Criminal Intelligence Analysis

What is Criminal intelligence analysis?

Fundamentally, it is all the evidence that is gathered about a crime\criminal. Nonetheless, gathering evidence is insufficient and often does not result in obtaining intelligence information. All evidence\information must be assessed before it can be acted upon.

Criminal intelligence analysis (CIA) has a philosophy according to INTERPOL, which sets out ways to approach an investigation of crime and criminals, utilizing the intelligence and evidence\information that has been collected relating to them. It offers techniques that structure our natural deductive powers and thought processes, the “natural intuition”, which adept investigators can use without thinking about it. It also gives us tools that help us to better understand the information that has been collected and to effectively pass on that understanding to others.

The basic tasks of criminal analysis are to:

• Assisting officials – for example, policy makers, decision makers, and law enforcers’ dealing with concerns that arise.
• Provide early or timely warning of threats around the world.
• Support operational activity by analyzing crime and criminal acts.
• The core function of the analyst can be broken down into a three-phase process, as follows:*
• To gather information, to understand it and the relevance or relationship of each piece to all of the others.
• To develop this information objectively to arrive at an understanding of the whole.
• To communicate this understanding to others and so to put the intelligence process to practical use.