Criminal Profiling

Paper Summary:

Criminal profiling was established on the basis that an individual commits every action with some form of motivation, and therefore the perpetrator must leave some form of psychological evidence at the scene of a crime. This paper proposes a study to measure the accuracy and validity of serial killer profiles formulated by professional criminal profilers. The study includes ten profilers and involves sending out case facts and evidence from a previous serial killer case and a questionnaire to identify characteristics of the unknown serial killer from the facts and evidence given.

Outline:
Introduction
Background
Problem Statement
Purpose of Study
Hypothesis
Operationalization
Significance of Study
Literature Review
Introduction
Synthesis of the Literature
Conclusion
Analysis

From the Paper:

"Criminal profiling was established on the basis that an individual commits every action with some form of motivation, and therefore the perpetrator must leave some form of psychological evidence at the scene of the crime. Profilers can then use this evidence to help form a psychological profile. Usually, investigators begin with many suspects in their case. Thus, they are turning to criminal profiling to help narrow their lists. Criminal profiling is able to help narrow the hunt by formulating a type of person for investigators to be looking for that is responsible for the crime committed from the psychological evidence gathered (Brandl, 2002). Criminal profiling is being used more and more, especially for the more violent crimes such as homicide and rape. It has become a vital tool used by federal and local law enforcement authorities to apprehend these violent criminals."

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
• Davis, J. A. (1999). Criminal Personality Profiling and Crime Scene Assessment: A Contemporary Investigative Tool to Assist Law Enforcement Public Safety. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, volume 15. Retrieved on April 4, 2008 from http://ccj.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/15/3/291
• 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

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