Criminal Profiling Research Paper

Why would anyone who is not a criminal want to think like a criminal? Television shows like Law and Order: Criminal Intent, CSI, and Criminal Minds have brought criminal profiling to the attention of the general public while they have painted a somewhat unrealistic picture of the job of a criminal profiler (Huet). What, then, is criminal profiling? Also known as criminal investigative analysis or offender profiling, it is an investigative tool in which psychological evaluations are used to predict the behavior patterns, character traits, and other aspects of the personality of criminal suspects, based partially on studying clues found at the scene of the crime. Profiling usually pertains to serial crimes such as rape and murder (“Creating a Criminal Profile”). There are many different aspects to crime-solving through psychological profiling which has evolved and changed in multiple ways since its inception, and in recent years, profiling has become a primary resource for law enforcement

Howard Teten, who started out as a police officer and later taught courses in criminology, presented his first behavioral analysis in Amarillo, Texas, in 1970. In 1973, Teten partnered with Patrick Mullany, an abnormal psychology expert, to profile the suspect in an abduction case in Montana which involved the kidnapping and murder of seven year old Susan Jaeger, who disappeared from a Rocky Mountain campground. Teten and Mullany believed that the murderer was a young white male who mutilated the bodies of his victims and probably kept body parts as souvenirs. David Meirhofer was arrested and later confessed to the Jaeger murder and several others. He was the first serial offender to be captured solely on the basis of a criminal profile (“Biographies of Criminal