# In need of information about victim profiles



## Karin Niessen (Feb 9, 2009)

At my group, we have a theory evening once a month, in which the team members in turn give a reading about a subject related to SAR. The 30th is my turn and my subject will be 'victim profiles'. I know quite much about psychiatric patients, but that's about it, and I guess (live, so no cadaver) wilderness search will contain more then just that as victims. 

This means I'm looking for any kind of information you have. What kind of 'victims' can I tell about, what can I tell about them, things like that... We also do disaster training, so that can be included, a victim profile of disaster victims. But I don't know much about that either. Any information is welcome, as I am quite new to it all. The only real search I have been to (as an observer, so without dog, but with my team) was a psychiatric patient who had run away from home (and hadn't been found in the search).

Thanks in advance for every scrap of information!


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

There is a LOT out there, including experience so it is kind of hard to summarize on an email thread and would be repeating a lot already out there and personal experiences. 

There are books written on this topic. Some good references are on this link - see if you can find them. You don't have much time.Here are some links to get your started. SURELY someone on your team HAS some of the resource books! 

http://www.eri-online.com/ERI_Publications.html

http://www.sarbc.org/behchar.html
http://www.ikar-cisa.org/ikar-cisa/documents/2007/2005-TC-18-Predicting-Lost-Person-Behavior.pdf

Google "lost person behavior". Do some research. 

*I think one thing you need to know/understand is that these are all generalizations and there are many exceptions to the "rule". You have to consider things that just don't normally happen or follow the pattern when looking for a missing person *


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## Karin Niessen (Feb 9, 2009)

Thanks for the links and the words to use. There is hardly any information in Dutch about this subject (or I'm looking with the wrong words of course). I am finding some things in the English texts I don't understand, I hope someone here van help me with them...

- The (I think?) abbreviation mi. I thought maybe mile?
- The abbreviations IPP PLS and LKP - haven't got a clue
- "Confinement should be a high priority" (How do you confine someone whilst searching, I read confine as in a prison or something like that)

And for anyone following this thread and also wanting the info, another find is
http://www.mountain.rescue.org.uk/publications/Missing Person Behaviour Handbook June 2003.pdf


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## Barrie Kirkland (Nov 6, 2007)

i have some studies on victim profiling at work


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

LKP = last know point - last place you KNOW the victim was present
PLS = Point last seen -may be from eyewitness etc.
IPP = Initial planning point - locus of the start of the search.
mi = mile

That other reference looks pretty good.

By confinement what they mean is you look at the time since victim went missing, estimate how far they could have gone and find features that can be used to allow them to be spotted if they exit the search area [roads, ridges etc]. It is a great way to use untrained volunteers, ATVs etc - spotters. That way your search area does not expand as each hour passes which is a real problem. It is a very often overlooked initial search strategy.


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## Karin Niessen (Feb 9, 2009)

Barrie Kirkland said:


> i have some studies on victim profiling at work


*deleted stupid reaction and replaced it with a logical one, lol*

can you send them to me if I pm my e-mail?


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## Barrie Kirkland (Nov 6, 2007)

Will dig out what I have


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## Karin Niessen (Feb 9, 2009)

Related to my last question (for the same reading): what do you do when you have found a lost person. Of course that depends on the person, but for example, if you find someone who is known to be depressed and suicidal and ran away (and therefor has been reported lost). You find this person (alive). How do you approach, what do you say, what do you do.

And the same for the other lost person groups (like children, elderly demented people, but also just normal lost people of course). I think someone who is just plainly lost will be happy to see a 'rescuer', but a small frightened child who has been told 'not to talk to strangers', or someone with dementia, realy confused, stuff like that. What do you do?

Again anyones experiences are welcome, but of course websites with information are welcome too. Really anything would be welcome. I really want to do this thoroughly.

If someone thinks of another 'profile-related' subject, that is also welcome of course, but I think I got the two main things, the best strategies for searching and what to do when found. But as I'm so new to this all, there might quite well be something else worth 'investigating' too...

By the way, I'm so glad my English is quite ok. There is hardly any Dutch information to find on this subjects. Just have some problems about making up the correct search terms lol


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

When you get briefed you ask, and sometimes you get permission to talk with the family, about what to expect with that person - how they respond, what have they been told about people in uniform, dogs, etc.

Sometimes though family members are embarrassed by a problem with the child or other family member and will withold necessary info that could help the search effort. Actually there was a boy in Utah several years ago who kept hiding from the searchers because, I think he thought he would get in trouble for talking with strangers but his parents said that he would seek help..........

I have not been on a "ground crew" when a person has been found - but several of our team have been and I don't think anyone tried to run away.


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## Karin Niessen (Feb 9, 2009)

Forgot to tell how it went. It was (of course) a lecture, and not a reading, lol.

A lot of the information I found was 'discarded' because it doesn't work that way over here. We don't have manpower to work with confinement and the info I found was based on all SAR aspects and not just with dogs. 

We didn't really get what exactly was meant by passive attraction methods. We had some trouble with the term despondents, didn't really know what to make of that group, I couldn't find a Dutch translation for it either... And another point is that you always have to do a thorough search, or actually the dog should... So the critic I got is that mentioning that in some cases is pretty weird, as it is something you should always do...


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Passive attraction is using tools like a fire engine or horns making sound that the lost person could move towards - or seeting up some kind of lights etc.

Despndents are depressed people, possibly suicidal and you need to try to understand some about them-some want not to ever be found and go to great extremes to find a good place to die. Others may want to be looking at a pretty view etc.

Containment is, I think, underutilized and it would be a great way to use the masses of people who show up to help but have no training and really should not be out in the woods because they may miss or inadvertently destroy clues - plus you are not clear on the mentaility or crimina background of everyone who shows up to help.

I am not sure about the statement "always have to do a thorough search" - well yes, but you typically would do a hasty first just to look for victim in high probability areas and take back info for sectoring. For example is someone is gone and mobile, there is not point on doing a grid search at the PLS-while you are combing the woods with a fine tooth comb, they could be miles away [but stats help you there]-you would get around to thorough if the area grew.


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## Michele Fleury (Jun 4, 2009)

The latest version of Robert Koester's book "Lost Person Behavior" is a tremendous resource and a must have for all SAR teams. You will find lots of good stats and info about the behavior of many victim types.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

I need to get that book for our team - the most recent we have is Syrotouk but another nearby team with about an 80 call a year volume over the past 20 years has found a lot to Syrotouk that does not line up to their own experience.


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## Karin Niessen (Feb 9, 2009)

Michele Fleury said:


> The latest version of Robert Koester's book "Lost Person Behavior" is a tremendous resource and a must have for all SAR teams. You will find lots of good stats and info about the behavior of many victim types.


Well the thing is that it seems that certain things are just different over here. We don't have huge wilderness terrains. We don't have the masses of people that show upwhen we do a search, we don't have many searches at all (I think we have about 6 to 8 in a year, this year we have had just one until now)... And that's in the whole country (that is smaller than most of America's states by themselves, but o well lol). I understood that the stats aren't entirely correct for us either, but I'm not too sure about that...


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