Criminal Profiling White Paper
Ali Wiethe
University of Dayton According to Kocsis (2010), criminal profiling is defined as “A forensic technique which seeks to provide investigative agencies with specific information which will help focus attention to individuals with personality traits that parallel traits of other perpetrators who have committed similar other offenses.” Through this definition, it is believed that profiling will help law enforcement officers pursue and interview suspects, because they can narrow in on the right suspects and use interviewing tips for the “type” of suspect being questioned. As a relatively new aspect of criminal investigation, criminal profiling has required several studies in which the accuracy and validity of criminal profiling through available and new evidence has been analyzed. The purpose of these studies was to look at the evidence presented and determine the helpfulness of profiling. …show more content…
There are several factors that play into the accuracy and validity of criminal profiling which can be attributed to, but not limited to, the experience of the profiler and the “validity measurement dilemma” (Chifflet, 2015). To provide insight on the experience of a psychological profiler and the accuracy of the profile, a study conducted by Pinizzotto & Finkel (1990) can be explored. In beginning this research, the question of professional profilers versus non-profilers in determining the accuracy of a profiler is identified and if the process profilers use is different than non-profilers. The researchers used 28 subjects for this study which included: four profiling experts who train police detectives in profiling at the F.B.I, six subjects who were police detectives from different agencies that were specially trained in profiling, six detectives from a police department who have no training in profiling, six clinical psychologists who are naïve to profiling and criminal investigations, and six undergraduate students from a university who have no profiling or criminal investigation experience. To start the study, two crime scene investigations of closed cases were used from a homicide case and a sex offense case. For both cases, identities were protected and all members of each group were given either the homicide case or the sex offense case to read. They were then asked to write down as many details of the case that they could recall then with that list, write down the details that they thought were necessary and important for writing a criminal profile and the reason why they felt these details were important. Each subject was then asked to write a profile of the type of person who committed the crime and given a twenty-question multiple choice test asking about the suspect (race, gender, age, etc.). The last step was a lineup task where each subject had five written description of possible suspects and were asked to order them from one to five, with one being the most likely suspect and five being the least likely. This was then repeated with the second crime case they didn’t receive initially. Overall, the results of this study concluded that professional profilers were more accurate for the sex offense case than non-profilers, but this dissipated when looking at the homicide case. Although, the profilers still performed better than the non-profilers, the significance was …show more content…
Based on this study, these results do not support the role of investigative experience as the key to effective profiling but also, the trends among the police groups seem to be opposite of what would be expected. This study finds little evidence to support the hypothesis that investigative experience is the essential skill for effective psychological profiling. This study is good because it provides research that shows criminal profiling is still in its infancy. There have been previous studies that looked at the accuracy of criminal profiling, another one done by Kocsis, Irwin, Hayes, & Nunn (2000), and it was found that university biology students also performed better than police detectives, which supports the results of this study. The researchers found that their expectations were wrong and maybe with appropriate training on top of maintaining a university degree, profilers could maintain more qualified characteristics. In this way, profilers would have more exposure and practice in the field of profiling, which would make them better equipped with the necessary knowledge to perform
Ali Wiethe
University of Dayton According to Kocsis (2010), criminal profiling is defined as “A forensic technique which seeks to provide investigative agencies with specific information which will help focus attention to individuals with personality traits that parallel traits of other perpetrators who have committed similar other offenses.” Through this definition, it is believed that profiling will help law enforcement officers pursue and interview suspects, because they can narrow in on the right suspects and use interviewing tips for the “type” of suspect being questioned. As a relatively new aspect of criminal investigation, criminal profiling has required several studies in which the accuracy and validity of criminal profiling through available and new evidence has been analyzed. The purpose of these studies was to look at the evidence presented and determine the helpfulness of profiling. …show more content…
There are several factors that play into the accuracy and validity of criminal profiling which can be attributed to, but not limited to, the experience of the profiler and the “validity measurement dilemma” (Chifflet, 2015). To provide insight on the experience of a psychological profiler and the accuracy of the profile, a study conducted by Pinizzotto & Finkel (1990) can be explored. In beginning this research, the question of professional profilers versus non-profilers in determining the accuracy of a profiler is identified and if the process profilers use is different than non-profilers. The researchers used 28 subjects for this study which included: four profiling experts who train police detectives in profiling at the F.B.I, six subjects who were police detectives from different agencies that were specially trained in profiling, six detectives from a police department who have no training in profiling, six clinical psychologists who are naïve to profiling and criminal investigations, and six undergraduate students from a university who have no profiling or criminal investigation experience. To start the study, two crime scene investigations of closed cases were used from a homicide case and a sex offense case. For both cases, identities were protected and all members of each group were given either the homicide case or the sex offense case to read. They were then asked to write down as many details of the case that they could recall then with that list, write down the details that they thought were necessary and important for writing a criminal profile and the reason why they felt these details were important. Each subject was then asked to write a profile of the type of person who committed the crime and given a twenty-question multiple choice test asking about the suspect (race, gender, age, etc.). The last step was a lineup task where each subject had five written description of possible suspects and were asked to order them from one to five, with one being the most likely suspect and five being the least likely. This was then repeated with the second crime case they didn’t receive initially. Overall, the results of this study concluded that professional profilers were more accurate for the sex offense case than non-profilers, but this dissipated when looking at the homicide case. Although, the profilers still performed better than the non-profilers, the significance was …show more content…
Based on this study, these results do not support the role of investigative experience as the key to effective profiling but also, the trends among the police groups seem to be opposite of what would be expected. This study finds little evidence to support the hypothesis that investigative experience is the essential skill for effective psychological profiling. This study is good because it provides research that shows criminal profiling is still in its infancy. There have been previous studies that looked at the accuracy of criminal profiling, another one done by Kocsis, Irwin, Hayes, & Nunn (2000), and it was found that university biology students also performed better than police detectives, which supports the results of this study. The researchers found that their expectations were wrong and maybe with appropriate training on top of maintaining a university degree, profilers could maintain more qualified characteristics. In this way, profilers would have more exposure and practice in the field of profiling, which would make them better equipped with the necessary knowledge to perform