Metaphorically Speaking:

"A metaphor is an analogy between two objects or ideas, conveyed by the use of a word instead of another." Crime and intelligence analysis in policing is a relatively new field that can be developed through use of creative and imaginative thinking. 

The use of metaphorical thinking, by comparing crime and intelligence analysis to other fields, other ways of working, other disciplines and other concepts, can stimulate innovation and growth. 

 Currently, we look at analysts' toolboxes - that is using a metaphor to describe analytical tools that are not in a box at all. Another use of metaphor is to examine analysis from a scientific perspective in evidence-based policing. A few individuals have compared the intelligence field to the field of medicine, which is another example of metaphorical thinking. 

We use conceptual metaphors without even knowing it in order to communicate new, complex, and/or challenging concepts. In the book Words Overflown by Stars, creative writing teacher Diane Lefer uses terms in her essay "Breaking the 'Rules' of Story Structure" that could be applied to crime and intelligence analysis. She begins by suggesting that we "question the tradition story" - in crime and intelligence analysis that means examining and discarding our assumptions. Beyond that, since many have heard that "get rid of your assumptions" repeatedly, questioning the tradition story of policing means changing our paradigm: from catching the "bad guys" to preventing crime, striving for a deeper understanding of crime in order to discover actionable responses, and even (dare we believe?) solutions that we have never imagined before. She suggests that sometimes writers may look at the inner life rather than the outer actions of their characters. 

While analysts cannot go into the heads of criminals, wouldn't good analysis result from understanding the motives and feelings of those we analyze? Describing events without insight into the people involved in those events is the style of some creative writers, but most readers want to know who the characters are, why they do what they do, in order to care about the story. Perhaps we need to understand more about who our victims are, to see them as real people, rather than numbers and reports. What other ways might we make our analysis stories more real? Might we try to understand the readers of our reports and give them something worth reading? 

 Like writers who discover what they are writing through the act of writing (as Lefer describes some writers), don't analysts discover what they are analyzing through the process of analysis, rather than ahead of time? How much analysis is conducted as an adventure, exploring one route of analysis and then discarding it if the trail grows cold, going off in different directions as new pieces of information emerge unexpectedly? How adventurous are you in your analysis? How much do you trust worn and single trails of process rather than travel new and multiple roads? 

 Lefer goes on to describe some alternative metaphors for storytelling: mosaics, wheels, and musical improvisation. In the Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, Richards Heuer writes about the mosaic analogy. Using a wheel to describe crime and intelligence analysis can be correlated to Robert Clark's target-centric approach. The criminal or crime group would be the hub of the wheel, while the spokes would consist of all the agencies gathering information, including the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the target (the criminal or crime group). 

Musical improvisation could be likened to crime and intelligence analysis in that good analysis has an underlying structure but must be fluid and flexible to change with new information - yet under control, even when it does not appear to be so. Certainly, the ability to improvise is an essential skill for analysts, but one that is seldom mentioned. Lefer describes how an effective creative writer changes not just story characters through his or her work, but has the power to change readers. Analysts can have the same power. 

In the book Intelligence-Led Policing, Jerry Ratcliffe writes about how important it is for analytical products to provide actionable knowledge to decision-makers - we want decision-makers to change their actions based on our work. Great creative writers impact individual lives by their works. Great analysts change the minds of decision-makers - giving them new knowledge to make informed decisions that save lives. 

This blog will be introducing different perspectives in which to view crime and intelligence analysis using metaphorical thinking. Each post in this category will be labeled "Metaphor" so that you can look up previous posts, if you are so inclined. Label categories can be found by scrolling down the left column of this blog. You may also search under "Metaphor" at the top right side of the blog to find the posts. Comments and new ideas are always welcome!