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Dubai gets first criminal patterns analyst in Middle East

Dubai - Her work will involve studying the crime scene and evidence, as well as the life of the victim.

Published: Sat 10 Jul 2021, 6:09 PM

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Dubai Police on Saturday announced the appointment of the first criminal patterns analyst in the Middle East.

Female officer Lina Al Amiri joined the Dubai Police General Command in 2013, working in the Biology and DNA Department, before she moved to the Department of Criminal Psychology in 2015.


She has since received her accreditation as an expert forensic psychological assistant from The International Association of Forensic Criminologists.

Criminal profiling has many names, according to Al Amiri. These include offender profiling, criminology profiling, criminal personality profiling and criminal behaviour profiling, which is a method used to infer the characteristics of criminals.

While criminal profiling employs different methods, not all of them offer the same accuracy when it comes to results. Some techniques are based on experience only, while others are based on geographical statistics alone. This may lead the criminal expert to rely on estimates instead of objectivity in the analysis, leading to inaccurate judgements in many cases.

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Al Amiri said this is what prompted her to turn to behavioural evidence analysis, which involves the expert studying the crime scene, evidence, and laboratory results as well as the life of the victim.

Al Amiri’s combined forensic sciences degree in biology and criminology helped her gain additional specialised knowledge. She said: “In the beginning, when I went to complete my studies in Australia, I aimed to specialise in criminal sciences. It so happened that the university offered the possibility of specialising in two fields, so I took advantage of it in order to increase my knowledge in criminal work — especially since I was interested in understanding people’s behaviour in general and criminals in particular.”

She stressed that being approved in the field of criminal profiling would enable her to understand the physical evidence at crime scenes in an advanced way; at the same time, she would be able to analyse criminals' behaviour more accurately.

Al Amiri said that her job revolves around studying case files, conducting criminal interviews with children or adults, applying relevant tests, and writing reports. She would be able to tell if a crime was committed (especially when physical evidence is absent), verify the validity of statements by involved parties, and study the reasons why crimes were committed.

For his part, Major General Dr Ahmed Eid Al-Mansoori, Director of the General Department of Forensic Evidence and Criminology at Dubai Police, expressed his pride in the female talents at the force and their ambition to break into many specialised fields.



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