Final answer:
In the context of team killing, 'local' refers to crimes within a specific region where faster victim discovery is possible due to the closeness of the criminal's area of activity and the savvy use of geographic profiling.
Step-by-step explanation:
In cases of local team killing, offenders were often easier to detect because the bodies of the victims were discovered more quickly. The term 'local' in this context implies that the crimes were committed within a community or specific area, where the proximity of the criminal's home base to the crime scene may result in a faster discovery of the criminal act due to the principle of distance decay, which suggests that people tend to commit crimes close to their locus of activity but not too close to be recognized.
Moreover, applying the concept of geographic profiling allows criminologists to track and analyze the spatial patterns of crime to predict where a criminal may strike next or possibly reside. Geographic profiling is based on data and patterns, in contrast to general criminal profiling, which involves psychological assessment. Using this approach, quick detection of local crimes is enhanced, as it is often easier to identify a pattern or disruption in a known area.
This geographic approach faces challenges in the realm of foreign policy issues, such as terrorism, where crimes transcend national borders and require transnational intelligence-gathering and intervention strategies.