Criminal Profiling

When individuals think of criminal profiling they often immediately jump to what is seen on the television – shows like Criminal Minds or movies like Silence of the Lambs are inaccurate portrayals of what psychologists do to help law enforcement with a crime. Often, the criminal profiling is actually done by agents who work in law enforcement. While some psychologists or psychiatrists do conduct profiling, many do not because they question the validity of this practice.
Research done in on the topic did show some inconsistencies in profiling. When professional profilers were compared to regular clinical psychologists, detectives with no training, and students with no training, there were varied results. When looking at a case dealing with

Some courts allow it if it goes by a different name (i.e. motivational analysis vs criminal profiling) because it was more generally accepted practice. The key words there being “generally accepted” – in states that depend on the Frye test then this practice may be used, but courts that rely on the Daubert rule may not allow it. The Daubert rule means that there is a falsifiable theory that was researched, peer reviewed, holds a known error rate, and is viewed as generally accepted in the

It was also found that a decent number of participants considered themselves knowledgeable and trained on the topic, but only 10% had ever created a profile and testified in court. Less than half of the professionals interviewed felt that profiling/criminal investigative analysis had enough validity to be used in court. The participants with the profiling wording rated the topic as less valid than those with the criminal investigative analysis wording. Although it was not viewed as being very valid the participants did see it as a good tool for law enforcement. There were some limitations in this study. The limited number of participants causes a lack of generalizability. The definition used was a general description – a different definition or title may have led to different