FBI definition of criminal profiling
Criminal profiling is a technique for identifying the major personality and behavioural characteristics of an individual based on analysis of the crimes they have committed
Criminal investigative analysis
New term for criminal profiling
More accurately describes range of responsibilities
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime
Conducting research in the area of criminal profiling and providing formal guidance to police agencies in US that were investigating serial crime, particularly serial murder
Now there are similar units in Canada, Germany and UK
Deductive criminal profiling
Prediction of an offender’s background characteristics generated from a thorough analysis of the evidence left at the crime scenes
Relies on logical reasoning
Inductive criminal profiling
Prediction of an offender’s background characteristics generated from a comparison of the particular offender’s crimes with similar crimes committed by another, known offender
If different crimes committed by different criminals are similar, the criminals must share some characteristics
More objective than deductive profiling
Unclear how this method can be used when cries are unique
Organized offender
Planned, controlled crime, methodical individual
Disorganized offender
Impulsive, chaotic crime, disturbed individual usually suffering from form of psychopathy
Criticisms of profiling
Many forms of profiling appear to be based on theoretical model of personality that lacks strong empirical support
The core psychological assumptions underlying profiling currently lack strong empirical support
Many profiled contain information that is so vague and ambiguous they can potentially fit many suspects
Professional profilers may be no better than untrained individuals at constructing accurate profiles
Classic trait model
Many forms of profiling rely on this model
Model of personality that assumes the primary determinants of behaviour are stable, internal traits
Ignores situation
Two assumptions of profiling
- Offenders behave in a stable fashion across the crimes they commit
- That reliable relationships exist between the way in which offenders commit their crimes and background characteristics
Geographic profiling
An investigation technique that uses crime scene locations to predict the most likely area where an offender resides
Used most often in cases of violent crimes
Used to prioritize suspects
Basic assumption is that serial offenders do not travel far from home to commit crimes
Geographic profiling systems
Computer systems that use mathematical models of offender spatial behaviour to make predictions about where unknown serial offenders are likely to reside
Probability of offender living there is assigned to a colour
Probability map forms basis of police prediction
Offender’s residence could be found in 12% of the time of a random search