Historically, crime and criminals have always caught the attention of law-abiding citizens. Whenever there is mention of serial killers or unsolved murders or abductions, psychological profiling, now a household term, floats to the top of the list of concerns (Egger, 1999). Psychological profiling is an attempt to provide investigators with more information about an offender who has not yet been identified (Egger, 1999). Its purpose is to develop a behavioral composite that combines both sociological and psychological assessment of the would-be offender. It is generally based on the premise that an accurate analysis and interpretation of the crime scene and other locations related to the crime can indicate the type of person who could have committed the crime (Egger, 1999).
Psychological profiling may have found its origin in fiction rather than fact with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional exploits of Sherlock Holmes (Egger, 1999). However, dating back to the late 1800’s Dr. Thomas Bond may have been the first to truly apply criminal profiling to the serial killer Jack the Ripper. Bond, a police surgeon, had performed the autopsy on Jack the Ripper’s last victim, Mark Kelly (Padbury, n.d.). After reconstructing the murder in an attempt to interpret the behavioral pattern of the assailant, Bond was able to come up with a profile for police to follow (Padbury, n.d.). Although the Jack the Ripper case remained unsolved, psychological profiling took a major step forward.
However, the first successful application of psychological profiling occurred in 1943 when the Office of Strategic Services commissioned Dr. W.C. Langer to provide a profile of Adolph Hitler (Egger, 1999). Langer’s profile was a psychodynamic personality profile th...
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... in psychological profiling and in 1972 created its Behavioral Science Unit (BSU). By 1978, the FBI established a formal Psychological Profiling unit within the BSU at its training facility in Quantico, Virginia (Egger, 1999). In 1982, the program was expanded using a National Institute of Justice grant to collect and store recorded interviews with convicted murderers. The program interviewed some 36 convicted sexual murderers who represented solo, serial, and mass murderers (Egger, 1999).
Works Cited
Egger, S. (1999). Psychological Profiling: Past, Present, and Future. Journal of Contemporary Criminal justice , 15, 242-261.
Padbury, M. (n.d.). The History of Criminal Profiling - by Maichael Padbury - Helium. Retrieved 2010 йил 10-July from Helium: Politics, News, & Issues: US Law & Justice: http://www.helium.com/items/208159-the-history-of-criminal-profiling
This article gives some examples of crimes and how they were solved using a psychology technique along with how criminal profiling is used to solve crimes and how the profilers know how to slim down the suspects. In the first case, there was a man that planted bombs in multiple places each time writing a note in block letters- signing it F.P. The first bomb was found in 1940, in 1954 he struck four times, and in 1955 five times. In
Laurence Miller, PhD is a clinical and forensic psychologist and law enforcement educator based in Florida, specialising in the field of criminal profiling. The principal motive of the article is to present a categorisation of the different paths to becoming a serial killer or violent offender. It also looks into the brain mechanisms and abnormalities that allegedly trigger violence, but also the sociocultural, psychodynamic and cognitive elements that aid the development of a serial killer.
In the 1960’s, people actually believed that psychology was simple minded and unnecessary, so, becoming a criminal profiler back in the day definitely involved difficulties. Little did Teten and Mullany know that they would change the was law informants works forever. (Susssex Publishers, 1991-2016). Although criminal profiling was not utilized until the 19th century by Dr. Thomas Bond. He wrote a description on the legendary “Jack The Ripper” describing how he may act or look. Even after all of the work he done he or anyone else to this day has been able to find out who Jack the Ripper was.
Offender Profiling: A Theoretical Review of the Processes Involved in Deriving Background Characteristics from Crime Scene Actions. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/1101296/The_Personality_Paradox_in_Offender_Profiling
Beres, D.B Killer at Larger: criminal profilers and the cases they solve!. New York: F. Watts, 2007. Print.
Bartol, Curt R., and Anne M. Bartol. Current Perspectives in Forensic Psychology and Criminal Behavior. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2008. Print.
The social need for Forensic Psychology arose from the need for expert testimony in a court of law. After Stern’s discoveries, psychologists began appearing more and more often in courts (Tartakovsky, 2011).
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
McGrath, Michael G. "Criminal Profiling: Is There a Role for the Forensic Psychiatrist?." Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 28. (2000): 315-324. Web. 13 Apr 2011.
Greenfield, D. (2007). Introduction to forensic psychology. issues and controversies in crime and justice. Journal of Psychiatry & Law, 35(2), 201-201-204,105-106.
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
Criminal Psychology has been referred to as many things, including Sociology and Criminology. The goal of criminal profiling is to be able to look at the crime scene, the victim, and statistics from previous related crimes to make conclusions about traits the suspect may have. Some aspects of criminal profiling are largely scientific and directly relate to psychological practices and facts. Other facets of profiling are based on common knowledge and the ability to relate to what someone else may be thinking or feeling. Criminal Psychology or Psychology in general, for that matter; is not an exact science. Contrary to popular belief or portrayal in pop culture, criminal profilers are not psychic and do not have super...
The three eras that have characterized the field of criminology over the past 100 years are the “Golden Age of Research,” the “Golden Age of Theory,” and an unnamed era that was “’characterized by extensive theory testing of the dominant theories, using largely empirical methods’” (28). The “Golden Age of Research” era spanned from 1900 to 1930 according to John H. Laub. This era is identified as focusing heavily on the collection of data surrounding crime and the criminal. This data was assessed without “any particular ideational framework” (28). The second era, the “Golden Age of Theory,” spanned from 1930 to 1960, also according to Laub. This era is also rather self-explanatory, it is described by the development of theories; however, Laub
The process of inferring the personality characteristics of individuals responsible for committing criminal acts has commonly been referred to as criminal profiling. (Turvey) Criminal profiling can also be referred to as, behavioral profiling because when a profiler creates a profile they refer to the behavior of the offender. The general term criminal profiling can also be referred to as crime scene profiling, criminal personality profiling, offender profiling, psychological profiling and criminal investigative analysis. All the terms listed above are used inconsistently and interchangeably. Modern criminal profiling is owing to a diverse history grounded in the study of criminal behavior (criminology), the study of mental illness (psychology and psychiatry), and the examination of physical evidence (the forensic sciences). (Turvey) There are four very important elements that contribute to the making of a criminal profile. These elements are victimology, wound pattern analysis, crime scene characteristics and criminology. Victimology is the study of victims. The profilers ask themselves questions such as, “Why this person?” and “Was the victim related to their killer or attacker?” Wound pattern analysis is the study of the way the wounds on the victim were made. Crime scene characteristics help to the making of a profile by showing profilers what exactly went on during the crime. Criminology is the study of the crime, criminals and criminal behaviors.
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