Who has never heard of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, or Dexter Morgan? And who has never seen an episode of CSI? But how much truth is there? How do serial killers act? How do they choose their victims? And why do they kill? Do investigation techniques really work as we see in TV shows?
These questions find their answers in this book, perfect for anyone who wants to approach the study of this discipline. The first six chapters deal with the origins of criminology, the analysis of the different categories of serial killers and the numerous investigation techniques used during the crime scene analysis.
The remaining four chapters focus on the analysis of the phenomenon of satanic sects: the mental manipulation techniques used by sects, how they choose their victims and their influence on society and young people.
Good reading! They explore in detail how a science of profiling may be constructed and tested. Despite almost three decades of research and developments in the field, the public impression of offender profiling is still influenced by misleading media portrayals, which fail to acknowledge the significant developments in theory, research and practice. This book is the only book on the market to illustrate in detail the actual practice of Behavioural Investigative Advice, its diversity in application, the underpinning academic literature and the remaining research questions and recommendations.
Bartol have assembled published journal articles, as well as commentaries written specifically for this book by forensics experts, to provide an overview of the wide array of prevalent theories in this field.
Download Offender Profiling books , Offender Profiling is a technique for constructing psychological profiles of criminals associated with certain types of criminal behaviour. This technique may be used to help in criminal investigation or in supporting a legal case.
Download Criminal Profiling books , Focused on Behavioral Evidence Analysis BEA , a method of criminal profiling developed and refined by the author over the past 15 years, the fourth edition of Criminal Profiling maintains the same core foundation that made previous editions best sellers in the professional and academic community worldwide.
Written from practicing behavioral analysts and aspiring students alike, this work emphasizes an honest understanding of crime and criminals. Newly updated, mechanisms for the examination and classification of both victim and offender behavior have been improved. In addition to refined approaches towards victimology, crime scene analysis, motivation and case linkage, a chapter on sexual deviance has been added as well.
With prior edition in wide use as a primary text in criminal justice, law, criminology, and behavioral science programs around the world, Criminal Profiling, Fourth Edition remains essential for students and professionals alike.
Outlines the scientific principles and practice standards of BEA-oriented criminal profiling, with an emphasis on applying theory to real cases. Contributing authors from law enforcement, academic, mental health and forensic science communities provide a balance perspective. Download Offender Profiling And Crime Analysis books , Offender Profiling and Crime Analysis provides a highly readable account of the subject, and a picture of profiling which by no means accords with popular views and representations of what is involved.
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Designed for use in a variety of criminal justice and psychology courses, the book delves into the process of identifying distinctive behavioral tendencies, geographical locations, demographic and biographical descriptors of an offender or offenders , and sometimes personality traits, based on characteristics of the crime.
Timely literature and case studies from the rapidly growing international research in criminal profiling help students understand the best practices, major pitfalls, and psychological concepts that are key to this process. Download Criminal Profiling books , In this book, renowned profiler Dr. The volume explains the scope and methodology employed in the studies that the author has undertaken over the past decade and a half. CAP adopts the view that profiling essentially represents a psychological technique that has its foundations in the disciplinary knowledge of forensic psychology.
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Addressing key topics in each of three major course areas-criminal behavior, forensic psychology, and psychology and law-the book highlights how forensic psychology has contributed to the understanding of criminal behavior and crime prevention. Key Features Includes updated articles and will feature a Student study site that includes relevant articles and old articles that were replaced by the new ones from the first edition Provides students and instructors with first-hand reports from the fields of research Opens with an introductory chapter, followed by Part introductions - all written by the book's editors.
Complements a variety of criminal justice, forensic psychology, and psychology and law textbooks. Download Offender Profiling And Crime Analysis books , Offender profiling is a set of techniques used to solve crimes by identifying patterns of criminal activity and behavior. Over the past few years there has been massively increased interest in the subject, but it has needed an accessible introduction and overview.
Offender Profiling covers both theory and practice, providing a critical evaluation of the effectiveness of the various approaches used. Lusher, R. Report of the commission of inquiry into the New South Wales Police administration. Miethe, T. Whistleblowing at work: Tough choices in exposing fraud, waste and abuse on the job. Boulder: Westview Press.
Wood, J. The unexplored ethics of criminal psychologi- cal profiling, In: Godwin, M. US House of Representative Iowa tragedy: An investigative failure: Report of the investigations subcommittee and the defense policy panel of the com- mittee on armed services. Washington, DC: Author. Hamilton, D. Differential weighting of favorable attributes in impressions of personality. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 6, — Merton, R. The self-fulfilling prophecy. Antioch Review, 8, — Heider, F.
The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley. Believing is seeing? Investigating the perceived accuracy of criminal psychological profiles. Beliefs and percep- tions of criminal psychological profiles. Dickson, D. Psychological Reports, 57, — Snyder, C. The Barnum effect in a group setting. J Pers Assess, 45, — Alison, L. Interpreting the accuracy of offender profiles. Psychology, Crime and Law, 9 2 , — Perceptions of content in criminal psychological profiles.
An empirical assessment of content in criminal psychological profiles. The findings of these studies provide some tentative evidence to suggest that criminal profiles constructed by expert profilers have a comparatively higher degree of accuracy in their predictions.
These findings challenge the previously held, yet empirically untested, view that skills inherent to the proficient construction of a criminal profile are sourced in investigative experience. Key Words: Criminal profiles; accuracy; skills; logical and objective reasoning. Despite the seemingly obvious nature of this question, rigorous empirical data to answer it has been in short supply.
This observa- tion, however, should not be interpreted as implying that the development of criminal profiling has occurred within a total vacuum. On the contrary, much material in the form of anecdotal accounts attesting to the merits of criminal profiles has been promulgated in support of their accuracy.
Instead, they frequently originate from true crime novels often co-authored by retired profilers 1—3. Further- more, although such anecdotal examples may illustrate the application of a criminal profile, the various studies canvassed in the previous chapter clearly indicate that these accounts cannot be relied on as equating with evidence in support of the scientific veracity of profiling as a valid technique 4—6.
Another source of material that is sometimes offered as evidence for the validity of profiling are user satisfaction surveys 7—9. Although these sur- veys are informative in reflecting the satisfaction investigators derive from the use of a criminal profile, it is important to appreciate that satisfaction with a service does not necessarily equate with its validity.
Indeed, the studies of the previous chapter warn of the perils of making such inferences. It is perhaps difficult to appreciate, but independent, empirically based, scientifically vetted evidence to test the accuracy of profilers and thus crimi- nal profiling has, until quite recently, been surprisingly scarce Possibly the first piece of empirical evidence to consider the accuracy of criminal profiling emerged in one subcomponent of a study conducted by Pinizzotto and Finkel These researchers undertook a number of small experiments that were designed to examine differing aspects surrounding the practice of constructing a criminal profile, the most pertinent being an experiment that involved the construction of criminal profiles for two actual crimes.
Possibly the most important feature to this experiment was that it empirically, and more significantly, objectively scored the profiles and thereby measured the accuracy of the predictions contained in them.
The design of the experiment involved obtaining case materials compiled by a police investigation into a previously solved murder and rape case. Accompanying these materials was a small, multiple-choice questionnaire relating to the possible characteristics of the offender s , such as age, gender, occupation, and so on. With these case mate- rials and the accompanying questionnaire, a profiling simulation using an actual crime was developed. Given that the offenses were previously solved and the identity of the offender known by the researchers but withheld from the participants, the accuracy of their predictions could be reliably scored.
That is, the multiple-choice questionnaire created a means by which the accuracy of the predictions could be objectively assessed. Akin to most other tests that make use of multiple-choice questionnaires, the responses were structured in such a way that it was clearly determinable whether the prediction concerning some characteristic of the probable offender was right or wrong.
These groups con- sisted of trained profilers, psychologists, detectives, and university students. The results of this experiment provided a comparative demonstration of the proficiency the differing groups exhibited in their capacity to accurately pro- file the characteristics of the unknown offender s in the murder and rape case.
Based on their expertise and training, profilers were expected to surpass the other three groups. The results of this experiment, however, were a far cry from unequivocally endorsing the efforts of profilers.
In profiling the perpe- trator of the murder case, the profilers failed to surpass any of the other groups and ironically, their overall level of accuracy was found to be descriptively the lowest. However, in profiling the perpetrator of the rape case, the profilers indeed surpassed the other three groups in the level of accuracy they demon- strated in predicting the characteristics of the unknown rapist.
Once again, empirically based consideration of this issue was remarkably scarce with the only literature at that time provided by a chapter by Hazelwood et al. Chief among these attributes was an appreciation of the criminal mind, intuition, investigative experience, and logical and objective reasoning. The very first step in undertaking this study involved obtaining the case materials as compiled by a police investigation into a previously solved murder.
These materials featured such things as officer and witness statements, forensic reports, schematic diagrams, and photographs of the crime scenes just before the perpetrator of the murder was actually apprehended. These case materials were assembled and effectively represented the infor- mation available to police personnel concerning the murder just before the murderer had been identified. Accompanying these case materials was a mul- tiple-choice questionnaire in which respondents were asked to provide their predictions concerning the characteristics of the offender via the multiple- choice options.
As mentioned previously, the experiment by Pinizzotto and Finkel 11 was only a small subcomponent of their overall study and thus their multiple-choice questionnaire to survey possible offender characteris- tics consisted of a relatively small number of questions. To improve on this limited measure, a much larger multiple-choice questionnaire was developed that surveyed a broader scope of offender characteristics likely to be featured in a criminal profile.
The questionnaire consisted of 33 distinct questions that surveyed characteristics of the unknown offender, such as their physical fea- tures; cognitive processes associated with the commission of the murder; be- haviors before, during, and after the murder; and their general history and habits.
As the murder had been solved, the questionnaire was then given to the detective who apprehended the offender in the case. A set of model an- swers to the questionnaire was developed by engaging the detective, who was intimately familiar with the case and the characteristics of the murderer. Us- ing these model answers, copies of the questionnaire completed by other par- ticipants who were unaware of the identity of the offender could then be objectively scored for accuracy.
The next step in this study involved testing various skill-based groups and comparing their performance in terms of the level of accuracy they could then respectively achieve in profiling the characteristics of the unknown mur- derer based on examination of the case materials. These individuals were all recognized as skilled professionals in the construction of criminal profiles and had each previously been consulted by law enforcement agencies to assist with an investigation by constructing a criminal profile.
In addition to the profilers, it was important to examine the capabilities of various other individuals who could then serve as points of comparison for the performance of the expert profilers. However, as previously mentioned, it was considered useful to be able to identify some skill base inherent to each of these groups because it may be reflective of their level of performance in accurately pre- dicting the characteristics of the unknown murderer.
The first skill considered was an appreciation of the criminal mind. Although Hazelwood et al. Consequently, to operationalize such skill into a group of partici- pants that were readily distinguishable and representative of psychological skills, a sample of 30 psychologists was obtained.
In the opinion of Hazelwood et al. Although a number of profes- sions can lay claim to investigative experience, the most readily apparent group and arguably the group Hazelwood et al.
Thus, a sample of 35 police officers was also recruited. In addition to investigative experience, Hazelwood et al. To address this skill dimension, a sample of 30 science students were recruited who did not possess any training or experience in psychology or criminal investigation but had, through their studies in science, been trained to set aside personal impressions in the rational analysis of information. Beyond investigative ex- perience or logical and objective reasoning, Hazelwood et al.
Although some researchers 16 have attempted to dis- count the almost mystical portrayal of profilers, Hazelwood et al.
Accordingly, to gain some impression of this factor 20 professional psychics—individuals reliant on their intuitive abilities—were also recruited. It was hoped that the assembly of such survey participants would provide some insight into their respective proficiency in accurately profiling the characteristics of the murderer as well as the relative importance of the skills inherent to each of the groups. Additionally, one final group was also included.
Criticism concerning criminal profiling has often centered around the usefulness of the information profiles contain. For example, Godwin 17 likened the information contained in criminal profiles to that attainable from the local bartender. Although collo- quial in expression, Godwin 17 is justified in questioning the value of the information contained in criminal profiles. Are the predictions of profilers, or any other skill-based group for that matter, capable of making predictions better than what could be achieved through stereotypical conceptions of the typical offender, or simply by guessing i.
To investigate this idea, a group of 23 economics students was also recruited to participate in the study. These students were selected principally on the basis that they did not possess any identifiable skill basis related to any of the other recruited groups. These economic students, however, were not given any of the case material con- cerning the murder to be profiled but were simply provided with the item multiple-choice questionnaire.
This group was then asked to complete the questionnaire by nominating what they believed to be the characteristics of the typical murderer. By this procedure, some impression could be gained about the relative score on the questionnaire an individual could achieve by simply guessing or using stereotypical notions of what the characteristics of the typical murderer may be.
Thus, this group can be viewed as a control condition for comparison with the performance of the other tested groups. Thus, all participants completed this profiling exercise and their responses were scored for accuracy using the model answers previously developed.
All scores were then compiled for their respective groups and subjected to statis- tical analysis. The results of this analysis are summarized in Table 3. As indicated in Table 3. Following the profilers were the psychologists, then the science students, police officers, psychics, and finally the control condition of the economic students who responded to the questionnaire by relying on guesswork and stereotypical conceptions of a typical murderer. Although the differences in accuracy scores between the various groups are discernable, they should nonetheless be regarded as providing only tentative indications.
First, the number of sampled participants in some of the groups, most importantly the expert profilers, is quite small and thus the statistical representation of their number is limited. Second, although these numeri- cal differences in the accuracy scores are descriptively visible, the number of statistically significant differences between the groups are limited.
What is perhaps more revealing from these results are the insights they offer concerning the constituent skills associated with proficient profiling. Based on the skill base represented by each of the groups excluding the profilers , it seems apparent that skills associated with an understanding of human behav- ior, as denoted by the performance of the psychologists, seem to be the most closely aligned, in this study at least, with proficient profiling.
The next most important skill appears to be a capacity for logical and objective analysis as denoted by the scores of the science students.
Despite the emphasis Hazelwood et al. Possibly the most striking result to emerge from this study relates to the performance of the psychics and the input of intuition. As previously men- tioned, the number of statistically significant differences between the accu- racy scores of the various groups were limited.
In this respect, the only statistically significant differences found in the accuracy scores were between each of the respective groups and the control condition—with the exception of the psychics, which indicates that each of the groups i.
However, the accu- racy score of the sampled psychics was not found to be statistically different in terms of surpassing the score of the control group.
Consequently, this indi- cates that the performance of the psychics in profiling the murderer was actu- ally no better than what could have been achieved by simply guessing and suggests that the attribute of intuition is unlikely to play a meaningful role in the construction of an accurate criminal profile.
Given the stark contrast between this frequently promulgated view regarding the importance of investigative experience and the empirical evidence of the previous study, a more focused examination of these issues seemed warranted.
Consequently, a second study was undertaken to specifi- cally investigate this issue further It seems reasonable to assume from the views of Hazelwood et al. Simply put, individuals with greater amounts of investigative experience would be expected to be more competent in accurately profiling the perpetrator of a crime in comparison with individuals with lesser amounts or no investigative experience.
To some extent, this notion is borne out by the recruitment practices of organizations, such as the FBI 1—3, Accordingly, one method of empirically testing investigative experience would simply involve repeating the previous study but focusing on surveying differing groups of people who could be distinguished by the amount of investigative experience they respectively possessed.
Consequently, the iden- tical survey instrument developed in the previous study 15 concerning the solved murder case and accompanying multiple-choice questionnaire was again used. However, in this second study differing groups of people distinguished by their respective levels of investigative experience were obtained to com- plete the survey.
Four separate groups of police personnel were recruited for this study. The first group was comprised of 12 detectives who worked within a special- ized homicide unit and focused exclusively on the investigation of crimes of homicide, and specifically, murders. The second group was comprised of 31 senior detectives who, in addition to having served as general duty officers, each possessed a minimum of 10 years experience in criminal investigation as detectives.
The third recruited group consisted of 19 trainee detectives. These were serving police officers who possessed at least 10 years experi- ence as police officers undertaking general duties and were currently under- going training to become detectives to specialize in criminal investigations.
These participants were all undergoing training to become serving police officers. These individuals did not possess any prior experience as police officers but were interested in pur- suing a career in policing and were very near the end of their training to com- mence active duty as a probationary i. Accordingly, these four groups represented a gradient of investigative experience. The homicide and senior detectives both possessed greater amounts of investigative experience; the trainee detective group was something of an intermediary, consisting of police officers with experience but not necessar- ily in criminal investigations; and the police recruits had very little experi- ence beyond their basic training.
Finally, to further contrast the input of investigative experience with people who did not possess any experience in law enforcement whatsoever, two further groups were recruited to participate in this second study.
First, and akin to the previous study, a sample of 31 science students who possessed skills in logical and objective reasoning was obtained. Akin to the procedures of the previous study all of these groups were provided with the case materials and questionnaire with the exception of the control group and each endeavored to profile the characteristics of the mur- derer by answering the multiple-choice questions listed on the questionnaire.
The responses on each of the questionnaires were then scored for accuracy. All scores were then compiled into their respective groups and subjected to statistical analysis Table 3. In stark contrast to the promulgated importance of investigative experi- ence, the results of this study provide little support for this contention.
These patterns are quite revealing because they are in stark contrast to Hazelwood et al. That is, akin to the performance of the psychics in the previ- ous study, the scores of the various police groups were not found to be different at a statistically significant level from that of the control group. The only group that was found to consistently surpass the control condition at a statistically significant level were, in fact, the science students.
In conclusion, the results of this second study were unable to support the contention concerning the importance, let alone the quintessential nature, of investigative experience as a requisite skill for accurately constructing a criminal profile.
Indeed, some argument remained as to whether the previous two studies had adequately explored all dimensions of what might be encapsulated by the skill of investi- gative experience. However, this standard of performance was not sustained when compared using the full mea- sure of all 33 questionnaire items.
Perhaps, however, implicit in Hazelwood et al. That is, it is not purely the number of years of experience per se in law enforcement or even in investigating crimes, but rather, experience in investigating the types of crime that are relevant to criminal profiling or at least relevant to profiling the crime in question.
Although this qualitative dimension is not articulated in Hazelwood et al. Merely because a police officer possesses many years of experience in the investigation of armed robberies, for example, does not necessarily mean that that the same officer would necessarily pos- sess the kind of investigative experience suitable for the profiling of a mur- der. Rather, for the profiling of a murder, experience in the investigation of murder would be pertinent. Arguably, therefore, various types of investiga- tive experience might exist that do not necessarily transpose into differing contexts.
Consequently, it is important to match the appropriate type of in- vestigative experience with the appropriate type of crime being profiled. In some limited capacity, this qualitative dimension to investigative experience had already received some consideration in the previous study with the inclu- sion of the homicide squad detectives who exclusively worked in the investi- gation of homicide. Although the homicide squad detectives performed relatively poorly in the previous study, a separate study focusing on this quali- tative aspect seemed to be warranted, given the nature of the results.
Consequently, a third study was undertaken that specifically considered this qualitative dimension of investigative experience with two added varia- tions.
The first of these variations considered the influence crime modality might have on criminal profiling proficiency. Although a variety of sources had at the time described criminal profiling as being applicable to crimes of arson 20—22 , no studies had previously examined the accuracy of criminal profiles for this type of crime. Indeed, consideration of this issue seemed par- ticularly warranted in view of other studies 23 , which had found the applica- bility of some profiling principles to vary based on the considered crime modality.
The second variation incorporated into this third study considered profiling proficiency within the specific context of recidivistic or serial crime. Although many authors have described profiling as most suited to crimes of a serial nature, in which patterns are likely to be manifested across the behav- iors of a series of offenses 22,24 , all previous considerations of criminal profiling had involved single offense crimes.
The general design of this third study followed that of the two previous ones 15, On this occasion, however, the materials originated from a police investigation into a large series of fires committed by an individual who could be viewed as a serial arsonist.
Accompanying these materials was another multiple-choice questionnaire that was developed and allowed a participant to provide their predictions concerning the characteristics of the probable arsonist. Akin to the two previous studies, these case materials and the questionnaire were then administered to various skill-based groups of participants and the accuracy of their predictions scored by the use of these model answers.
Although the first study 15 revealed some promising indications for the abilities of profilers, the findings were somewhat tentative. Additionally, those findings were in the context of profiling a murder. Because this third study considered a crime modality that had never been previously examined in a profiling experiment i.
In considering participants who would not only possess investigative experience, but also qualitatively relevant experience in the investigation of arson offenses, two separate groups of participants were obtained.
The first group consisted of experienced police detectives who either worked exclu- sively in a specialist police arson investigation unit or who regularly investi- gated and had been trained to investigate arson offenses.
Thus, it was hoped that this group would exemplify all dimensions of investigative experience by including detectives in the study who embodied both quantitative years of experience as well as qualitatively specific skills related to the investigation of arson crimes. The second group gathered to test the importance of investigative expe- rience were fire brigade arson investigators.
These were not police officers but fire brigade officers who were specifically trained in the forensic chemi- cal and physical examination of fire crime scenes to determine the possibility of whether a fire had been deliberately lit These participants typically worked in close conjunction with police detectives, but their investigative experiences focused more on the scientific examination of a fire scene to determine the probable cause and origin of a fire.
Consistent with the previous studies, a group of science students and a control group were also recruited. Once again, this control group was asked to answer the questionnaire by describing what they believed were the characteristics of the typical serial arsonist.
As previously mentioned, the questionnaire was administered to each of these groups. The completed questionnaires were collated for each of the respective groups, scored for accuracy, and then subjected to statistical analy- sis. The outcome of these analyses is summarized in Table 3. First, looking at the descriptive patterns, the group that achieved the highest mean score in accurately predicting the characteristics of the serial arsonist were the profilers, thus providing another modicum of evidence for their superior capa- bilities.
Consequently, this particular finding speaks favor- ably of the potential input of profilers to criminal investigations, because their predictions concerning a serial arsonist are likely to be significantly more accurate than what detectives themselves might predict. Following the profilers, and generally consistent with the patterns of the previous study, the science students achieved the next highest accuracy score. Although not statistically distinct from the groups representative of investiga- tive experience i.
Although surprising, this find- ing is consistent with those of the previous study in indicating that the detec- tives and arson investigators were unable to accurately predict the characteristics of the serial arsonist any better than what could have been achieved by simply guessing or relying on stereotypical conceptions.
In conclusion, the findings of this third study offer some promising, albeit modest, indications concerning the proficiency of expert profilers in predict- ing the characteristics of a serial arsonist. However, akin to its predecessor, the findings of this study lend little support to Hazelwood et al.
Additionally, these studies were under- taken independently and successively, and consequently, their findings are reflective of the respective data pools used for each study. It was considered a useful exercise therefore to combine the previously separate data sets from each of the three studies to gain a holistic impression of the performance of all groups in comparison with each other Additionally, such an analysis would also provide a good opportunity to include some previously unused data to assist in the statistical strength of this combined analysis.
Because the three studies considered different crimes and used different questionnaires i. Instead, a statistical procedure was needed to convert all data to an equivalent and comparable level. This process involved converting all scores into what are referred to as z-scores. Without delving into a statistical explanation of this process, the resulting values, as displayed in Table 3. The closer a value is to 1. Conversely, values fur- ther away from 1.
The combination and analysis of these data sets as displayed in Table 3. For example, 0. Interestingly, however, and in contrast to the findings of the first study 15 , the next most proficient group were found to be the science stu- dents, followed by the psychologists.
Among the various groups representa- tive of differing levels of investigative experience the police recruits and the arson investigators performed the best, whereas other groups, such as the gen- eral duties police officers and specialist detectives, performed, comparatively speaking, quite poorly.
Although the findings of these studies provide some promising indications, they do not represent a definitive treatise on the topic. Further replication of these studies is clearly warranted involving larger groups of expert profilers and dif- fering types of crimes as the subject of any profiling experiments.
Nevertheless, the importance of these studies should not be underestimated. Although they may be perceived as simply reinforcing some commonly held views concerning the merits of criminal profiling, they nonetheless offer some long overdue em- pirical evidence in the form of a series of scientific experiments.
Such experi- ments provide a systematic demonstration of criminal profiling that can be objectively and independently scrutinized and tested by others in the future. In considering these studies, however, it is vital to appreciate their design parameters and their implications. What must be clearly recognized is that the experimental structure of the studies in this chapter 15,19,20,27 were not designed to measure, in quantifiable terms, the degree of accuracy in a criminal profile. Instead, these studies should be viewed in terms of whether different skill-based groups are more adept at profiling than others.
In this context, the present studies provide some support for the capabilities of expert profilers in accurately predicting the characteristics of an unknown offender following some assessment of the crime as compared with the other sampled groups.
These findings, however, are not intended to provide any quantifiable indica- tion of the margin by which profilers excel, nor do the studies attempt to indicate the degree of accuracy in percentage terms typically exhibited in the criminal profiles generated. It is in this context of a comparative analysis that other important impli- cations emerge from these studies regarding the skills most likely to be aligned to the proficient, i.
Possibly the clearest, and most likely controversial, implication is the lack of evidence to support the necessity of experience in law enforcement or more precisely, investigative experience for an individual to be able to accurately construct a criminal profile.
This conclusion is derived from the consistently poor per- formance of the sampled police personnel in comparison with the other groups in these studies. For this rea- son it needs to be emphasized that the studies described throughout this chapter involved an objective and straightforward test. Various groups undertook this test and the outcomes of their performance were simply reported. Thus, the statistical analyses of these studies were not undertaken with any preconceived objectives or designs to favor one group over another.
Having indicated that these studies fail to support the need for investiga- tive experience in constructing an accurate criminal profile, an important clari- fication is warranted. That is, this conclusion should not be misinterpreted as suggesting that criminal profiles cannot be constructed by law enforcement personnel. On the contrary, these studies merely indicate that there is no basis for there to be any need for prior experience in criminal investigations, or more broadly law enforcement, for an individual to be able to construct an accurate criminal profile.
This is borne out by the consistently strong perfor- mance of the psychologists and more importantly, that of the science students in comparison with the other sampled groups. Clearly, skills in understanding human behavior as well as logical and objective reasoning are not foreign to police personnel.
Perhaps, however, police personnel who are engaged in constructing criminal profiles, or who wish to pursue training in the construction of criminal profiles, should be able to demonstrate these skills at an advanced level. In conclusion, some measure of empirically robust evidence is now avail- able to suggest that criminal profiles constructed by expert profilers are likely to possess a comparatively higher degree of accuracy in their predictions. Additionally, contrary to rhetoric, it appears the constituent skills most likely to be associated with the accurate construction of a criminal profile are not aligned necessarily with popular conceptions concerning the preeminence of investigative experience.
Rather, the task of generating an accurate criminal profile is, in reality, more likely the product of one who has an appreciation of human behavior and is adept at logical, objective analysis. London: Heinman. McCrary, G. The unknown darkness: Profiling the predators among us. New York: Harper Collins.
Ten major problems with criminal profil- ing. Am J Forensic Psychiatry, 26 2 , 45— Muller, D. Criminal profiling: Real science or just wishful thinking?
Homicide Studies, 4 3 , — Copson, G. Coals to Newcastle: A study of offender profiling. London: Home Office. Amsterdam: NSCR. Jour- nal of Police Science and Administration, 12, 32— Criminal personality profiling: An outcome and process study. Law of Human Behavior, 14, — Criminal profiling: A viable investigative tool against violent crime. Sexual homicide: Patterns and motives. New York: Lexington Books. Criminal inves- tigative analysis: An overview.
In: Hazelwood, R. Prac- tical aspects of rape investigation: A multidisciplinary approach, 2nd ed. Expertise in psychologi- cal profiling: A comparative assessment. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 15 3 , — Harrower, J. Applying psychology to crime. Godwin, J. Murder USA: The ways we kill each other.
New York: Ballantine. Wilson, C. The serial killers. Investigative experience and accuracy in psychological profiling of a violent crime. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 17 8 , — An analysis of spatial patterns in serial rape, arson, and burglary: The utility of the circle theory of environmental range for psychological profiling. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 4, — Criminal pro- filing from crime scene analysis.
Behavioral Science and Law, 4, — DeHaan, J. Psychological profiling of serial arson offenses: An assessment of skills and accuracy. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 31 3 , — Criminal psychological profiling: Validities and Abilities. Evaluation of the psychological profiling program. Unpublished manuscript. Behavioral Criminology International website. Accessed June 26, Seemingly overlooked, however, has been any systematic and empirically based examination of the compo- nents and processes involved in the construction of a criminal profile.
This chapter canvasses a series of studies that provide some tentative insights into these issues, including the information found within criminal profiles as constructed by expert profilers, the input of differing forms of case material, and the cognitive processes associated with the accurate construction of a criminal profile. Key Words: Criminal profile content; construction processes; case materials.
It highlighted that although some popular, albeit untested, notions exist, includ- ing the importance of investigative experience, the available empirical evi- dence may challenge such notions.
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