V is for Victimology
Today, I want to discuss a technique an investigator can employ to catch a perpetrator: victimology. Victimology is a field in forensic science, specifically it is the study of victim characteristics. The investigator looks at the victim’s personal, professional and social life to determine why they were selected at the specific location and time. The show Criminal Minds dramatizes the lives of special agents with the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. The agents look over cases of serial killings and use similarities between victims to profile the unknown subject (unsub) in order to apprehend them. Victims fall into three categories: High-, medium- and low-risk. I used information from the HOW DUNIT series, Forensics: A Guide for Writers , pages 415-16, to explain the characteristics of the three victim categories. “ High-risk victims are those who are frequently in high-risk situations. Prostitutes, particularly those who “walk the stre...