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In the late 1970s, the FBI devised a method for profiling violent criminals that would help stop the epidemic of serial killers in the US The origins were not easy. They had to face the lack of techniques and the distrust of their own police colleagues, who preferred classical intuition to these experimental ways of hunting psychopaths. In Spain, that same struggle between the old and the new was experienced within the National Police, although, of course, here there were no challenges as terrifying as those in the country of Ted Bundy either the zodiac killer. “We have worked a lot with colleagues from the FBI and they have exactly the same problems as us.
It is true that here we do not have, except for some isolated cases, serial killers on a regular basis. The normal is the unique case, ”warns Juan Enrique Soto, who for a decade directed the police department that carried out these tasks in Spain.
difficult beginnings
On the occasion of the premiere of the film ‘The Black Phone’, starring Ethan Hawke in the role of a child murderer from the 1970s in the US, Juan Enrique Soto, doctor of Psychology and professor of criminology at UNIR, reports told ABC how the first steps of the National Police Behavior Analysis section were, a unit created in 2010 to unravel the most twisted criminal minds, and the tasks they perform. «What interests us is being able to tell the investigator the characteristics of the criminal, where they have to look for him and, if possible, what victims he is going to look for, ”says Soto, who was at the head of this elite section until 2020.
Soto entered the police force with a degree in Psychology and a career focused on homicide investigations. «I sensed that psychology and police investigation could be perfectly combined, which sounds very obvious today, but in the 1990s it was not so. was,” he says. The FBI had been developing its unit for many years and in some countries, such as Britain, they had similar sections, but it was nothing extended. The Spanish investigator was learning in a self-taught way what could be done and applying it to the cases that crossed his path. It wasn’t until 2010 that he glimpsed a section that brings together all these techniques.
One day, Soto heard his boss say that she wanted to set up a behavior analysis unit, “but I can’t find anyone with the profile to start it up.” The psychologist and police officer soon approached her: “I have the profile, but I can’t find anyone who wants to put it into operation.” Since the birth of the section, it was necessary to find a fit for behavioral theories within traditional research. It took years to overcome the distrust of some police officers towards psychologists, especially in the judicial field, and to understand that, given their good results, they are one more tool to advance the investigation without detracting from the traditional method. «It has taken a lot of work, but now they know that the section exists, they know that they can come to us for a hand if they have a blocked case or if they are blank. They don’t have to wait years », points out Soto, who now speaks individually about his experience.
The most complex cases
Traditional tools continue to solve the majority of cases in Spain, where homicides are solved almost nine times out of ten. In that remaining 10%, researchers usually go to Behavior Analysis asking for their help to unblock the case. Not only to trace the profiles of the possible criminal (although the FBI makes about 2,000 reports a year, here the best year is 24), but to analyze images and clues from a behavioral perspective or, especially, to prepare interrogations. The success rate of the section is very high, but it is not always enough: «There are always cases that remain unsolved or where you are very clear about what has happened, who has committed it, etc., etc., but something else is test it and retrieve all the clues.
According to what was his orchestra leader for ten years, when the Conduct Analysis section of the National Police reviews old cases of great difficulty always starts “absolutely from scratch”, looking for the behavior of those involved, asking questions that no one had noticed and focusing, above all, on the victim. “We find out everything we can about the victim to ask ourselves why they have chosen this person,” says the specialist, who denies the cinematographic image of investigators obsessed with deciphering criminal minds as a matter of intellectual pride, but rather “regretting not being able to help the victim or the next of kin any more».
Joseph Breton, the pilgrim of Astorga, the murder of Marta del Castillo, the pedophile of Ciudad Lineal… In these twelve years, the unit has participated in a large number of media cases that showed a labyrinth with no apparent exit. In the case of Ciudad Lineal, Soto says that he built a profile on two occasions, first when he had few attacks and another later when there were more. “In the end, the profile fit quite well, but that is independent of what was really important: indicating to the investigators certain actions that were very specific, such as finding out in which gym this individual could have been training, what profession he could have and, above all, your place of residence.
Still, scientific methods sometimes run up against the unexpected. In a very violent homicide case that Soto still remembers, the group developed a very complex hypothesis to conduct an investigation that remained unsolved. When the person responsible was finally found some time later, it was not because of the profile or sophisticated techniques, but, like many crimes, because the author committed another crime and his fingerprints could be compared. “He was a common criminal! And you say milk! Us here racking our brains looking for patterns and links, and then in the end it was the dumbest.” A similar case is that of a robber who always attacked a single bank in different branches. “You break your head looking for links: a client or a former worker, etc., to later find out that he only docked at that bank because like the first time it went well, he no longer changed due to superstition.”
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism