Crime Scene Profiling

History is important and gives us information on what has come before, it gives us a look back on where we have been and what we are becoming. It also reminds us where our knowledge and wisdom came from. History is for critical thinkers, it is for those who will not blindly accept what is handed to them. It is for those that would rather come to understand things.

Criminal profiling came about in the late 1940’s and is mainly used by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), deal with highly organized crimes that local law enforcement agencies refer to them. Serial offenders often commit crimes in a less than organized fashion, leave evidence at the scene, and are usually apprehended after the first, second or third offence so the FBI is not consulted. (Schlesinger, 2009) Criminal profiling is used not only in identifying unknown offenders in serial crimes; such as rape, arson and serial murder. It is also used in hostage negotiations, and anonymous letter writers.

Since the 1970’s, investigative profilers at the FBI’s behavioral science unit (now part of National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime) (Schlesinger, 2009) have been assisting local, state, and federal agencies in narrowing investigations by providing criminal personality profiles, known as the criminal-profile-generating process.

Profiling determines a type of person who did a crime focusing on certain behavioral and personality characteristics. Profiling has been used successfully by law enforcement and is a valued means that narrows the field of an investigation. (Schlesinger, 2009) Crimes such as serial sexual homicides is where profiling has been found to be very useful. These types of crimes are random a...

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...onality patterns. For example, a common error of some police investigators is to assess a particularly brutal lust-mutilation murder as the work of a sex friend and to direct the investigation towards known sex offenders, when such crimes are commonly perpetrated by youthful individuals with no criminal record.

Works Cited

Canter, D. (2004). Offender Profiling and Investigative Psychology. Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling, 1(1), 1-15 doi 10.1002/jip.007.

Douglas, J. R. (1986). Criminal Profiling from Crime Scene Analysis. Behavioral Sciences & The Law, 4(4), 401-421.

Schlesinger, L. (2009). Psychological profiling: Investigative implications from crime scene analysis. Journal of Psychiatry & Law, 37(1), 73-84.

Turvey, B. E. (2012). Criminal Profiling An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis. Sitka, Alaska: Forensic Solutions LLC.