Psychological Profiling In Criminal Cases

Forensic psychology is one of the newest sub-specialties in psychology to be recognized by the American Psychological Association (APA). Due to television shows like Criminal Minds and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the career as a criminal profiler has been exemplified before our eyes as the actors create criminal profiles of the suspects that they called UNSUBs (Ward 2013). Even though these are interesting shows, they generally give us a misconception of the role of forensic psychologists. Through the development of this new aspect of psychology, a definition would be the best way to put this field into perspective. Forensic psychology is the application of psychological knowledge within the criminal justice system (Ireland 2011). A forensic

As time has gone on, profilers have had to rely on their own intuition and informal studies. A man named Harvey Schlossberg described his search as, “What I would do is sit down and look through cases where the criminals had been arrested. I listed how old [the perpetrators] were, whether they were male or female, their level of education. Did they come from broken families? Did they have school behavioral problems?

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

Psychologists tend to analyze either their personal life or their mental stability to draw conclusions on why and how they were able to commit such crimes.

Howard Teten and Patrick Mullany are known to have launched what is now known as the FBI’S Behavioral Analysis (BAU), which is focused on using criminal profiling to find the country’s most dangerous criminals. In 1960, the two had fully developed a hypothesis that one would be able to determine the physical identity of the person authorities were looking for by what one would find at a crime scene. Teten offered his first profile in 1970 during a murder investigation of a woman who had been stabbed in her home. After reviewing evidence and using his profile to catch the perpetrator, Teten’s profile turned out to be correct (psychologytoday). Not much has changed since the trend of a profile was set.

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,

Mark Twain said, "Let us consider that we are all insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles”. The job of a Criminal profiler is to “unriddle” the psyche and crime scene, and by doing so, pin pointing a person-of-interest based on behavioral characteristics of the person and the crime. Criminal profiling has been used for many years, and has helped law enforcement find and convict many criminals, and has many times been called the crossroads of psychology and law enforcement.

A criminal profiler gives a description of what they think the suspect looks like and acts like. They do this by examining the scenes of where the victims were murdered and looking for clues on why the suspect did it, how they did it,

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,

Criminal profiling is a procedure now referred to in the FBI as criminal investigative examination. Profilers, or criminal investigative examiners, are exceedingly prepared and experienced law authorization officers who concentrate each behavioral viewpoint and point of interest of a fierce wrongdoing scene in which a specific measure of psychopathology has been left at the scene. Psychopathology includes a guilty party's behavioral and mental markers that are left at a brutal wrongdoing scene as an aftereffect of his physical, sexual, and, now and again, verbal association with the casualty.

For many years criminal profiling has been used in crime shows such as CSI, Law & Order, and Criminal Minds. The audience is always on edge and thrilled as to how they accurately and briskly catch the perpetrator; and get a detailed and heart felt confession at the end of the hour long episode. However, as we have focused on in this Psychology class, that is not an accurate portrayal of the real thing. Criminal profiling and forensic science is useful, but can we really say exactly how useful they are in the real world? In this article review, it focuses on the crime solving tools used in history, the evolvement of forensic science and the explanation of criminal profiling and its actual use in real life cases, it is titled “The Utilization

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

Criminal profiling is one of few first things to think of when it comes to forensic psychology. Criminal profiling is featured in popular television shows such as in Law and Order and CSI. Often in those shows, the police officers were able to catch the criminals based on the criminal profile that forensic psychologists came up with. In a theory, the polices rely on criminal profiling to catch criminals, educate the public about a possible criminal, and confirm the witnesses’ accounts. Criminal profiling involves using various methods to guess a criminal’s background, behavior, and even preferences for the victims.

In law, law enforcement relies on a variety of approaches to solving crimes. One method of doing so, is criminal profiling. Police use criminal profiling as an aid to identify the typology of individuals most likely to fit the suspect profile. In this approach, evidence of a crime is used to identify the characteristics of the criminal in relation to their personality and psychological state of mind. As well as demographic variables, such as age, race or geographic location, Investigators might use profiling to narrow down a field of suspects or figure out how to interrogate a suspect already in custody (Criminal profiling: the reality behind the myth (Winerman, L.2004). As the use of criminal profiling increases, empirical questions concerning its validity, reliability, and legal questions regarding its acceptability arise (Pinizzato, A.& Finkel, N.1990). In a survey conducted, several psychologist and psychiatrist were asked about their views towards the validity of criminal profiling. The results of this survey found that only ten percent of psychologist and psychiatrist surveyed reported having any profiling experience and twenty five percent, considered themselves knowledgeable about profiling (Greene, E., & Heilbrun, K. 2014, p.148). Fewer than twenty-five percent of the individuals surveyed, believe that criminal profiling was scientifically reliable or valid (Greene, E., &

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