Behavioural Crime linkage and multi-agency working

Evidence suggests that the majority of crime is committed by a minority of prolific serial offenders who pose a substantial risk to society. Behavioural Crime Linkage (BCL) has been proposed as one method to more effectively bring serial offenders to justice. BCL is a form of behavioural analysis that seeks to identify similarities in offender crime scene behaviour across two or more crimes so that evidence collected across multiple investigations can be combined, and thus helps the police to work in a more efficient way (thereby saving time and money). This chapter will introduce the concept of BCL, describe the different scenarios in which it is used during live police investigations, and briefly discuss empirical research in the area. The chapter will also explore how BCL relates to the concept of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention, how BCL fits within the wider criminal justice process, and how BCL can support the work of other criminal justice agencies.