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Criminal Profiling Research Paper

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Profiling, or criminal investigative analysis is the investigation of specific characteristics of an individual committing a particular crime in hopes that these clues will help identify the individual responsible for the crime committed. These clues are gathered through crime scene analysis, the victim, behavioral science and the facts given throughout. Profiling became mainstream interest through media, primarily in the 1990’s with the movie The Silence of the Lambs where the main character is an F.B.I profiler. Profiling has become more popular with this generation through the show Criminal Minds, a somewhat extravagant and untrue depiction of profiling. Profiling goes back further than we might think, it originally began in 1880, and George Philips and Thomas Bond were two physicians began using criminal analysis towards the identification of serial killer Jack the Ripper formal criminal profiling has a long history. It was used as early as the 1880s, when two physicians, George Phillips and Thomas Bond, used crime scene clues to make predictions about British serial murderer Jack the Ripper's personality. Authorities were lead to believe that the Ripper was a physician or had a medical background due to his cuts. Bond stated the ripper to be “a man of solitary habits, subject to periodic …show more content…

The assumptions are drawn from science, such as what the crime scene can tell about the offender’s behavior. Holmes, a criminal psychologist suggests “That profiling is most useful when the crime scene reflects psychopathology, such as sadistic assaults, rapes or satanic and cut killings.” Profiling a case such as a serial killer uses science, being able to determine the behavior and personality of the killer through his victims and the crime scene. Profiling can help authorities to understand the killer, why the victim was killer this way or why they are in the position they

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