by Tracy Bradford

Created on: August 07, 2011

Criminal profiling

There are many interpretations of what criminal profiling is.  Most of the common definitions focus on art rather than a science.  Many books have explored this and many authors have indicated that to truly understand profiling, one must step inside the mind of the criminal.  More aptly put by John Douglas & Mark Olshaker (1995, p. 12),  “Put yourself in the position of the hunter.” 

There are many interpretations of criminal profiling but in this paper, focus will be placed on specific areas and practices.  Each of the models includes important views and will allow the reader to decide which model(s) are most appropriate or rather which model the reader agrees with. 

Overall profiling is an “educated attempt to provide investigative agencies with specific information as to the type of individual who committed the crime” (Holmes & Holmes, 2009, p. 4).

Inductive profiling

According to Holmes & Holmes (2009) the inductive type of criminal profiling finds its logic in the “assumption that if certain crimes committed by different people are similar, then the offenders must also share some type of common personality traits” (2009, p. 7).  The data collected with this approach emanates from prior crimes, offenders with known history, and especially from the newspapers, television, and other media outlets (2009).

Inductive criminal profiling appears to be a quick fix and is said to be less expensive.  Additionally, “there is no need to blend the academic disciplines of sociology, psychology, criminology, and psychiatry” (2009, p. 7).  No exceptional skills are required on the part of a profiler with this particular approach and no formalized knowledge of basic human behavior is essential (2009).

According to Hicks & Sales (2006), inductive profiling is something of a comparative process that relies on subjective knowledge.  The inductive model employs generality in a very large sense (2006).  Furthermore, assumption is the foundation for this particular model. 

An excellent example was presented by Hicks & Sales (2006).  A scenario of a female rape victim was presented in which an assumption was made that most rapists will assault and perpetrate on individuals of his own race as well as the assumption that most rapists do not have history of military services (2006).  The conclusion was that the victim was

• 1
• 2
• 3
• ...
• 10
• Next Page >>