Abstract
In homicide cases, it is difficult to provide resolution for the bereaved or to obtain a successful criminal conviction of the guilty party when no body is found. Since the mid-nineteenth century, geographic and environmental patterns have been used to better understand the relationship between crime and its environment. Now known as geographic profiling, practitioners in this field amalgamate criminological, psychological, and geographical knowledge, as well as aspects of mathematics, statistics, and physics to identify spatial patterns associated with criminal behaviour as a means of locating anchor points of an offender (where they live, or work). The same techniques can also be used to locate the covert body deposition sites of their victims. This paper aims to (1) provide a brief summary of criminal behaviour and the environment and how understanding their relationship can be helpful to geographic profiling, (2) amalgamate the available literature on the application of geographic profiling in locating clandestine graves (as most documented uses are to locate offender residences), and (3) include a geographic profile of Ivan Milat, an Australian serial killer (officially) active from 1989 to 1992, demonstrating how geographic profiling techniques can help to identify additional victims and potential body deposition sites. The information in this review will be helpful to law enforcement and practitioners to improve missing persons investigations and searches for clandestine graves.
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As an example, the Australian killer Bradley Robert Edwards, also known as the Claremont killer, was arrested in 2016 after being suspected of killing three women in 1996 and 1997; however, only two of the victim’s bodies have been found (Mayes 2020a). As a result, in 2020, Edwards was only found guilty of the murders of the two young woman whose bodies were found (Mayes 2020b).
It is important to note that the spatial, temporal, and environmental factors discussed are all influenced and governed by the surrounding geographic area; thus important geographic elements are linked to the spatial, temporal, and environmental elements and will not be discussed on its own.
An example of this is the Christopher Watts case from 2018 in Frederick, Colorado, USA. The victims were found at the work site of Mr. Watt’s (Morales 2020).
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The authorship team would like to acknowledge the University of Newcastle for the Vice Chancellor’s Higher Degree by Research PhD Training Scholarship and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for the Doctoral Fellowship. We would also like to thank Mr. Peter Gogarty, from the University of Newcastle, for his invaluable contributions to the criminology department.
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This study was funded by a University of Newcastle’s Vice Chancellor’s Higher Degree by Research PhD Training Scholarship and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship (752–2021-0039).
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Berezowski, V., MacGregor, D., Ellis, J. et al. More than an Offender Location Tool: Geographic Profiling and Body Deposition Sites. J Police Crim Psych 38, 3–19 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-021-09475-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-021-09475-6