The Forensic Science of Criminal Profiling Profiling: an invaluable tool for catching criminals and killers. Profiling is a relatively new approach to crime solving, put in place by forensic psychiatrists. Criminal profiling is the process by which a practitioner analyses information from a crime scene in order to create physical and psychological profile of the perpetrator. All information from a crime scene is a reflection of the criminal's behavior. And this behavior can create a surprisingly accurate picture of the offender. (Forensic FAQ p. 2) Forensic science has been in practice for centuries; the first textbook on forensic science was printed in China during the 1200's; in the early 1800's, a technique was developed the first test to identify arsenic in the blood stream; the early 1900's lead to the development of using fingerprinting to identify victims and suspects. While these discoveries where important in criminal investigation, they were only the beginning. Only recently has forensic science significantly refined its techniques and accuracy. Today scientists can locate, identify and trace the tiniest of particles, and identify victims and suspects, beyond a reasonable doubt through DNA analysis. This evolution in forensic science is a prosecutor's dream; while a defense attorney's nightmare. Forensic science has made great strides. Offender profiling has been a new tool to criminal investigation. In pierces deep into the mind of the offender and provides non-traditional method of catching criminals. Not all crimes will call for the use of criminal profiling. Crimes of violent and serial in nature will be profiled. Crimes that will be profiled include: serial murder and rape, ritualistic crimes an... ... middle of paper ... ...s, reduce number of investigative hours, can help a juror come back with a guilty verdict and most importantly save the lives of potential victims. Bibliography: Works Cited Lee, Henry Dr and Dr. Jerry Labriola. Famous Crimes Revisited. Strong Books, Southington, CT. 2001. Simon, Robert Dr. Bad Men Do What Good Men Dream. American Psychiatric Press, Inc. Washington, D.C. 1996. Ross, Drew Dr. Looking Into The Eyes Of A Killer. Plenum Publishing Co. New York, NY. 1998. Goldman, Amy. The Importance of Victimology in Criminal Profiling. Serial Killer Info Site. May 28, 1997. Profiling. www.victimsofviolence.on.ca/profil.htm. Kutake, Junko. Psychology and Criminal Profiling. www.corpus-elicti.com/profiling_law.htm Forensic FAQ, Forensic Psych: Just the FAQ's. http://flash.lakeheadu.ca/~pals/forensics/faq.htm
Although there have been many proposals offered to the logic behind criminals and how they act, the significance of profiling possible suspects are stressed upon by law enforcement in order to achieve and maintain a way to justify the means. Profiling any possible suspects clearly demonstrates that numerous types of individuals follow oth...
Hickey, Eric W. Serial Murderers and Their Victims. Belmont, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1991. Print.
police then look for a suspect who might possibly have committed it. Profiling means that a suspect is discovered and the police then look for a crime for the person to have possibly committed” (Tator & Henry, 2003, p3).
2011. “Serial Killers and Mass Murderers.” American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Vol. 9:
The criminal justice system has changed a lot since the good old days of the Wild West when pretty much anything was legal. Criminals were dealt with in any fashion the law enforcement saw fit. The science of catching criminals has evolved since these days. We are better at catching criminals than ever and we owe this advancement to forensic science. The development of forensic science has given us the important techniques of fingerprinting and DNA analysis. We can use these techniques to catch criminals, prove people's innocence, and keep track of inmates after they have been paroled. There are many different ways of solving crimes using forensic evidence. One of these ways is using blood spatter analysis; this is where the distribution and pattern of bloodstains is studied to find the nature of the event that caused the blood spatter. Many things go into the determination of the cause including: the effects of various types of physical forces on blood, the interaction between blood and the surfaces on which it falls, the location of the person shedding the blood, the location and actions of the assailant, and the movement of them both during the incident. Another common type of forensic evidence is trace evidence. This is commonly recovered from any number of items at a crime scene. These items can include carpet fibers, clothing fibers, or hair found in or around the crime scene. Hairs recovered from crime scenes can be used as an important source of DNA. Examination of material recovered from a victim's or suspect's clothing can allow association to be made between the victim and other people, places, or things involved in the investigation. DNA analysis is the most important part of forensic science. DNA evidence can come in many forms at the crime scene. Some of these forms include hair; bodily fluids recovered at the crime scene or on the victim's body, skin under the victim's fingernails, blood, and many others. This DNA can be the basis of someone's guilt or innocence; it has decided many cases in the twentieth century. As the times continue to change and the criminals get smarter we will always need to find new ways to catch them. Forensic science is the most advanced method yet, but is only the beginning. As the field of science grows so will the abilities of the
The most famous serial killers were at one point free and had the opportunity to do what they wanted to do. Ted Bundy for example killed over 30 people, The Atlanta Child Murderers killed 29 people almost all children, and the Green River Killer committed somewhere between 48 to 90 murders. All were eventually caught with forensics, but if police used criminal profiling it might have help catch them sooner. Teten and Patrick Mullany are the first two who have profiled difficult criminal cases. Teten’s first investigation was a woman who was stabbed in her home. He looked at the documents and the crime scene and came up with a profile that fit the description of the actual killer. Mullany and Patrick were
Author Robin Williams, who has a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science has recently published a series of papers on police use of forensic science and profiling. Williams in 2005, was the senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Durham. Author Paul Johnson has a PhD and is currently researching sociology at the University of Durham. Johnson has also done many studies in forensic DNA data basing in Europe. These authors are very well educated in this field creating a non-bias viewpoint of criminal profiling. This peer reviewed article is recent enough to where it provides historical information on criminal
Schechter, Harold. The serial killer files: the who, what, where, how, and why of the world's most terrifying murderers. New York: Ballantine Books, 2004. Print.
Winerman, L. (2004). Criminal profiling: The reality behind the myth. Monitor on psychology, 35(7), Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/criminal.aspx
When it comes to profiling, it is a very controversial tool, although within the past couple decades it has increased in use significantly. One huge controversy is the fact that not a lot of people believe that a hypothetical depiction of a suspect actually helps contribute to solving crimes, however, a lot of the profiles for serial killers in the past have been incredibly accurate. There is, however, a lack of scientific evidence to support these techniques. With the lack of a scientific basis, the question of the validity that profiling brings to investigations arises often. The main issue is that no one knows if they have a good portrait until the suspect is caught.
Hare, Robert. D. (1993). Without conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us. Guilford Press.
Perri, F., & Lichtenwald, T. (2009). WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE: Criminal investigative analysis, forensic psychology, and the timothy masters case. Forensic Examiner, 18(2), 52-52-69.
A large misconception of criminal investigative analysis is that there is a difference between profiling and criminal investigative analysis. Criminal Investigative Analysis is the same tool as criminal profiling and there is no true difference. A survey was done by Torres and the survey consisted of a couple of questions about profiling and about criminal investigative analysis asked to mental health professionals with profiling knowledge. The following table contains the results from the
Behavioral Analyst’s focus on the following concepts to piece together a crime and figure out why the criminal committed the crime. Behavioral science deals with achieving a better discerning of human behavior (Dictionay.com, n.d). By understanding how a person thinks, you can incorporate criminology and victimology into criminal profiling. Criminology is the concentration of a crime and/or criminal (Dictionary.com, n.d). In other words, what was going through the criminals mind when he or she was committing the crime? Victimology is the examination of victims and its psychological effects (Dictionary.com, n.d). Often times, criminals where once victims of the crimes they are currently committing. Piecing behavioral science, criminology, and victimology will allow the analyst’s to create a criminal profile. Profiling is a tool that helps analysis or investigate behavioral complexion to forebode and profile the unknown offender (Dictionary.com, n.d). For example, a murder was committed. There was so no camera or witness, so the analyst will try to find DNA or some sort of clue to describe a physical and emotional characteristic of the unknown offender. Now, the analyst has an idea of who the unknown criminal could be.
Forensic science has now been recognized as an important part of the law enforcement team to help solve crimes and cold cases. The advances in technology are being used each day and we must continue to strive to develop better advances in this field. The recent discovery of using DNA in criminal cases has helped not only positively identify the suspect, but it has helped exonerate hundreds of innocent individuals. “With new advances in police technology and computer science, crime scene investigation and forensic science will only become more precise as we head into the future.” (Roufa, 2017) Forensic science and evidence helps law enforcement officials solve crimes through the collection, preservation and analysis of evidence. By having a mobile crime laboratory, the scene gets processed quicker and more efficiently. Forensic science will only grow in the future to be a benefit for the criminal justice