Psychological concepts and applications week eight

Criminal profiling is a technique popularized by television and film in shows like "Criminal Minds" and "Hannibal." In shows and films like these, the profiler often appears to have an almost magical ability to identify specific traits, motives, and physical features in their potential suspects. Some take it as far as creating a profiler that is able to identify the very thoughts and actions of a perpetrator during a murder. In reality, criminal profiling tends to be far less spectacular, involving the analysis of various crime scene, environmental, and psychological factors to help investigators create a narrower pool of suspects to investigate. Furthermore, much controversy has been attached to this technique, since the main critique against it is there is a marked lack of validity to support it (LaMance, 2011). Nevertheless, the technique includes both advantages and disadvantages, which may account for its increasing popularity among investigators today.

According to LaMance (2011), criminal profiling is generally used in cases that include similar repeat offenses. The repeated elements of the crime then provide clues for the profiling process and identifying the type of suspect to search for. Famously, the first profiling was done in an attempt to identify notorious British serial killer Jack the Ripper.

There are four stages to the criminal profiling process, which include pre-offense behavior, method, concealment of evidence, and post-offense conduct. These stages were created to ensure as thorough as possible an investigation process. The importance of these stages provides a sense of consistency and inherent validity in the process.

These four stages are supplemented with specific traits being investigated, including the suspects probable age, gender, race, psychology, culture, religion, and intelligence level, or I.Q. Along with the four stages, these traits offer a consistent basis for profiling and identifying a limited pool of suspects, which lends validity to the technique.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that profiling is an extremely thorough and in-depth process, several criticisms have been raised against it in terms of validity. One significant drawback of criminal profiling is the wide variation of results among profilers. Factors that affect this variation includes the difference in investigative background among profilers, which necessarily influences the profiling being done. The prove inconsistency among profiler results demonstrates a basic lack of validity (Young, 2006, p. 22).

Godwin (2002, p. 8) also notes that profiling serial murders generally lack a rigorous examination of existing data and contributing factors beyond case reports. In other words, the type and amount of data are insufficient to truly create an accurate profile of a serial murderer in any more than accidental terms.

Despite these drawbacks, there are also significant advantages to the criminal profiling process, one of which is the identification of signature behavior (Young, 2006). Such a typology can help investigators link apparently unrelated crimes by increasing the depth of the investigation. In turn, this will also result in greater ability among investigators to identify and arrest criminals.