PROFILING IN POLICING SOCIETY

Profiling in Policing Society

Profiling in Policing Society

Criminal profiling has a number of aliases. It is often referred to simply as “profiling,” but may also be known as “psychological profiling,” “criminal personality profiling,” and “behavioral crime scene analysis” (Anon 1995). The Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun to refer to profiling as “criminal investigative analysis” (Homant and Kennedy 1998). In Europe, criminal profiling is often referred to as “offender profiling” (Jackson and Bekerian 1997). Criminal profiling is, of course, completely different than racial profiling, which involves the targeting of specific racial or ethnic groups as elements of interest in criminal investigations.

What is criminal profiling? One profiler has described profiling this way:

Violent crime scenes tell a story—a story written by the offender, the victim and the unique circumstances of their interaction. Behavioral “clues” left at a crime scene can provide insights not only into the type of person responsible for the crime, but also his or her motivation, lifestyle, fantasies, victim selection process, and pre- and post-offense behavior. (O'Toole 1999: 44)

The profile paints a picture of the type of person who would be likely to have carried out the crime or crimes in question.

The FBI formally defines profiling as “a technique for identifying the major personality and behavioral characteristics of an individual based upon an analysis of the crimes he or she has committed. "The profiler's skills in recognizing the crime scene dynamics that link various criminal personality types which commit similar crimes.”(Douglas et al, 1986: 405). Thus, a profile is like a biographical sketch without a name attached to it: The typical profile might include details such as age, race or ethnic background, occupational skill, marital status, education level, previous encounters with police, characteristics of past and present family life (including childhood family relationships), identifying habits (e.g., whether the offender smokes, or his or her typical manner of dress), vehicles owned, and whether or not the offender is mentally ill (Anon 1995). The depth or detail that the biographical sketch includes will be related to the amount of behavioral and other evidence that can be gathered by the police investigation, and to the ability of the profiler (Douglas and Olshaker 1998).

Profiling has been expanded beyond its traditional uses into a number of new areas. This has occurred even though the validity of profiling and the use of profiling as a predictive instrument are questionable. Errors in profiling that ...