Criminal Investigative Psychology
Criminal Profiling
Christina Gooden
English 122
Mrs. Bowman
May 10, 2010
Criminal Profiling has been made a desired profession by the popular TV shows such as Law and Order and Criminal Minds, but in reality, criminal profiling has been a source for Law Enforcement since the early 1100s. The first documented use of criminal profiling was the demonization of Jews, better known as “Blood Libel”. These accusations are still used against Jews today, unfortunately. Criminal Profiling was also used in the Salem Witch Trials to decide who could be classified as Witches and the Spanish Inquisition in order to identify Muslims. The tactics and knowledge base that was used almost one thousand years ago, is
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As the crime rate grows in this country and the criminals become more sophisticated, the investigative tools of the police officer must also become more sophisticated. One such sophisticated tool does exist and may help answer the question commonly voiced by police and others at the scene of a violent crime, "Who would do a thing like this?" This tool is the psychological assessment of crime profiling. (Ault & Reese, 1980) Police Departments and Government agencies and offices across the world are now using criminal profiling on a daily basis to help aid in catching dangerous criminals.
There does not, however, seem to be a normal way of practicing the act of criminal profiling, the norm tends to differ from agency, department and individual. Criminal profiling is in fact a Science, and in some courts, still not accepted as a logical resource for detaining the most dangerous criminals, in fact many still walk because of the controversy of Criminal Profiling. There will always be that shadow of doubt when it comes to assessing a criminal based on experimentation and history. Just like any science there is no hard evidence that will back it up and allow it as a way of life. The solution of crimes is the most difficult task for the police. The officer must arrive at
For this reason, ethnic profiling should carry less weight in the decision making of law enforcement agents and in the realm of criminal justice. In turn, the criminal justice system should promote the use behavioral profiling, a more effective alternative with a lesser rate of wrongful arrests.
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
Racial profiling is a practice that targets people for “suspicion” of crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. People of the law creates profiles about different kinds of people that commit certain types of crimes that may lead officers to certain kinds of scenarios about different groups of people and also act a different kind of way either when that group of particular of people are around. Racial profiling has caused many problems within the law enforcement agencies, they have been through multiple civil right concerns.Racial profiling by the police has become an increasingly controversial issue in recent years, but we know little about the extent of the problem and even less about public perceptions of profiling
Criminal justice professionals can lower the controversy surrounding profiling in law enforcement by eliminating the practice altogether. There is more than enough meta-analysis data available to substantiate that the practice of profiling is discriminatory and violates an individual’s constitutional right to have access to equal protection. For most people, when we recognize anything that does not work we either get rid of it or attempt to fix it so that it is actually useful. The same philosophy has to be applied to racial profiling. If there is to be any solution to eliminating racial profiling there must be a proper balance between the constitutional safeguard of equal protection and police policies that use race appropriately (Jones, 2006).
Criminal profiling is the tool of investigation used by skilled law enforcement professionals to provide a possible psychological mentality and behavioral profile of an unknown offender. (Strano 2004) Criminal profiling doesn’t give the identity of a person, but provides the description of what type of person may have committed the
Criminal profiling has been a major theme over the course of the semester, the term criminal profiling was first used by members of the FBI behavioral science unit. Criminal profiling was the process of drawing inferences about a suspect’s characteristics from details of his or her actions in a crime. The FBI made it a scientific understanding that they could figure out details of the offender’s lifestyle just by figuring out who when and where the crime took place calling this behavioral science. “This definition remained central to subsequent profiling efforts, despite the diversity of approaches that followed.” (Rainbow, 2009)For over the past two decades the definition of criminal profiling remains the same it is just the way it is utilized that makes it such a big controversy. According to the ACPO, the term offender profiler has been changed to BIA because the term criminal profiler was too limited and misunderstood. Criminal profiling is a tool that investigators use to classify a specific individual so that when trying to find the suspect it could be easy. On the clinical forensic psychology website, it was said that "The goal of criminal profiling is to arrive at a profile of the type of individual who may be responsible for committing the crime of interest." (What is Criminal Profiling? 2011) A criminal profiler’s job is to figure who, how, and why someone would commit the crime that they are investigating. Essentially painting a picture of an individual due to
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
It is hard to say whether racial profiling is ethical or not. Profiling based on gender, race, or ethnicity is just the way our minds work; it’s natural. We create ‘profiles’ of how we expect things to be by quickly recalling our past experiences. We know that not every experience will fit into the profiles we make in our heads- but a lot of them do. Whether we like it or not, racial profiling has a place in today’s society in regards to crime solving and prevention.
Through research it is believed that the practice of racial profiling began around the 1970s by law enforcement. This was a time at which drug trafficking was impacting the entire world. Law enforcement would do what they could in order to capture these criminals. Profiling is used in policing and has been proven to be a very impacted strategy. There is fine line between profiling and racially profiling which leans more towards stereotyping as well. A profile is essentially a collection of facts that have
At the beginnings of the twentieth century, is when the trend of “racial” profiling began, it is believed that this is deeply rooted back into the times of segregation and slavery. Criminal profiling was all based on the criminal activities and who was involved. Although, it is more commonly seen now, it began to grow evermore so following the tragic events of September eleventh. It evolved and transitioned into racially motivated arrests, detaining’s, and questionings both justifiable and unjustifiable. In the book, Good Cop Bad Cop: Racial profiling and Competing views of Justice in America, stated “In short order, however, as use of the term “racial profiling” became more frequent, the concept itself spread and became more diffuse and
Your topic is one of great relevance and relatable to so many due to recent news stories of police brutality that stems for profiling. Your statement “Profiling when done correctly can provide vital information into the behavioral patterns and characteristics of individuals that may pose a threat to others” stands out to me since it is a person’s constitutional right according to the United States Constitution, Amendment 14 to have equal protection of laws therefore I would consider profiling in general unethical. You may benefit from further research of one recent Senate Bill that was passed in Arizona referred as Arizona’s SB 1070. According to the American Civil Liberties Union this law “authorize police to demand papers proving
In criminology, is very important to study why people commit crime when deciding how crime should be handled and prevented. This type of study is known as criminal profiling. Many theories have developed over the years, and they continue to be researched, alone and in combination, as criminologists seek the best solutions in reducing specific types and levels of crime. While all crime theories are designed to try to explain and understand criminal activity and the people that commit them, it is an ongoing science. No one theory can define all crime. However, it can be used usefully to help us understand crime a little better and help criminologists find new ways to deal with and eliminate criminal behavior. I am going to discuss one
The term profiling is defined as “the use of personal characteristics or behavior patterns to make a generalization about a person”; therefore, this refers to gender profiling. The second part of the definition also states the “use of these characteristics to determine whether a person may be engaged in illegal activity” refers to what is called racial profiling (Dictionary.com, n.d.). Profiling has been used within in law enforcement for a number of years, as it provides informational analysis for solving crimes, but unfortunately over time, profiling has become the focus of race and ethnicity. The intent of profiling was designed as a legitimate tool for law enforcement to utilize for positive reasons, but to understand why profiling has been given such a negative outlook; it must be understood that profiling can either be proactive or reactive in its use.
The journal focuses on the ethical and legal issue affecting criminal profiling. First, there not a single peer-reviewed system of measurement practices that has been developed. In addition, there is no agreed methodology of conducting criminal profiling. It means there is no scientific basis upon which profiling underlies. The media also portrays profiling as a romantic or heroic profession, hence resulting in an inappropriate perception of profiling. Criminal profiling can also be at times undesirable as it can lead to delays as it can suggest inappropriate directions or suspects in an investigation.
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