A Criminal Profiling Code of Ethics - Coursework Example

As a component of the criminal exploratory procedure, profiling offers depth into crime scene examinations; the mannerism of a criminal is reflective of ones fundamental psychological process. In most instances, the outward show of a scene where a crime has been committed can also disclose vital information concerning the perpetrator's fundamental sociopathy, psychopathy, enduring personality or psychopathology. Profiling is also valuable when trying to find slight commonalities in successive crimes.

It has not grown as a tool for identifying a criminal in a case; to a certain extent, it has developed as a way of providing depth to an entire investigation. Profiling assists in undertaking psychological assessments in cases of ambivalent death. In many instances, a profile can help investigators in creating the probability that the death was a consequence of suicidal, natural, homicidal or accidental origin. Profiling can propose new possibilities of investigation, hold up the working hypotheses of criminal investigating officers, develop a structure for cross-examination after suspect arrest, and aid the prosecution or defense in developing a case presentation strategy in the courtroom (R.

Holmes, 2009; S. Holmes, 2009). There are a noteworthy number of ethical concerns raised by the need for profiling professionalization. There is no precise training or educational qualifications for one to be labeled a profiler. The absence of training or educational requirements also implies that there are no basic standards for the determination of proficiency; the need for competency standards promotes the failure to either sanction or discipline profiling practitioners who are incompetent or irresponsible.

There is no juried structure for practice quantification, there is no conformity as to what the procedure of designing a profile involves, or what a profile should include, and there is no universally acceptable methodology for conducting the process of profiling. This means there is no scientific foundation on which profiling stands, as it cannot undergo analysis and its procedure cannot, as a result, be replicable. On the side of profiling practice, there are many ethical issues connected with the employing of psychological and personality theories as a way of influencing criminal investigation results.

Profiling has been depicted by the press as a heroic or romantic occupation, probably ensuing in an inexact view of the role and life of a profiler. Consequently, the field might draw people who are less capable to proficient practice. When not convincingly done, profiling can lead to severe harm or inflict delays in the real resolution of a case by proposing wrong investigation directions. The hunt of suspects who fall in a typology proposed by the profiler which is extremely diverse than that of the real person responsible could also give rise to the arrest or implication of guiltless parties.

Lastly, there are no officially acceptable ethical principles for the profiling practice (R. Holmes, 2009; S. Holmes, 2009). Relevance of Victimology to Criminal Profiling Victimology is extremely relevant in criminal profiling because it examines victims as involved in an asymmetric situation or relationship.  "Asymmetry" implies whatever event that is exploitative, unbalanced, alienating, parasitical, destructive, oppressive, or having inbuilt suffering. For instance, vacationers got lost on one of the nation’s main freeway.

Most of their dead bodies were later on found in the National Forest, in varying conditions of decomposition. Some made their trips as couples, others unaccompanied. They were both females and males, aged around 20 to 25. They were