Criminal Profiling

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that some psychologists, psychiatrists and criminologists believe there are specific traits, characteristics and psychological factors, possessed by an individuals, which separate them from the rest of society and link them to other violent offenders. The author points out that criminal profiling was established on the theory that an individual commits every action with some form of motivation; therefore, the perpetrator must leave some form of psychological evidence at the scene of the crime. The paper explains that criminal profiling, especially for the more violent crimes such as homicide and rape, helps narrow the list of suspects by formulating the type of person for whom investigators should be looking. The author stresses that, although criminal profiling has had a long and influential history in the law enforcement field, some psychologists and criminologists are somewhat skeptic about its validity.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Background
Problem Statement
Purpose of Study
Hypothesis
Operationalization
Significance of Study

From the Paper:

"Profilers must be extremely knowledgeable in the area of criminals, crime scenes, and psychology. They are trained and experienced investigators who act as tools in the apprehension of criminals. Profilers will tie all evidence gathered into a narrowed profile of an offender. This narrowing serves to make the most of personnel and resources to accurately identify and apprehend offenders. To do this they will look at the positions of bodies, weapons used, amount of violence, verbal statements through a signature, information about the victim."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brandl, Steven G. (2002). Police: Criminal Investigations. Macmillan Reference USA (Vol. 3, pp.1068-1073). New York: Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice.
• Criminal Profiling http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~mlyount/MySites/ForensicPsychology/CriminalProfiling.html
• Fintzy, Robert T. (2000). Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis. American Psychiatric Association, 157:1532-1534
• Gladwell, M. (2007, November 12). Dangerous Minds; Criminal profiling made easy. The New Yorker, Section: Fact. Vol. 83 No. 35 pp.36. In LexisNexis Academic
• Petherick, Wayne. Criminal Profiling: How it got started and how it is used. Crimelibrary.com. Courtroom Television Network (2007). http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/profiling/profiling2/1.html

More papers on Criminal Profiling:

• Research Paper # 128745 : "Criminal profiling"
• Research Paper # 147737 : "Exploration of Proactive Criminal Profiling"
• Term Paper # 99984 : "Criminal Profiling"

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