It is hypothesized that the police officers will also reinterpret the offender profile to fit various suspects, like the participants of the Barnum Studies. Even though the genuine and bogus suspect descriptions were very different, the two groups of participants provided very similar ratings of profiling accuracy, specifity, and usefulness. These very similar …show more content…
However, profiles could be useful in theory for prioritizing suspects. These results also indicate that offender profiling may not be as reliable a prioritization tool as previously believed. It is possible that an offender profile may be used as a “confirmation tool” with regard to an officer’s suspicion of a particular suspect. This can also be called, tunnel vision. From taking an Advanced Investigations class, it taught me that some officers will suffer from tunnel vision when taking a suspect into consideration. If an officer suspects someone of committing a crime, they often make up or favor information that confirms their beliefs about that person being