Sherlock Holmes Profiler

Many people believe in the fictional Sherlock Holmes profiler where he uses observation and knowledge of human nature to catch the suspect. Criminal profilers help narrow down the search and focus the police's effort more accurately by telling the police about the suspect's background, family history, intelligence, educational record, possible employment, race, marital status, hobbies and interests. The profiler does not directly identify the suspect like Sherlock Holmes (Owen). Even though a criminal profiler does not directly catch the suspect they help the police focus their efforts to find the right suspect faster and more efficiently.

To be able to read about criminal profiling you first need to know what the definition of it is. "In

The criminals MO can help the profiler determine what kind of personality traits they have by looking to see if the the victim was stabbed, strangled, shot etc. Another aspect of the crime a profiler looks at is the suspect's signature. A suspect’s signature is a reflection of their psychological and emotional states. A signature is used to describe anything the offender did that they didn't need to do to complete the crime. An example is the offender forcing the victim to put on specific clothing (Petherick). The suspect can give a criminal profiler an idea of how they are psychologically and idea how their personality is just based upon how they committed a crime.

Criminal profilers have helped in many cases throughout the years. One of the very first cases where a profile was used was in the case of “Jack the Ripper”. Jack the Ripper has fascinated criminal profilers for a very long time. Jack the Ripper was a serial killer that reigned in 1888 in Whitechapel, London. He killed and mutilated the bodies of five prostitutes which terrified the community. The police asked the opinion of Thomas Bond, a police surgeon, initially on the suspect surgical skill but also gave a behavioral profile. Even though the police were

One problem about profiles is they can be too vague and general. If a profile only claims that the offender is white and ages 17 to 24 they could be anyone, and most cases are committed by those types of offenders (Petherick). Not all profilers profile that way. Most profilers do have very detailed profiles and help the police. In 1981 the FBI conducted a study on the value of profilers. In 88 cases respondents said that in 72% of cases they located the suspect, in 17% the profilers directly identified the suspect, and in 20% of the cases they located the suspect (Petherick). Another reason why profilers are highly debated is because a lot of studies have shown that if someone knows the basic characteristics of criminals they can do as well as profilers (Radford). That also might not be entirely true too. In the 1990 Pinizzotto/ Finkel study four groups were studied to see the different processes used to create a profile. Profilers had the highest average of correct profile characteristics at 29.1, detectives at 15.8, psychologists at 10.8, and then students at 6.3. No human being can predict how someone will heal or react. Medical doctors don't know for certain if a medicine will heal a patient but they use their experience and knowledge to treat them. A profilers works the same way, profilers might not be completely accurate but they use knowledge from other cases and use their experience to make a