PRACTIS: Behavioural analysis protocol on sexual assaults beyond the family circle

After presenting the rationale behind behavioural analysis of sexual crimes beyond the family circle (Ann Med Psychol 2008; 166:552-7), the authors have adapted and automated this test to the working practices of the Department of Behavioural Sciences of the French Gendarmerie. The missions of the latter encompass author profiling and criminal case comparisons. This new search tool, aka PRACTIS, is based on the fundamental components of violent crimes as well as the reconstruction of events. It enables the scientific quantitative and qualitative analysis of sexual assaults beyond the family circle, whether these are committed by a single offender or different ones.