Deductive and inductive criminal profiling - Coursework Example

Deductive and Inductive Criminal Profiling Police departments utilize offender profiles, which is described as a series of personal and behavioral characteristics related with particular offenses, to make predictions concerning the kind of person that may commit crimes in the future. Other reasons offender profiles may be used are to identify the type of person that might have already perpetrated a crime for where the police have not identified a credible suspect yet not found an eye-witness to the incident.

The term criminal profiling advances to racial profiling when the defining distinctiveness used involves race, religion or ethnicity. Profiling methodologies differ mainly because all profilers are not trained uniformly and they have varying abilities. Basically, there are two kinds of profiling. Each describes different methodologies to this field of study. Inductive Criminal Profiling is hypothetically associated with the formation of a psychological model of symptoms and the ensuing evidence of symptoms.

This method essentially entails racial generalizations based on statistics. Deductive Criminal Profiling is the less common technique of profiling. It can be thought of as, very broadly speaking, the Sherlock Holmes process where the profiler retains an open mind and examines all ideas, opinions and assumptions put forth regardless of how prominent the supplier of the information might be. Decisions concerning which person to stop, question and detain based on characteristic generalizations that are either perceived or observable such as race is founded on the inductive profiling method.

However, “even when generalizations are statistically legitimate, they can be very erroneous in particular cases.” (Turvey, 1998). If law enforcement agencies implement the inductive profiling method, it serves to mislead the investigative process and adds the factor of pseudo-credibility to the method. This technique falsely accomplishes the purpose for which it was intended. In addition, the inductive practice of accepting statistics alone and the consequential analysis cannot be equated, credibility-wise, to a systematical reconstruction of the crime scene.

This method is not considered reliable either in an investigation or any court. It allows for a better possibility that police agencies will be held legally responsible because of a flawed methodology. It also increases the odds for the acquittal of a guilty person because this less than credible evidence is typically deemed inadmissible in court (Geberth, 1995). Deductive Criminal Profiling stresses an informed reconstruction of forensic evidence and dismisses information regarding offenders of comparable motivations and characteristics.

Deductive Profiling deduces its findings from vigilantly examining forensic data and individual behavior as well as reconstructing the crime scene. Due to the fact that the deductive method of profiling demands an essential knowledgeable understanding so as to put into practice, this method has a tendency to be of superior value and a much more precise predictor than does the inductive method. Deductive Criminal Profiling significantly assists law enforcement agencies in their pursuit to appropriately utilize the method of profiling offenders.

“The method of operation is a dynamic, learned behavior, changing over time, as the offender becomes more experienced. It involves only those actions that are necessary to commit the offense” (Geberth, 1995). There are marked advantages that the deductive offender profiling method possesses over the inductive method. For law enforcement administrations, this method diminishes the chance of mistakes therefore lawsuits and embarrassment for the department and themselves. Of course, management must make certain the criminologists within the department that utilize the deductive method are first educated in this specialized field of criminal study.

They must be educated in the forensic sciences, particularly the reconstruction of crime scenes in addition to having knowledge concerning wound patterns. In many cases, police departments are under an a lot of pressure to solve cases, particularly high profile ones. If they rely too greatly on the inductive profiling method, high profile mistakes are most certainly made. References Geberth, Vernon. (1996). Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques. (3rd Ed.). Boca Raton, FA: CRC Press.

Turvey, B. (January 1998). “Deductive Criminal Profiling: Comparing Applied Methodologies Between Inductive and Deductive Criminal Profiling Techniques.” Knowledge Solutions Library. Electronic publication Accessed February 27, 2011 from