This paper discusses criminal personality profiling as a forensic science technique used to generate hypotheses that are vital in apprehending and prosecuting unknown offenders. The first two segments provide a description of the technique and recent advances in criminal personality profiling. The other part discusses the process of criminal personality profiling in terms of the major stages.
Criminal personality profiling has emerged as an important forensic science tool because of the growing need for professionals in the behavioral science sector to help law enforcement personnel in dealing with various crime scenes. The paper discusses this technique in light of its definition and recent advances as a science rather than an art. The discussion demonstrates how various attributes of a crime scene and investigations have led to its development and use in modern criminal justice system. The discussion also includes a brief analysis of the three major stages in the process of criminal personality profiling. These stages are generation of hypotheses to be used as leads for arresting and prosecuting unknown offenders, providing suggestions for interviews, and evaluation of physical evidence.
The modern criminal justice system is characterized by a growing demand for professionals in the behavioral science field to help experts in law enforcement and criminal justice to address weird and unusual cases. The need for such experts is fueled by the presence of several factors and antecedent incidents that are involved in violent crimes. Some of the incidents and factors include intent to commit an offense, plan and kind of criminal, the scene of crime, and the type of victim. In light of these circumstances, criminal personality profiling has emerged as a major way for examining the weird and unusual cases law enforcement personnel deal with when carrying out their work. The use of this process is attributed to the psychological pattern, arrangement, and expression of the criminal when a crime is conducted.
Definition of Criminal Personality Profiling:
Criminal personality profiling is a technique that has been developing progressively as a feasible investigative mechanism since the 1970s. The introduction and development of this technique is attributed to the establishment of the Behavioral Science Unit by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (McCann, 1992, p.475). Since its inception, various terms have been used to describe the mechanism such as criminal profiling, criminal investigative analysis, and psychological profiling. Despite the utilized term, criminal personality profiling is a reflection of an educated initiative to offer law enforcement agencies with comprehensive information regarding individual characteristics of an unidentified person who has committed an offense.
Generally, criminal personality profiling can be described as the process of evaluating various elements of violent crime to generate a series of theories regarding the attributes of an unknown attacker. The main objective of criminal personality profiling is to help in the successful arrest and conviction of the executor. Criminal personality profiling achieves this objective through evaluating and identifying the understated habits, psychological characteristics, and personality differences with criminal activity (Davis, 1999, p.291). The characteristics and variables are usually used to establish personality and behavioral aspects of a criminal who usually conducts violent offenses such as kidnapping and arson. During the process of criminal personality profiling, profilers examine all attributes of a crime scene and then utilize their knowledge of human psychology to generate an outline of the unknown attacker. The generation of a profile of the unidentified perpetrator helps in limiting the list of probable descriptions that the criminal probably matches. According to Turvey (2011), a criminal personality profile is an educated initiative to offer investigative agencies with comprehensive, specific information regarding the probable individual to have committed an offense (p.80).
Advances in Criminal Personality Profiling:
In the past few years, criminal personality profiling has largely been used as a forensic science tool. The use of this technique as a forensic science tool is attributed to evidence suggesting it can achieve greater scientific rigor though it has traditionally been considered as an art rather than science. Moreover, criminal personality profiling is largely a forensic science tool because of the development of new mechanisms of standardizing violent crime classification, stand computerized databases, and qualification of profilers as expert witnesses during trials. Current knowledge regarding this process is derived from years of experience and exposure to crime scenes, offenders, and psychological analyses by competent professionals.
The Process of Criminal Personality Profiling:
The process of criminal personality profiling is generated from its purpose of providing a composite of inferences regarding an unknown attacker to help in increasingly rapid arrest and prosecution. There are three major stages in the process of criminal personality profiling i.e. generating hypotheses, providing recommendations, and evaluating physical evidence. These sages help in ensuring that criminal personality profiling is systematic rather than mere guesswork of a suspect.
The generation of hypotheses that can be used to limit investigative leads involves gathering all investigative information from various sources like crime scene evidence, victim attributes, police reports, crime scene and victim photographs, witness statements, and forensic science information. The data is then assimilated to categorize the type of offense committed and evaluate different risk factors for the victim and perpetrator that may have promoted or limited the commission of the offense (McCann, 1992, p.476). This is followed by reconstructing the offense and creating various hypotheses on different issues such as victim and attacker behavior, crime sequence, probable intentions, and victim selection technique.
Once a crime has been evaluated, a profile is generated that incorporates demographic and physical attributes, personality dynamics of the offender, and behavioral habits. The created profile is then submitted to the investigation team to produce and narrow leads and interview suspects. Notably, the process also involves providing recommendations for interviewing suspects in order to maximize information that may be obtained.
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