Profiling In Criminal Investigation Essay
Profiling in Criminal Investigation
The use of psychology in the criminal justice field is not a new idea. Just think of the many films and television series which employ profiling for its entertainment value: Silence of the Lambs, Criminal Minds, Law and Order, the Mentalist, and Perception—to name a few. With this glorified view of psychology in criminal investigations, it seems impossible that the real science behind the myth would be anything other than psychic intuition. However, there is no place for psychic intuition in criminal investigation. Does this mean, then, that there is no role for psychology to play in criminal investigation? Is psychology simply fortune-tellers’ tricks or a well thought out and researched science? Psychology …show more content…
One of the first types of profiling to exist was employed by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This approach was used to garner much information about the perpetrator of a crime, including likely marital status, emotional age, race, gender, and even level of remorse regarding the victim or crime. Some of the characteristics of the scene which profilers may rely upon in this approach include: level of planning, control, and emotion, victim and perpetrator risk levels, and the disorganised or organised appearance of the scene, which depict an organised or disorganised personality (O’Toole, 1999). Using these characteristics, the information mentioned above may be gleaned about an offender. Senior FBI special agents Ressler and Douglas mainly developed this approach through a study where thirty-six convicted serial killers and other serial offenders were interviewed in prison. These thirty-six interviews formed the basis for the original FBI profiling technique of the 1980s (Ramsland). Needless to say, this approach is highly criticised for being unscientific. Thirty-six interviews hardly encompass enough evidence to accurately profile every offender, and the interviews were not undertaken scientifically. Not only this, but Douglas and Ressler were not trained psychologists but law enforcement officers. It may also be argued that this study only includes information about unsuccessful offenders, as they have all been apprehended. This would omit information about offenders who were successful in evading detection, and these are the offenders that profilers aim to
The use of psychology in the criminal justice field is not a new idea. Just think of the many films and television series which employ profiling for its entertainment value: Silence of the Lambs, Criminal Minds, Law and Order, the Mentalist, and Perception—to name a few. With this glorified view of psychology in criminal investigations, it seems impossible that the real science behind the myth would be anything other than psychic intuition. However, there is no place for psychic intuition in criminal investigation. Does this mean, then, that there is no role for psychology to play in criminal investigation? Is psychology simply fortune-tellers’ tricks or a well thought out and researched science? Psychology …show more content…
One of the first types of profiling to exist was employed by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This approach was used to garner much information about the perpetrator of a crime, including likely marital status, emotional age, race, gender, and even level of remorse regarding the victim or crime. Some of the characteristics of the scene which profilers may rely upon in this approach include: level of planning, control, and emotion, victim and perpetrator risk levels, and the disorganised or organised appearance of the scene, which depict an organised or disorganised personality (O’Toole, 1999). Using these characteristics, the information mentioned above may be gleaned about an offender. Senior FBI special agents Ressler and Douglas mainly developed this approach through a study where thirty-six convicted serial killers and other serial offenders were interviewed in prison. These thirty-six interviews formed the basis for the original FBI profiling technique of the 1980s (Ramsland). Needless to say, this approach is highly criticised for being unscientific. Thirty-six interviews hardly encompass enough evidence to accurately profile every offender, and the interviews were not undertaken scientifically. Not only this, but Douglas and Ressler were not trained psychologists but law enforcement officers. It may also be argued that this study only includes information about unsuccessful offenders, as they have all been apprehended. This would omit information about offenders who were successful in evading detection, and these are the offenders that profilers aim to