue. Social control or self-control is an individual characteristic that is established early in life
and can account for deviant behavior (Teasdale and Silver 2014). This is something that can help
parents determine delinquent behavior, if your child show signs that they lack self-control then
this could lead to be an issue.
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According to the FBI, Behavioral science is all about better understanding criminals and
terrorists—who they are, how they think, why they do what they do—as a means to help solve
crimes and prevent attacks. The art of what is sometimes called “profiling”—popularized in
movies like Silence of the Lambs—was developed by FBI behavioral analysts and has been
around for years. The Bureau began to more systematically apply the insights of psychological
science to criminal behavior in the early 1970s. Today, we have a team of professionals at the
FBI Academy who teach the tenets of behavioral science around the world. Part of the
Behavioral Science Unit (BSU), they provide cutting edge training, high-impact research, and
consultation in the behavioral sciences in support of the FBI’s mission and the work of the
broader law enforcement and intelligence communities. (FBI, 2013). Needless to say, in today’s
Analysis in Law Enforcement because it gives key details to investigators to be able to catch a
suspect with less work and less evidence. At the agency that I work for known as SLED (South
Carolina Law Enforcement Division) we have 3 trained profilers. The assist the whole state of
South. Carolina in certain violent crimes and analyze deeper than just a dead body at the scene.
Lt. Paul LaRosa who is one of our profilers gave me insight into this paper about his job and how
much he can help in a case. Lt. LaRosa gave me the example of lets say he arrives at a crime
scene and there is a dead body, while everyone is asking “Who did it?” he is going to ask “Why
did they do it, why did they do it this way, or why did they do it here?” You can learn so much by
looking at a dead body because there is always a deeper message. In South Carolina most of our
Violent Crime have a drug realation so there is not much behavior we need to know except the
Offender-Victim relationship.
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Conclusion
The big picture we can pull from this paper is that the world changed when people like
Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gayce came around. It reshaped the world of Law Enforcement and
psychology because we were not aware of the issues certain people could do or the things they
could do. There is an obvious need for Behavioral Science in Law Enforcement because it gives
the Agency or Department the ability to solve a case to the best of their ability and to make all
cirmes come to justice.
technological world and everything else, Law Enforcement Officers are getting outgunned so we
could use some help in the psychological aspect of things.
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Refrences
Perry, W. G. Jr. (2010) Forms of ethical and intellectual development in the college
years: A scheme.
Crosswhite, Jennifer M. and Jennifer L. Kerpelman. 2013. “Coercion Theory, Self-
Control, and Social Information Processing: Understanding Potential Mediators for How
Parents Influence Deviant Behavior.” Deviant Behavior 30(7): 611-46.
Teasdale, Brent and Eric Silver. 2014. “Neighborhoods and Self-Control: toward an
Expanded view of Socialization.” Social Problems 56(1): 205-22.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2010). Behavioral science. Retrieved from
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/td/academy/bsu/bsu.htm
Ramsland, K., Dr. (2014, June 14). Criminal Profiling: How It All Began. Retrieved
February 4, 2019, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shadow-
boxing/201403/criminal-profiling-how-it-all-began
