Tracking violent crime - Australian Institute of Criminology

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constant in his offences, although aspects of the signature may evolve as he progresses from crime to crime. An example of a signature aspect may be the particular way that the offender binds his victim, or the order of his sexual acts. Unless an analyst is trained to recognise the significance of these acts, vital information connecting the offences may be lost. The cornerstone of effective analysis and case linkage, is standardised data collection methodology and entry. The ViCLAS data collection forms contain simple, closed ended questions and “formatted“ multiple choice answers. The adoption of this methodology overcomes a variety of common data collection errors that occur with narrative based systems. As Canada is a bilingual country the system was developed so that it crosses language difficulties. Each standardised answer to the ViCLAS questions has been assigned a value and when the analyst queries the system, it is actually the value assigned to the answer given, rather than the language used, that the computer searches on. So the language of data entry is irrelevant for all queries involving formatted fields. This will of course not function in areas that narrative text appears. However, given the comprehensive nature of the data collection forms and the corresponding formatted fields, text searches should be rare, and if required, the system still has that capability. Confidentiality is an important issue. The actual data entered is still owned by the agency who is responsible for investigating the offence. There are strict privacy conditions placed on who can view the data, and if a linkage is identified then the investigators are advised of that but not of the specific details of the linked case. It is then up to the discretion of each investigator as to what is shared. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS FOR AUSTRALIAN LAW ENFORCEMENT Australia has not escaped the serial murder or the serial rape phenomena. The media reports in avid detail the crimes of each of them. We can all recall people like John Glover, the New South Wales Granny murderer - who killed 6 elderly women, and Ivan Milat, convicted of the murders of the seven backpackers in the Belanglo State Forest environs. The serial killer and rapist differ from other offenders as he often plans his crimes, selects a certain type of victim and a location, is confident, monitors his own behaviour to avoid detection and as there is often no relationship between himself and the victim, he is difficult to detect. Problems identified by law enforcement in not only investigating these crimes, but also in linking these crimes include: 1. Mobility of the Offender 6
Modern transport enables offenders to commit offences in one location and quickly move to another area with ease. An offender could commit an offence in one capital city in the morning and be in another city within a day. This ability to travel great distances in a short period of time, combined with the lack of a relationship between the offender and the victim, creates considerable difficulties for those attempting to solve the crime. 2. Lack of a common language United States Department of Justice research discovered that a major impediment to the early identification of serial murder cases was that investigators, when describing their cases, used different terms to describe the same things. This meant that commonalities between cases were sometimes missed. 3. Lack of knowledge about other cases In Australia, although we only have eight policing agencies, investigators in one agency rarely know what is happening in another state or territory, unless the media reports on cases. As some State police agencies become regionalised, the communication problems within those States have intensified. Investigators generally have a heavy workload of their own without wondering what is happening in the next region. In some cases, one shift does not know what has happened on a previous shift. 4. Lack of knowledge about our own cases. Personnel changes within organisations mean that a lot of information is lost or no longer available. Unless a Detective has been in an area for some period of time, they may not link a current case with a similar case which occurred 6 years ago in the same area. New investigators are often unaware of the details of old homicide cases, and as experienced detectives leave, their expertise is often lost with them. ViCLAS provides solutions to these problems. Once a case has been entered onto the system it remains active as it is constantly compared against other cases. This is reassuring to victims and their relatives, who the investigator can truthfully tell that the case is still being investigated. It also means that a lack of knowledge about our own cases or each other’s cases no longer hinders investigations. As the system will be implemented nationally the offender’s mobility also ceases to be a problem as the system and analyst will link offences committed by the same offender in different areas. The adoption of ViCLAS by other countries provides a vehicle for comparing cases, where the offender has been known to travel overseas. 7
Page 1 and 2: AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF CRIMINAL INTEL
Page 3 and 4: BACKGROUND TO AVCAC The proposal to
Page 5: As well as Canada, ViCLAS has now b
Page 9: CONCLUSION The AVCAC has been inter

Tracking violent crime - Australian Institute of Criminology

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