Bees Help Detectives Catch Serial Killers

Hugh Pickens writes "The way bumblebees search for food could help detectives hunt down serial killers — because just as bees forage some distance away from their hives, so murderers avoid killing near their homes, says a University of London research team. The researchers' analysis describes how bees create a 'buffer zone' around their hive where they will not forage, to reduce the risk of predators and parasites locating the nest. This behavior pattern is similar to the geographic profile of criminals stalking their victims. 'Most murders happen close to the killer's home, but not in the area directly surrounding a criminal's house, where crimes are less likely to be committed because of the fear of getting caught by someone they know,' says Dr. Nigel Raine. Criminologists will fold this insight into their models using details about crime scenes, robbery locations, abandoned cars, even dead bodies, to hone the search for a suspect."

Comments

dont shit where you eat

[timmarhy]

we've known this for a long time sherlock...

Two ways?

[JohnnyKlunk]

If read and understood by a sane serial killer (assuming these things exist). Could they then pattern their kills around a location other than where they live? Hence leading police to profile the wrong location based upon these kind of patterns?

Re:Two ways?

[lukas84]

Yes, of course.

If you kill a random person at a random location, with the only value that influences your choice of victim being the chance of getting away with it, the chances of getting away with it, if properly executed, are almost 100%.

But that's not how it works in the real world - most murders happen for a reason, even those be insane or sane serial killers.

Re:Two ways?

[drmofe]

Yes. 1. Find a known serial killer. 2. Commit crimes around their home. 3. ??? 4. Profit.

Re:Two ways?

[Oktober Sunset]

slight flaw, known serial killers' homes are generaly maximum security prison.

Re:Two ways?

[will_die]

First off this behavior is also used by thieves, murderers, arsonists, basically any type of serial criminal activities, and was used is solving poisoning back in the 80s.
The basis around most of this geographic profiling is that people put a bubble around the places they live or work so they are not to close while at the same time they don't want to be so far away that they don't feel safe or unfamiliar with the area or they don't have an explanation of why they are in that area.
So yea someone could setup another base but you then increase the chance that you will be seen as unfamiliar in that area or if you don't know the area a good chance there is a chance you will make a mistake and the fear of making that mistake is what causes people to create that original bubble in the first place.
There are a few pieces of software that are already being used by police and the I recently read an article where they are using this software in Afghanistan and Iraq to figure out possible locations of bomb building and enemy safe houses.

Re:Two ways?

[D-Cypell]

Or political buildings

Bees don't help detectives

[Bromskloss]

The insight that killers don't kill too close to their homes help detectives. It has nothing to do with bees, really. Bees just happen to behave in the same way.

Re:Bees don't help detectives

[OriginalArlen]

The buzz I've heard is that they're setting up a sting operation. Using a honey-pot.

Thanks, mine's the white boilersuit with the veil and hat on the next peg.

Re:By the same token..

[Cillian]

That's the problem with psycological theories and profiling. As soon as the subject knows the model, they probably stop following it.

Easy way to handle that

[Hektor_Troy]

Use one program to select the town of your victim at random.
Find a written phonebook from the area and pick a page at random using ten sided dice.
And use the same dice to pick a person at random from that page.

Now you have your victim - it could be you (start over), your neighbour, your boss - doesn't matter all that much.

Next you pick a method of execution at random as well.

If you have no modus operandi, they can't really catch you. See Richard Kuklinski

But learn from his mistakes - if you're using a freezer to keep the time of death obscured, thaw them before you dump them.

Re:Easy way to handle that

[Hektor_Troy]

But that way you always end up with someone in the middle of the phonebook.

"Look at this - everyone in these unsolved cases have last names starting with L, M and N. Think he's using a phonebook?"

To the killer they catch...

[dreamchaser]

...it would really sting knowing that they were caught because of a bee.

DAMN IT.

[Anonymous Coward]

I was honestly hoping they discovered a way to manipulate bees to hunt down serial killers and "catch" them.

oh well, back to my plans for the beezooka.

Re:As do Nation States

[Anonymous Coward]

doing their serial killing far away, bombing countries half the world away. While just imposing embargoes on those next door, to reduce the risk to the hive. You don't need Bee theory, forensics or the CSI team to figure out who is doing the killing though.

Riiight. So please explain Russia invading Georgia, China invading Tibet, Indonesia invading East Timor.

Look, if you want to pick on the USA, please go ahead. There are many good & bad things about US foreign policy. But meaningless new-age psychobabble doesn't accomplish anything except making you look like an anti-American kook.

Detective work

[jovius]

Is this what they call a sting operation?

I'd go see that movie...

[Nymz]

...because it sounds more original that the typical movie formula:

1) Get a paper map of the city
2) Mark the location of each crime scene
3) Draw lines connecting the dots
4) Search for serial killer in the center of the inverted pentagram

Re:By the same token..

[that IT girl]

Actually, it's pretty interesting how they don't. It's like they can't help but follow it. A subconscious thing. Doesn't make logical sense to me, but their minds don't work like the rest of ours so it's hard to understand why they behave the way they do.

Attention Slashdotters

[jabithew]

"University of London" is a loose federation and should be treated as such, not all colleges are equal. This story should have been reported as originating from Queen Mary's College, University of London.

UL contains world-class institutions such as UCL, Kings and LSE, but it also contains places like Heythrop College, essentially a seminary in all but name.

This is exactly the issue that made my alma mater leave last year. When evaluating the quality of research, "University of London" is not a useful label.