A certified criminal profiler says behavioural analysis can give clues to the “why” in cases such as the murder of a botany lecturer and young tourist couple in northern British Columbia.
Jim Van Allen, a former manager of the Ontario Provincial Police criminal profiling unit who has studied 835 homicides, says behavioural analysis is not an exact science because it involves interpretation.
But he says much can be learned about an offender and his or her possible motive by studying conduct before the crime, behaviour during it and what exactly was done to the victims.
Van Allen is not involved in the investigation into Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod, the suspects in the three killings, but the R-C-M-P has said it has engaged its own behavioural analysis unit as part of the ongoing probe.
