Offender Profiling Research Paper

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

With the society that most individuals are offered today, the world of crime has been constantly transforming. This can influence the typical individual to question if there are too many laws that one should follow, including the penalties that are to be expected. The word crime can insinuate many thoughts of apprehension, segregation, and security when applying the law in accordance to criminal acts being prosecuted. In order for penalties to apply to a particular individual, law enforcement must first be able to track and identify suspects of various crimes. Numerous approaches can be offered for this process, but profiling is a common tactic that has aided law enforcement in seeking justice for both suspects and victims.

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

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.

Putting the Pieces Together When watching your favorite crime show, there might be a murder. People work together to catch the killer; there are several different jobs taken up during the investigation. In an investigation, there is always someone trying to figure out the motive, and that is a criminal profiler. 1. A criminal profiler works alongside law enforcement and government agencies to catch an unknown perpetrator (Criminal Justice Programs).

Some offenders perpetrate harsher offenses that cannot be compared with a simple offense committed by another individual. This is one of the reasons and the main reason, on why typologies were created and introduced into the criminal justice system. A typology is a system of classifying people into various types in order to gain a greater understanding of the individuals. People need to understand and identify the characteristics of offenders in order to prevent other individuals from becoming offenders. One of the benefits of classifying these offenders, is that it helps provide treatment for them. Not only it helps provide treatment, it also helps identify the type of treatment that certain offenders need in order to

No exact science or theory provides an absolute guarantee that someone will be incarcerated. However, once incarcerated as many as seventy-five percent of released offenders will return to prison (Jonson 2010). Prison must be effective. Therefore, those who are released must be positively affected whereby they are no longer subject to the same dilemmas that increased the likelihood of criminality. Defining risks and conditions that acerbated an offender’s propensity toward incarceration must be addressed, resolved or treated while in prison, thereby lessening the impact upon re-offending. Studies and research were examined that identified aspects of offenders ability such as learning disabilities, educational and injury that if identified

Over the entire research paper the hypothetical foundations for ‘Offender Profiling’ are identified and the research that tested them is reviewed. ‘Offender profiling’ is an inferenced based idea of a criminal based off of a criminal’s crime scene and the things he or she does while committing the crime. The radex model uses Multi-Dimensional Scaling to analyze important constituents of criminal differentiation including, salience, models of differentiation, consistency, and inferences. The implications of the research paper are for the results to eventually be of value to police and to provide new insights into the psychology of crime.

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

Two programs that either “do not work” or “make things worse,” in terms of offender recidivism are correctional boot camps and the “scared straight.” Although, both of these programs are popular they are not 100% effective. While reading the book, the authors makes a very good point about programs and why they are not effective. They state that “they only send a message about what the offender should not do; these approaches do not each them the skills that they need to address high-risk situations in the future (page 14.)” I agree with that because how do you expect someone to actually learn from their mistake, if they are not put into that situation. It only shows them what it could possibly be like instead of what it is like.

Offender profiling, or criminal profiling, is an investigative tool used by law enforcement agencies. It is used when a perpetrator(s) is unknown and traditional physical methods (such as DNA sample to cross match) are either unavailable or are insufficient in identifying a suspect. It involves the analysis of a crime scene(s) and other data in order to create a profile of the type of person a criminal may be. The ‘clues’ given in a profiling case are drawn from the type of crime or attack, the location of choice, and in the case of murder – the choice of victim(s). As well as the deductions made using physical and psychological clues, it also utilises a combination of appraisal and statistics. The comparison to similar offences is also used,

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.

Throughout the years, the association between a criminal offense and a criminal have become more relevant. Although there are many theories that try to illustrate the concept of why crimes happen, no theory has a profound influence of understanding an individual’s nature, relationship, development, and a society itself (Coleman & Ganong, 2014). To further explain, “theories of crime are defined in relation to modernity, spanning their development from the enlightenment to the present, with the advent of postmodernism” (Miller, 2012, p. 1798). In other words, theories of crime are an approach to understanding an individuals behaviour and actions in their environment, society, and themselves that may lead to crime. Nevertheless, within this paper, it will be comparing the case of

It is possible to consider the notion that some people may be more predisposed to committing a criminal behaviour or could become a criminal by committing an offence (Gottfredson, Hirschi 1990). For example, people in certain areas have a higher rate of crime. This higher crime rate in those areas seems to remain constant over time (Hayes, Prenzler, 2009). There may be many reasons influencing this phenomenon including socio-economic, and the limited resources associated with this (including less money and fewer services). This may be a factor contributing to the reason people living in these areas become a criminal – that is, to survive (Baumer & Gustafson, 2007).