Briefs

October 11, 2002. Lisa Bowman writes for Ziff-Davis News about a high-tech tool known as geographic profiling that is playing a key role in the investigation into the Washington-area sniper shootings. Investigators are using the software to try to pinpoint the killer's home base.

The Rigel system, created by Environmental Criminology Research (ECRI), works on the assumption that a person performing a task will expend the least amount of effort possible to complete it. That is, criminals don't want to go farther than necessary to commit a crime, but they don't want to do it too close to home, where they could be recognized.

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