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explain the purpose of creating victim‟s profile, in collaboration with necessary mindset of forensic
victimologist who has to have ability to observe affinity of confirmation.
Affinity of the observer is conscious or unconscious affinity to see or find something expected to be
seen or found. Practically it means that the researcher could develop findings based on information and
opinions learned from popular media, witness statements, and opinions and findings of others. Affinity of
confirmation is conscious or unconscious tendency to seek only the evidences to confirm theories, opinions,
or findings which are set earlier, and represent a specific type of affinity of an observer where evidence and
information are presented in a way that includes things which confirm ignore position and actively, do not
seek or diminish the relevance of anything which is contradictory to that position. Contrary to affinity of a
good observer, it usually manifests in form of quest for the type of evidence which supports case theory that
is already given (suspect is guilty or innocent) and actively, without any logic and considerations, bringing
down the evidence and findings that are undesirable. Success in this victimological forensic community
should be measured by diligent elimination of probability through scientific methods and repetition
monitoring, and not through conviction insurance, which means that objective forensic victimologists do not
try to catch a perpetrator, but to determine what really happened and under what circumstances, using the
available evidence. According to these findings it is clear that the hardest part of the criminal profiling
process is conducted by the victimologist, because humanizing the victim leads to a risk to fall under
emotions when collecting the evidence of crimes; therefore it is necessary to keep the required distance and
not go beyond criminal investigation, because to set up a decent profile assumes documenting and
discovering the history and disclosure of circumstances, and the basic profile will determine the further
process of investigation, jurisdiction, and rights. If we understand how and why the perpetrator selected
victim which is known to us, in that case we should be capable to set a connection between the victim and
the perpetrator. Usually, the forensic victimologist serves to investigation and court proceedings by assisting
with contextualization of claim, helps to establish disposition of victim and its exposure to a loss or damage,
assists in developing of perpetrator modus operandi and his motives, helps to establish perpetrator
investigation circle and assists with investigation of unsolved cases. Victimology profiling can be defined as
a set of approaches and techniques used to predict characteristics of unknown perpetrators through
investigation and analyses of evidence acquired from the crime scene. Analyzing the crime scene, the
inspector seeks to comprehend behavior, personal, and demographic characteristic of a perpetrator. Victim
profiling or victimology profiling usually determines causal connection between the crime scene, the victim,
the witness and the perpetrator and is used in crimes when the perpetrator identity is unknown. In a process,
information is used from the crime scene, entry and exit from the place, the type of weapons used, all that is
said and done to the victim in order to create psychological portrait of an unknown perpetrator. It is
important to emphasize that the creation of quality victimology profile depends on the expertise of the
investigator, but regardless of that, basic goal of profiling is to better understand perpetrators‟ personality,
physical characteristics and his behavior.
There are several approaches to a victim profiling, like geographic profiling, crime scene analyses,
research psychology and diagnostic evolution. It should be emphasized that the victim profile would not
catch the perpetrator or solve the case on its own, but it will greatly help the inspector in investigation. If the
inspector has as much as possible information about the victim, there is greater possibility for the perpetrator
or perpetrators to be
arrested, which is especially important in
cases of serial perpetrators, when
it is believed
that they are behind more of the same or similar crimes. Investigating victims‟ characteristics, including
mental state, lifestyle, social life, weather they have criminal records or activity, the inspector hopes that he
could identify a pattern which will ensure easier finding of the responsible person for the crimes committed.
Information about the victim which should be available to the investigator in the process of forming
victimology profile are the physical characteristics, marital status, lifestyle, medical anamnesis, whether the
victim has a criminal file, last known activities, diary (if it is known that the victim had one), whether the
victim traveled somewhere before the attack, whether the victim has problems with alcohol and drugs,
friends and enemies list, family relationship and a list of victim‟s jobs. The answer to the question of how
and why the victim is selected, what are the risks that perpetrator has been subjected to in order to perform
the offense, how he approached the victim and what was the victim‟s
reaction, and
it will help to discover the
perpetrator‟s motive, as well as his modus operandi, and even the details in executing the crime which makes
them special or different from others perpetrators. Based on this, it is possible to discover the perpetrator‟s
knowledge about forensics and police procedures, his occupation, physical characteristics and social skills.
The criteria for the first step represents the criminal activity phase where a set of tactical, technical and