PSYCH 3CC3 Lecture 5: Criminal Profiling

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Receives the most media, tv, movie, etc. attention but is the most insignificant part of
what forensic psychologists do.
-
History of Criminal Profiling
Begins in 1841 with a publication by Edgar Allen Poe, "Murders in the Rue Morgue"
Displays French detective solving murders in the Rue Morgue
Shown to do things consistently with how offender profilers work now.
-
Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
"A Study in Scarlet" - 1887
Many films made (e.g., Basil Rathmon, Jeremy Brett, etc.)
-
First real-life profile (1888): Dr. Thomas Bond
Profile of Jack the Ripper
Some of these inferences are just common sense, but some are pretty profound.
-
Purposes of Profiling
Provide offender characteristics.
Everyone agrees on this purpose.
-
1.
Help understand the crime scene.
Helps us understand the crime, how/why things were done.
-
2.
Provide leads for investigators.
What kind of person would've done this? Demographic information?
-
3.
Narrow pool of viable subjects.
4.
Prioritizes investigation of subjects.
5.
Risk of offender escalation?
E.g., "Criminals like this will often start killing at a faster rate."
-
6.
Evaluate suspect possession.
Might help understand the relevance of pieces of possessions.
-
7.
Develop interrogation strategies.
8.
Show links between crimes.
E.g., Jack the Ripper
Even today, people debate how many people Jack the Ripper actually
killed.
§
Agree on 5, but there are 3 other people that may have also been killed by
him.
§
-
9.
Criminal Profiling
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
9:56 AM
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Receives the most media, tv, movie, etc. attention but is the most insignificant part of
what forensic psychologists do.
-
History of Criminal Profiling
Begins in 1841 with a publication by Edgar Allen Poe, "Murders in the Rue Morgue"
Displays French detective solving murders in the Rue Morgue
Shown to do things consistently with how offender profilers work now.
-
Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
"A Study in Scarlet" - 1887
Many films made (e.g., Basil Rathmon, Jeremy Brett, etc.)
-
First real-life profile (1888): Dr. Thomas Bond
Profile of Jack the Ripper
Some of these inferences are just common sense, but some are pretty profound.
-
Purposes of Profiling
Provide offender characteristics.
Everyone agrees on this purpose.
-
1.
Help understand the crime scene.
Helps us understand the crime, how/why things were done.
-
2.
Provide leads for investigators.
What kind of person would've done this? Demographic information?
-
3.
Narrow pool of viable subjects.
4.
Prioritizes investigation of subjects.
5.
Risk of offender escalation?
E.g., "Criminals like this will often start killing at a faster rate."
-
6.
Evaluate suspect possession.
Might help understand the relevance of pieces of possessions.
-
7.
Develop interrogation strategies.
8.
Show links between crimes.
E.g., Jack the Ripper
Even today, people debate how many people Jack the Ripper actually
killed.
§
Agree on 5, but there are 3 other people that may have also been killed by
him.
§
-
9.
Criminal Profiling
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
9:56 AM
Unlock document

This preview shows pages 1-3 of the document.
Unlock all 36 pages and 3 million more documents.

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Agree on 5, but there are 3 other people that may have also been killed by
him.
Supportive trial testimony.
10.
Note: not all profiles agree with ALL of these purposes (usually the first 5 are heavily
agreed upon)
Challenges of Profiling
Turning crime scene info into description of offender.
This is extremely challenging.
-
We don't have a lot of data about the associations between crime scene
information and offender characteristics.
-
It’s the small removals/changes of area at crime scene that need to be
interpreted.
-
1.
Personality tests can't do this.
We have a lot of different instruments (i.e., personality measures) that can give
you a good description of a person's general characteristics, but they can't
describe someone in as much detail as offender profiles try to provide.
-
If years of psychology research on personality cannot do this, you can imagine
how difficult it would be for one person to achieve this.
-
2.
Unscientific - intuition, experience.
"Gut feeling"
-
They cannot tell you how exactly they profile people, how exactly they use
information to develop profiles because they don't even know how they do it.
-
They rely on intuition
-
This is why television programs display profilers as having "psychic" qualities.
-
3.
Not well evaluated - utility unclear.
Criminal profilers don't reveal their methods or profiles to the public.
Especially those done by the FBI
§
-
Consider Criminal Minds - profile is given verbally to the law enforcement, no
documentation released.
-
Accuracy is questioned heavily because of this.
Therefore, the usefulness is also questioned.
§
-
4.
Note: rape, murder and arson are most commonly profiled cases; sometimes high profile
robbery.
Basic Assumptions of Profiling
Behavioural Consistency
Offenders behave similarly across offenses.
-
1.
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