“Dangerous minds Criminal Profiling made easy
Critical Thinking
Fall 2013
“Dangerous minds
Criminal Profiling made easy”
Malcolm Gladwell
Final Analysis
Introduction
The article “Dangerous minds. Criminal Profiling made easy”, which is written by Malcolm Gladwell, tells about the psychology and average appearance of criminal minds in 1950’s – 1990’s. Most of all in this article, Gladwell describes what criminal profilers are and how do detectives predict criminals’ appearance. Mostly the article is about criminal profiler John Douglas.
Also author describes, that FBI separates all the crimes by organized and disorganized and it helps them a lot, but their method of criminal profiling does not work. Criminal profiling refers to the process of identifying personality traits, behavioral tendencies, and demographic variables of an offender, based on characteristics of the crime (C., R., Bartol and A., M., Bartol, 2012)
Analysis
How well does the author:
1. Avoid overstated conclusions.
In this article Malcolm Gladwell explains that, even good criminal profilers such as John Douglas, can not always be right, and even they sometimes make mistakes. That is why generalization is wrong. So, profiles are not so useful, if they are not always right. For example, once Douglas gave a presentation to police officers and FBI agents in Marin County, about the killer, who was murdering female tourists in the hills. He immediately understood, that this killer, was classic “disorganized” offender, he also called such killers “blitz attacker”. Criminalist started making a profile and included, that the murderer seems to be white, blue-collar, early to mid-thirties and that he is cruel to animals. Douglas also added, that killer is very asocial, because also crimes were committed only in the hills, far away from people. After some brainstorming, he understood that the killer has a speech impediment. The profile didn’t do any good and the killer was Derrick Todd Lee, he was
Fall 2013
“Dangerous minds
Criminal Profiling made easy”
Malcolm Gladwell
Final Analysis
Introduction
The article “Dangerous minds. Criminal Profiling made easy”, which is written by Malcolm Gladwell, tells about the psychology and average appearance of criminal minds in 1950’s – 1990’s. Most of all in this article, Gladwell describes what criminal profilers are and how do detectives predict criminals’ appearance. Mostly the article is about criminal profiler John Douglas.
Also author describes, that FBI separates all the crimes by organized and disorganized and it helps them a lot, but their method of criminal profiling does not work. Criminal profiling refers to the process of identifying personality traits, behavioral tendencies, and demographic variables of an offender, based on characteristics of the crime (C., R., Bartol and A., M., Bartol, 2012)
Analysis
How well does the author:
1. Avoid overstated conclusions.
In this article Malcolm Gladwell explains that, even good criminal profilers such as John Douglas, can not always be right, and even they sometimes make mistakes. That is why generalization is wrong. So, profiles are not so useful, if they are not always right. For example, once Douglas gave a presentation to police officers and FBI agents in Marin County, about the killer, who was murdering female tourists in the hills. He immediately understood, that this killer, was classic “disorganized” offender, he also called such killers “blitz attacker”. Criminalist started making a profile and included, that the murderer seems to be white, blue-collar, early to mid-thirties and that he is cruel to animals. Douglas also added, that killer is very asocial, because also crimes were committed only in the hills, far away from people. After some brainstorming, he understood that the killer has a speech impediment. The profile didn’t do any good and the killer was Derrick Todd Lee, he was
References: Bartol, C. R., & Bartol A. M. (2012). Current perspectives in forensic psychology and criminal behavior. Edition 3. Retrieved from http://books.google.kz/books?id=Q2zEKbm2h_gC&pg=PA19&dq=criminal+profiling+useless&hl=ru&sa=X&ei=MYSfUqr9OoKe4wSF8oCgBg&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=criminal%20profiling%20useless&f=false Petherick, W. & Turvey, B. (2012), Criminal Profiling. An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis, 11-12. Retrieved from http://books.google.kz/books?hl=ru&lr=&id=GSJ7Ja95oegC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=criminal+minds&ots=unDa4R6JoY&sig=zJ21FaA0xyhmbehN1P3VeTMqXhg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=criminal%20minds&f=false Turvey, B. (2012), Criminal Profiling. An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis, 11-12. Retrieved from http://books.google.kz/books?hl=ru&lr=&id=GSJ7Ja95oegC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=criminal+minds&ots=unDa4R6JoY&sig=zJ21FaA0xyhmbehN1P3VeTMqXhg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=criminal%20minds&f=false Wiley, J. (2011), Criminal Minds. Retrieved from http://books.google.kz/books?hl=ru&lr=&id=Z6DL1k2ZIxMC&oi=fnd&pg=PT5&dq=criminal+minds&ots=VSFObvLiig&sig=qXlETBrerqrNPsxP1b8vsUk6Sw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=criminal%20minds&f=true