Criminal Profiling History

Racial profiling is a very prevalent issue within the criminal justice system that is quite controversial, but there is a significant number of evidence that shows that racial profiling has been present since the 1600’s and continues to be a significant issue. Racial profiling is evident in the criminal justice system in various ways such as in interrogations, jury selection, misleading statistics, stops, and immigration laws. Racial profiling within interrogations and jury selection can be seen with the Brandley v. Keeshan case. Racial profiling within statistics can be seen in instances where the numbers focus on arrests and incarcerations that do not necessarily mean a crime was committed. Stops are seen as evidence showing racial profiling with a personal experience, and lastly, immigration laws are seen as showing racial profiling by the encounter of a Mexican American women had with an officer in Arizona.

Profiling is something that every person has or will do at some point in their life; some may even profile without even realizing it. There are various forms of profiling which will be discussed, along with the history behind profiling and how it has been used successfully by Law Enforcement in several areas as a field on investigation (Douglass, Ressler &Burgess, 1986). Profiling has various positives along with negatives, and these are accepted by Satzewich and Shaffir (2009) who suggest that racial profiling is best understood in the context of a police subculture where these police officer intergrade profiling as part of their every day work routine. Profiling is a big factor in the daily work of every Law Enforcement Officer and it cannot be avoided (Becker, 2004). For the most part profiling is seen as part of an officers daily investigative tools, from border searches, to pulling vehicles over for traffic citations the officers will use his or her discretion on those who arouse their suspicion (Rose, 2002). Therefore, this paper will analyze the overall effectiveness of profiling and how it either proves to successfully reduce crime or not (Rose, 2002).

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

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).

Profiling is a tool used that emerges forensics, psychology, and criminology to understand criminals such as rapist and serial killers. This technique has been used for centuries to unveil motives, disorders, and history. Law enforcements work with the information they are given to create profiles of the criminals based on their characteristics and evidence. Law enforcement have tried to track patterns and predict the next criminal act, but with the lack of training that has been done for such rare and horrendous crimes. After many serial killers have taunted the police’s lack of intelligence when it comes to catching them from their heinous crimes, other methods where adopted or discovered to help reduce the number of crimes.

Many studies have been made in the field of criminology, concluding that profiling is a necessary means for discovering and apprehending criminals. There are many different types of profiling and many people think of profiling differently; however, all types of profiling does work and is proven to help stop crime. This paper will explore the following: profiling and different forms of it, the closely related stop and frisk policy, different cities that have proven statistics that profiling does work, how airports are now profiling, and different serial killers that have been apprehended due to work from profilers.

This paper discusses and examines the overall effectiveness of criminal profiling and its use in the United States. When assessing the effective of criminal profiling in the U.S., the author identified the key elements pertaining to criminal profiling. Initially, the author provided a working definition of criminal profiling, to insure the reader understands the main subject of the paper. The author then provides information regarding the history of criminal profiling. In addition, the author includes evidence supporting the effectiveness of criminal profiling by incorporating: statistics, scientific studies and the use in the FBI. Though research the author discovered several misconceptions regarding the effectiveness of criminal profiling.

Criminal profiling is another subject of criminal and forensic psychology, which is probably one of the oldest studies of forensic science. Criminal profiling has been called many things, such as behavioral profiling, crime scene profiling, criminal personality profiling, psychological profiling, and more recently even criminal investigation analysis. Criminal profiling’s history has come from a history of criminal behavior, the study of mental illnesses, and forensic examinations.

Some traits that are key for becoming a criminal profiler are analytical skills, experience conducting investigations, research emotional detachment, and understanding of criminal minds and psychology(Franklin Forensic Colleges 2016). When looking for criminal profilers to hire, these are the traits that are searched for. Although criminal profilers work with law enforcement on cases, they do not always work directly with the investigation. Sometimes profilers will provide advice based off crimes including a series of analyses and assessments such as personality assessments and causes of death analyses (Franklin Forensic Colleges 2016). 3.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an assessment of psychological profiling as an investigative tool for the future. The paper will try to focus on what happens if profiles are developed that have not accurately portrayed the apprehended. Additionally this paper will be reviewing the Baton Rouge Serial Killer and The Unabomer cases in order to answer additional questions such as; what were the main criticisms documented in these specific cases, how can a profiler achieve the desired end results using the resources available, and what future challenges do you see this approach facing as more

Criminal profiling can be a rather useful tool for criminal investigators of all kinds. Many departments use profiling to catch terrorists, gangs, cyber-crimes, counter intelligence, white collar crimes, and most of all serial killers. How criminal profiling works is by looking at the behavior of the criminal to gain insight into his or her personality. A doctor does the same thing when looking at symptoms to diagnose a certain disease. Being able to understand this person’s personality leads you one step closer to catching him or her.

Secondly, the physical aspects of the victim are important as well; is the victim is heavy, and was dragged for a long distance, it can be surmised that the criminal is strong and may have a muscular appearance. (Patterson) Victimology is first and foremost an investigative tool, providing context, connections, and investigative direction. (Turvey) Some people may ask, “Why profile the victim?” but profiling the victim is a very important element that helps profilers better understand the criminal. Profilers look at the general lifestyle and activities of the victim in order to know who had access to them and when. Knowing the victim and properly profiling them may establish a relational link between the victim and criminal. When profiling a victim it is important to look at them as a real person as well as a victim. Some investigators and detectives have a tendency to deify or vilify the victim in a case. Deification involves idealizing victims. For example,

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

A criminal profiler is a person that it’s only purpose is to explain the behaviors, emotions, and personalities of a criminal. A profiler need to have a background in criminal justice and formal education in psychology. Profilers are independent, usually the profiler do cold cases. A criminal profiler studies photos, reads reports and look for details. To become a criminal profiler, the person need to graduate from high school, get a bachelor’s degree in forensics, criminal justice, psychology, attend a law enforcement academy and garner experience in the field. A profiler receive professional training and it prepare them for the specific job of profiling. Training is conducted by units such as the FBI and the National Center for the Analysis

In order for offender profiling to be considered useful, it must gather detailed information about the offender, victim and crime scene which can then be used effectively by police detectives to eliminate any suspects who do not match with the profiler 's offender specification and aid authorities in