Does Criminal Profiling Really Work?

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.

A case about profiling (Whren & Brown) and its effectiveness to reduce crime or not to reduce crime.

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

Even though statistics say otherwise racial profiling is actually a good way to determine if a person is a suspect or not. Because of hard statistical evedence that shows young black and hispanic men commiting disproportionate numbers of crime. The crimes mostly

Crime continues to be a major problem in the United States and many other countries. These documents is going to focus in the Unites States in which criminal profiling is most commonly used. Based on what we see and hear on the new and social media, prisons are overcrowded, probation and parole caseloads are overwhelming, and police are expected to do more and work longer hours in which can be stressful. Police officer are being exposed to the spot light based on behavior and recording that people have summited to the news.

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 is a method of identifying a perpetrator of a crime based on an analysis of the nature of the offense and the manner in which it is committed. The developers of this type of criminal profiling are Walter Langer, James Brussel, and Howard Teten. Profiling has taken root in the United States where it has taken off in finding criminal habits and

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.

However, many law enforcement professionals, criminologists, and behavioral scientists do not understand profiling as an investigative technique. Consequently, they may not appreciate what profilers can do, and may question their value. Criminal profiling is much more of a law enforcement technique and art form than it is a scientific process. Criminal profiling will never take the place of a thorough and well-planned investigation, nor will it ever eliminate the seasoned, highly trained and skilled detectives (Turvey, 2015). However, profiling has provided some useful approaches for those who must deal with violent crime.

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,

The purpose of this study is to identify the accuracy of FBI criminal profiles, to evaluate the effectiveness of the released profiles, and to analyze the most useful aspects of the criminal profile. The data collection and analysis that will form the foundation of my research will be a qualitative procedure that will answer the following questions: How accurate are FBI criminal profiles? How effective are the FBI criminal profiles? What aspect of the FBI criminal profile has most contributed to the apprehending of the criminal?

Despite the fact that offender profiling has become a standard investigative tool in many police jurisdictions, and is slowly finding its way into the courtroom, this review highlights severalreasonsforconcern.Forexample,whilethenumberof profiling-related publications has increased dramatically over the years, researchers investigating this phenomenon rarely publish multiple articles, and they are generally published across many different journals. In addition, the majority of papers published in the area are discussion pieces, despite the fact that the processes underlying offender profiling are still not well understood from a theoretical perspective. Furthermore, while researchers are submitting their work for peer review much more frequently

Generally, there is often an absence of strong empirical evidence to support criminal profiling. In a study by Eastwood et al. (2006), existing research on the validity of criminal profiling was analyzed, to determine whether this technique can be counted on to aid in criminal investigations. One of the studies that was noted in the review was by Pinizzotto and Finkel (1990), and involved asking different groups of people, including actual profilers, university students, police detectives and clinical psychologists, to create a profile based on details about a particular crime. The results showed that the trained criminal profilers did not do any better than the other groups in creating an accurate profile which could predict who the culprit was. Similar results were acquired in another study, which evaluated police officers, psychologists, students, psychics and profilers on their ability to create a "predictive profile." Again, results also proved that profilers were not significantly better at creating a profile than any of the other groups (Kocsis et al., 2000). From these results, Eastwood et

Many Criminologist and Psychologists believe that there are specific psychological traits that can disconnect a person from the rest of society. Criminal profiling is the approach that an individual who commits a crime, may leave some sort of psychological evidence that can be crucial to an investigation. This theory is a vital part of the criminal justice system today.

The theory in question that stood out would be Labeling Theory and how relevant it is today. This theory is incredibly popular due to its use to describe people who might or might not fall under deviant behavior. To be more specific labeling theory is the view of deviancy according to which being labeled as a "deviant" person leads the subject to engage deviant behavior. Labeling theory in this peer reviewed article expresses that criminal justice interventions amplify offending behavior. Profiling by the criminal system doesn’t help reduce crime it just adds more problems to the system and increases the use of this theory.