Crime Scene Viking Essay

Criminal Minds does not give the viewer an honest depiction of how the FBIs Behavioral Analyst Unit go about profiling the offender. This specifically can be understood when watching season six episode ten of Criminal Minds the BAU unit is tasked with fining the unsub responsible for murdering three women in a housing complex. In this episode, they fail to properly depict profiling in 3 major ways, they never start by asking the question “why?”, they make many assumptions about the profile and possible offender, and lastly, they took on responsibilities that should be left to local law enforcement.

Psychological, Victimal, Criminal, Ethnic, and Behavioral Profiling all play a significant role in society. Psychology profiling is applied when the evidence of a crime scene goes back to an epidemic. Victimology is practiced using the victims of a crime to diminish the suspects. Criminal profiling is the prediction of a destructive event that a criminal might do (“Types of Profiling”). Behavioral Profiling is using the behavior and body language of an individual to predict further actions he/she might take. There is a significant difference between personal behavior profiling with human interaction and online behavioral profiling systems. Etay Maor states, “Real behavioral profiling is focused on identifying a potential criminal, while computer behavioral profiling

This term was brought up by John E. Douglas, the F.B.I. agent who pioneered criminal profiling and helped establish the Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico in 1972. Profiling is a certain expertise of detective work compared to the familiar one of just finding the suspect. General breakdowns on a criminal show a wide array of possible suspects in a whodunit situation. With profiling, the area of suspects is significantly slimmed. Profiling allows the crime scene and the investigator to define the killer. By narrowing down on a criminal act, a profiler can predict what kind of person committed it. From the crime scene, the killer’s personality traits can be corresponded to the details. Douglas often followed the idea that different crime styles coincided to different personality types of the criminals. For instance, in an “organized crime”, the killer might properly dispose of the murder weapon. The killer will get rid of the body in a more advanced or extremely concise way. This displays the precocious and articulate nature of the criminal, also showing that he might have a superego. The other type known, as a “disorganized” killer attacks in broad daylight or where he could be easily caught in public. This killer leaves obvious trails of unplanned and random executions. This type of killer might leave a knife behind or might move only in high-risk environments due to lack of full logical thinking. Details such as these suggest that the killer has low self-esteem and a very strange behavior that results in him sticking primarily to himself with no friends, making him an

Throughout the years, profiling has been successful at seeking out justice by detaining many wanted criminals, and has set the bar for many years of criminal apprehensions in many communities. Criminal characteristics are significant in all criminal investigations as much indication can reveal that the most important part for analysis is to further examine how patterns of criminal involvement emerges and transforms; this would also include examining the modus operandi (method of operation) of criminals that are relevant not only for the criminal structures, but for the general public as well (Ford, 2013).

154). Although criminal profiling is common in fictional crime dramas such as Law and Order, evidence suggests that profiling is advantageous in a limited number of circumstances and should not be used in place of a thorough investigation (Greene & Heilbrun, 2014, p. 142). One 1990 study found that while profilers had the most detailed and accurate predictions for sex offense cases, they showed no statistical advantage in predicting homicides (Greene & Heilbrun, 2014, p. 153). Moreover, research by Homant and Kennedy cautioned reliance on criminal profiles due to the fact that inaccurate profiles are common, limited to a fairly small number of offenders, and use methods that have not been systematically verified (Greene & Heilbrun, 2014, p. 153). As demonstrated by the FBI’s attempt to profile terrorists after the 9/11 attacks, scrutinizing a population on the basis of particular risk factors can produce a large number “false positives” by which those who are predicted to present a threat actually do not (Greene & Heilbrun, 2014, p. 149). In the case of Bloodsworth, reliance on the criminal profiling by detectives heightened the chances of a wrongful conviction (Junkin, 2005, p.75). Using criminal profiling as a framework for reviewing suspects, detectives Capel and Ramsey singled an innocent Bloodsworth out of over 500 suspects (Junkin, 2005,

In the past, it has been shown that criminal profiling does work and has helped to apprehend serial killers, rapists, arsonists, and other criminals, if it had proved to be ineffective the FBI would have put resources into other tactics, but they have not. That being said, it is apparent that criminal profiling does work to an extent, but the amount of accuracy remains unknown. Although there has been research into finding the accuracy of criminal profiling there has not been a lot, proving that it is a field that needs more attention. For the research that has been done, interest has tended to fluctuate because of the uniqueness of the topic. Criminal profiling has as much to do with inferences about the perpetrator as it does

The psychologist contributes to investigations criminal behavior by profiling and similar techniques. The criminal psychologist can also assist with pretrial methods. This subsection is highly important because it includes the evaluation and treatment of suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime. The primary task of the forensic psychologist profiling. Psychological profiling involves “investigating an offender's behavior, motives and background in an attempt to further guide an investigation…,” (APA). There are several different areas of profiling that the professionals do in the field. In criminal profiling the psychologist analyzes the emotional, mental disposition of a suspect. While remaining as a slightly controversial technique, profiling has become an increasingly prominent part of criminal investigation. When used properly it has the capacity of being one of law enforcement’s most powerful tools.

Criminal profiling has become a very popular and controversial topic. Profiling is used in many different ways to identify a suspect or offender in a criminal investigation. “Criminal profiling is the process of using behavioral and scientific evidence left at a crime scene to make inferences about the offender, including inferences about personality characteristics and psychopathology” (Torres, Boccaccini, & Miller, 2006, p. 51). “The science of profiling rests on two foundation blocks, basic forensic science and empirical behavioral research. Forensic science includes blood spatter analysis, crime scene reconstruction, and autopsy evidence. Empirical behavioral research identifies offender typologies, relates crime behaviors to suspect

The website Forensic Psychology defines criminal profiling as, “the process of identifying behavioral tendencies, personality traits, geographic location, and demographic or biographic descriptors of an offender based on the characteristics of a particular crime” (Bartol and Bartol 1). With this approach, detectives try to narrow down the field of possible suspects that might have committed the crime. It is way easier to investigate one-hundred people that match those predictions than to investigate thousands of other people. In addition to that, they also state that profiling can rarely point to the particular person who committed the crime (Bartol 1). Even though it is not very accurate, in today’s world, it is still being utilized. Malcolm Gladwell well, a very well-known author and the author of What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures, states in the article of Dangerous minds that “In the

John Douglas, as one of the first criminal profilers and his colleagues defined criminal profiling as an investigative technique for indentifying the major personality and behavioural characteristics of anindividual based upon an analysis of the crimes he or she has committed (Douglas, Ressler, Burgess & Hartman, 1986, p.405). In the famous American television series Criminal Minds, profiles are widely used. The show is set in Quantica, Virginia, there are some special agents of the FBI’s Behavioural Analysis Unit who are known as behavioural analysist or profilers. They solve the cases which involves serial killers, analyse their thinking patterns and characteristics, predict their behaviour before next killing and help the local police to catch the murderer.

The first method is through geographical profiling. Geographic profiling is where investigators use the past crime patterns of an offender to determine his/her current location. Investigators usually need a minimum of five crimes in order to come up with an accurate geographic pattern. Investigators use the different locations of the crime to narrow down a particular place where the offender could likely to be located. Offenders are usually located in their places of work, entertainment joints, and popular routes or even in his home. The other method of criminal profiling is investigative psychology. It uses peer-reviewed research to acquire facts about an offender. Another method of criminal profiling is criminal investigative analysis. In such an analysis, investigators identify the behaviors of the criminal and create a group based on such behaviors. The other method is behavioral evidence analysis. It involves examining evidence of when and how a particular event took place. It includes objects in the crime scene such as blood stains or footprints. These objects are used to establish the traits and patterns of the

In the article, “Dangerous Minds” Malcolm Gladwell first grasps his reader’s attention via crime stories, then goes on elaborating the criminal profiling processes. He defines the types of criminal profiling, whodunit and hedunit. In whodunit, “the traditional detective story…centers on the detective search for the culprit” while in hedunit, “the nest is narrowed. The crime doesn’t initiate our search for the killer. It defines the killer for us.” He emphasizes on the profiling type with the best advantage and explains its significance. Using the FBI agent John Douglas’ investigation stories and profiling techniques to support his claims, he explains the structure of criminal profiling and how it is applied to cases. However, is this type of profiling effective? The author raises this question to evaluate the FBI criminal profiling. He asks a rhetorical question, “but how useful is that profile, really?” to make the readers think and follows up this question by a counter argument which set the author’s state of neutrality in the article. With analogies, crime stories and group research analyses as supportive evidence; the author informs and explains the flaws of FBI profiling, its problems and its ineffectiveness. As a result, the author uses the counter argument to refute his previous claims

Criminal profiling is one of few first things to think of when it comes to forensic psychology. Criminal profiling is featured in popular television shows such as in Law and Order and CSI. Often in those shows, the police officers were able to catch the criminals based on the criminal profile that forensic psychologists came up with. In a theory, the polices rely on criminal profiling to catch criminals, educate the public about a possible criminal, and confirm the witnesses’ accounts. Criminal profiling involves using various methods to guess a criminal’s background, behavior, and even preferences for the victims.

Crimes scenes contains more information than what meets the eye. This information is gathered based off of evidence left behind by a criminal offender. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) has be around since the 1970’s. BSU experts develop criminal profiles based on the thorough examination of evidence and information gathered in reference to a specific crime. The FBI’s Crime Scene Analysis process involves six steps. These steps are Profiling Inputs, Decision Process Models, Crime Assessment, The Criminal Profile, The Investigation, and The Apprehension. These six steps play a vital role in the process of creating a criminal profile.

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, 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. The type of person who could have committed the crime can often be identified on the premise that accurate analysis and interpretation of the crime scene can point to a