In the criminal justice system there seems to have been an increasing demand for professionals in the field of human behaviour who can assist law enforcement with solving cases. Law enforcement agencies often ask of the help of psychologists, criminologists and other experts that have specialized in human behaviour when investigating a criminal case. Offender profiling is grounded in the belief that it is possible to work out the characteristics of an offender by examining the characteristic of their offences. According to Ainsworth (2001, p.7) “profiling generally refers to the process of using all the available information about a crime, a crime scene, and a victim in order to compose a profile of the (as yet) unknown perpetrator.” In this essay we shall initially look at how criminal profiling works and then critically discuss this technique and identify advantages and disadvantages in its use.
First and further most, criminal profiling and its process must be explained. Profiling has been used by many countries such as Sweden, Finland, Germany, Canada and Netherlands (Clark, 2002) as well as the UK, seeing that from 1981 to 1994 29 profilers have provided support 242 times in cases. Although more frequently used now, it can be dated back in social sciences, back to the 1870s with work of Cesare Lambroso (Keppel, 2006) with his theory of anthropological criminology which essentially stated that criminality was genetically inherited, and that someone who was born criminal could be identified by physical appearance defects. One of the first most high-profile cases of profiling was the attempt by Scotland Yard to find the identity of Jack the Ripper. Doctor Thomas Bond which was one of the most renound physicians of Victorian L...
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...incorrect in a least some aspects, police will quickly lose faith in their worth. Additionally, severe criminal profiling can lead to implications towards some groups of the society as they will be labelled by the law enforcements such as the police.
In conclusion, it seems that offender profiling has taken a life of its own, as it is especially popular in the media, through shows that involve police investigations. It has moved considerably since we measured the size of heads. It is a discipline that has yet to be proved and lacks academic ground and scientific support but in some cases has been found beneficial, especially when there is no evidence and only psychological leads to work with. But from the information provided above he have concluded to the fact that we need to approach criminal profiling with caution as it is not always as successful as presumed.
This article gives some examples of crimes and how they were solved using a psychology technique along with how criminal profiling is used to solve crimes and how the profilers know how to slim down the suspects. In the first case, there was a man that planted bombs in multiple places each time writing a note in block letters- signing it F.P. The first bomb was found in 1940, in 1954 he struck four times, and in 1955 five times. In
In the 1960’s, people actually believed that psychology was simple minded and unnecessary, so, becoming a criminal profiler back in the day definitely involved difficulties. Little did Teten and Mullany know that they would change the was law informants works forever. (Susssex Publishers, 1991-2016). Although criminal profiling was not utilized until the 19th century by Dr. Thomas Bond. He wrote a description on the legendary “Jack The Ripper” describing how he may act or look. Even after all of the work he done he or anyone else to this day has been able to find out who Jack the Ripper was.
Although there have been many proposals offered to the logic behind criminals and how they act, the significance of profiling possible suspects are stressed upon by law enforcement in order to achieve and maintain a way to justify the means. Profiling any possible suspects clearly demonstrates that numerous types of individuals follow oth...
police then look for a suspect who might possibly have committed it. Profiling means that a suspect is discovered and the police then look for a crime for the person to have possibly committed” (Tator & Henry, 2003, p3).
Racial Profiling usually occurs when a combination of safety, public protection and stereotype are involve to judge a person. Racial profiling needs to be separated from criminal profiling which is based on actual behavior by a person and not a stereotype. The thing about stereotypes is that anyone can do it even people who are good and not bias. When examining ourselves and really look at our first judgment of people, it is noticed that our own assumptions and biases would lead many of us to realize that we have stereotyped people m...
Beres, D.B Killer at Larger: criminal profilers and the cases they solve!. New York: F. Watts, 2007. Print.
Description of offender’s psychological history and functioning at the time of the offence is based on statistical approach which involves the analysis of behavioural and other relevant information found at the scene of crime in order to infer ...
This paper will define the topic of racial profiling as well as the history, present day issues, how it may be dealt with in the future, and my opinion on the topic. Racial Profiling is the practice of targeting people of color or a certain ethnicity for investigation or arrest. History starts with the New Jersey State Police department of investigation of activities instituted the term racial profiling that we know today in order to raise awareness of the issue. Some of the current issues today with racial profiling have caused many problems for the criminal justice system entirely, hindering police efforts in communities and losing the reliability of the people. The future of racial profiling has been a debatable topic but though it may be impossible to get rid of entirely much progress has been made in controlling it. My opinion on the topic is that maybe more training in how to use discretion when making a gut feeling about a situation.
Muller, Damon A. "Criminal Profiling ." Homicide Studies 4.3 (2000): 234-364. Web. 9 Apr 2011.
“Racial profiling is not a crime”, stated John Derbyshire who is a novelist, and contributing editor. According to him, it has been statically proven that black men are criminals and they are not always the victims; therefore, racial profiling is a tool used by police to convict
Winerman, L. (2004). Criminal profiling: The reality behind the myth. Monitor on psychology, 35(7), Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/criminal.aspx
The three eras that have characterized the field of criminology over the past 100 years are the “Golden Age of Research,” the “Golden Age of Theory,” and an unnamed era that was “’characterized by extensive theory testing of the dominant theories, using largely empirical methods’” (28). The “Golden Age of Research” era spanned from 1900 to 1930 according to John H. Laub. This era is identified as focusing heavily on the collection of data surrounding crime and the criminal. This data was assessed without “any particular ideational framework” (28). The second era, the “Golden Age of Theory,” spanned from 1930 to 1960, also according to Laub. This era is also rather self-explanatory, it is described by the development of theories; however, Laub
Criminology has evolved over history into becoming a discipline all its own, along the way it grew and developed from a multiple sources of disciplines to become an integration of various theories. Reasons that seek to explain crime and deviant behaviors has mirrored the time in which research was being conducted and as time continues to change it is to be expected more theories will arise to incorporate past theories to become ever more inclusive. It is important to understand this development from the formulation of theories, the evolution of, the determining factors in testing, particular process such as social learning that are upheld as strong empirically sound theories in order for scholars to continue to advance further studies. But it is unlikely crime will ever be solved completely, for in some instances it is a necessary evil, yet it can be hoped that with the knowledge obtained thus far and that to be discovered crime and deviance might be reduced, prevented and controlled in the future to come.
Historically, crime and criminals have always caught the attention of law-abiding citizens. Whenever there is mention of serial killers or unsolved murders or abductions, psychological profiling, now a household term, floats to the top of the list of concerns (Egger, 1999). Psychological profiling is an attempt to provide investigators with more information about an offender who has not yet been identified (Egger, 1999). Its purpose is to develop a behavioral composite that combines both sociological and psychological assessment of the would-be offender. It is generally based on the premise that an accurate analysis and interpretation of the crime scene and other locations related to the crime can indicate the type of person who could have committed the crime (Egger, 1999).
A large misconception of criminal investigative analysis is that there is a difference between profiling and criminal investigative analysis. Criminal Investigative Analysis is the same tool as criminal profiling and there is no true difference. A survey was done by Torres and the survey consisted of a couple of questions about profiling and about criminal investigative analysis asked to mental health professionals with profiling knowledge. The following table contains the results from the