Is Criminal Profiling Useful?

i believe that sometime if not in all cases a suspect may have capacity to commit crime but can behave as if is able to do so. This if i feel he or she needs to be observed without her or his knowledge to get clear picture of the psychpaths

Criminal profiling, being in practice since the late 1800’s, has come under both scrutiny and praise from experts in their field as well as researchers whom attempt to empirically test the science. In the hopes of finding validity in the process and techniques of psychologically profiling offenders, researchers and experts in London and Australia have all contributed to illustrating the strengths and weaknesses that accompany profiling offenders. Through empirically testing its techniques in groups consisting of experts in the field, as well as others who may ultimately create a viable profile, these researchers find varying data trends in their findings. The collection of data presented by these researchers has shown that there are strengths in the techniques, but ultimately the use of this technique in criminal justice does not embody all of the necessary components to legitimatize it as a useful practice to law enforcement agencies.

International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 2021

Criminal profiling is a forensic technique which predicts offenders' personality patterns, behaviours and demographic characteristics. This technique gives the user an insight into and a better understanding of the perpetrators characteristics. The use of this technique in criminal investigations has increased over the years, despite the existing controversy regarding its validity. The aim of this article is to shed light on the limitations of studies carried out on the validity of criminal profiling through the analysis of eight articles selected by a systematic review of the literature. Findings reveal that this forensic technique is as yet to be statistically validated. Preexisting attempts of validation have been analysed and major problems highlighted in an effort to improve on the results of future studies carried out in this field.

The British Journal of Forensic Practice, 2005

International Journal of Medical Toxicology and Legal Medicine, 2014

2000

In many countries, such as Canada, police have been increasinglyrelying upon some form of criminal profiling to aid in their serialcrime investigations. A criminal profiler is a psychological consultantor investigator who examines evidence from the crime scene, victims, andwitnesses in an attempt to construct an accurate psychological (usuallyconcerning psychopathology, personality, and behaviour) and demographicdescription of the individual who committed the crime.

After studying this article, participants should be better able to do the following: 1. Understand the difference between criminal investigative analysis and forensic psychology. 2. Consider ethical considerations when offering forensic psychological opinions. 3. Implement Daubert factors when evaluating the appropriateness of forensic testimony.

Abstract: This study utilised qualitative semi-structured interviews with 11 detectives from a single UK police force, in an attempt to understand if, how, and why offender profiling can be operationally useful to police officers. Although some positive opinions were expressed, overall this study found the detectives to be dissatisfied customers of the service of offender profilers. Common complaints included profiles widening the field of investigation to unmanageable proportions in terms of suspects and cases, not telling police anything that they did not already know, profilers breaching the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, and advice being simply common sense or too general. Police also reported feeling pressurised into continued use, despite their scepticism.

IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine, 2012

P rofiling means making predictions about likely user behavior based on collected characteristics and activities. Shari Lawrence Pfleeger and Marc Rogers brought together a group of researchers from a variety of disciplines to discuss whether profiling and prediction actually make us secure. Michael Losavio: "Profiling" is a loaded term and something we should clarify as we go through this discussion. Sal Stolfo: That's why I like to call it "behavior-based security" or "human user behavior analysis. " Shari Lawrence Pfleeger: There are clear examples of where this kind of profiling-user behavior analysisis very helpful, examples of where it's sort of creepy, examples of where it might be illegal or unethical, and everything in between. This roundtable addresses what we're doing, what are or should be its limits-legal, ethical, mathematical-and when it's most useful. With all of this in mind, what's the scientific basis for profiling? Masooda Bashir: It is based on the assumption that we all have stable personality traits. Profiling also assumes that once we hit a certain age, we have a stable personality and characteristics that can be used to predict our later behaviors and therefore past behavior is used to predict future behavior. Marc Rogers: There are two types of profiling: clinical, which is based on personal observations and anecdotal evidence, and statistical, which is based on large datasets. So we have to consider the art versus the science.