Geographical profiling obscene phone calls - A case study

Studies on geographical profiling have typically focused on crimes with physical crime sites. This study focused on crimes with no physical crimes sites (i.e., no physical contact occurred between the victim and offender). A single offender made obscene phone calls (OPC) to 86 children during the years 1999-2000 in the south of Sweden. The locations in which obscene phone calls were received were analysed in a geographical profiling system (Dragnet) to see whether it could provide a map which showed the most likely area the offender would reside in. The purpose of this study was to explore whether or not geographical software such as Dragnet can be of use for investigators of crimes with no physical crime locations. The result showed that the offender in this case had his home close to the region assigned the highest probability of containing home or base, which indicates that Dragnet can provide maps which can narrow down the search areas for the police in cases without physical crime locations.