Criminal Profiling - Assignment Example

Criminal Profiling Introduction Criminal profiling is a process that is used by the law enforcing agencies to identify those who have committed a crime or offended the law. Profiling does not give the real identity of the individual who is the offender. In criminal profiling, the individual who might have committed the crime is identified through the observation of certain characteristics and personalities that are exhibited by the suspected offender. Profiling processes are of different nature and depend on the nature of crime committed.

For example, for spoken threats and written threats without the identity of a particular individual, psycholinguistics techniques can be used. Through this, the most commonly used phrases and words by an individual can be used to identify the common words or phrases that he or she uses in real life. Through this, the criminal investigation department can determine the number of letters that are written by the same individual (Turvey, 2012).My opinion on criminal profiling I tend to disagree with the idea of criminal profiling to a great extent.

This is because, in most cases, the offender of the law can be mistaken for crime that he or she has not committed through some character traits or personality attributes. Some characteristics or personalities that some individual may exhibit may be very closely related to that of another individual while he or she is taken to be a defaulter of law and forced to answer to the charges that he or she may not have committed. I would suggest that the police or the security agency have evidence of a crime committed by an individual other than use criminal profiling in the identification of a criminal.

Advantages and disadvantages of criminal profiling One of the advantages of criminal profiling is that it always provides a lead for security intelligence individuals who are investigating the crime, hence, easier work. Through profiling, the offender of the law gives the investigators an easier time of knowing how to approach the criminal. Criminal profiling also provides the investigators with psychological significance of the case. With the involvement of the public, the identifying a criminal can also be made easier.

This can be evidenced through most of the successful criminal profiling to have involved the public (Stefoff, 2010). The disadvantage of criminal profiling is the ambiguity of the language used. This can be seen through the study carried out by Alison, a psychologist who came to a conclusion that most of the descriptions are never clear and can result into multiple interpretations, therefore, invalidating criminal profiling. With the notion that most of the criminal profiling agencies assume that the behavior of criminals is always consistent, the behavior may change to one that is not actually being looked for by the police (Stefoff, 2010).

Question 2 I believe that psychopathic tendencies in children can never be identified through the use of science. This is attributed to the fact that most children grow up developing some characters that had not been part of them earlier. It is thus evident that some of the psychopathic behaviors develop as a child grows up. It is also difficult to identify specific traits that science would encourage and use for the identification a psychopath. The children found in psychopathic situations should not be given drugs but the government should take preventive measures.

This can be through establishing more juvenile courts where rehabilitation centers for psychopathic children are provided. Establishing more juvenile courts and rehabilitation centers for children can help monitor and get them out of their psychopathic situation (Bartol & Bartol, 2012). In the case that psychopathic behavior is considered as an illness, it is not justifiable that individuals are held responsible for criminal behavior. Just like other illnesses, an individual may not have control over the situation he or she finds herself or himself in.

Criminal behavior is only justifiable in the event that an individual carries out an act that he or she knows is against the law. In the case that an individual is ill, in most situations, he or she may never be aware of the crime that is being committed (Berger & Berger, 2008).ReferenceBartol, C. R., & Bartol, A. M. (2012). Current perspectives in forensic psychology and criminal behavior. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE. Berger, L. A., & Berger, D. R. (2008). The compensation handbook: A state-of-the-art guide to compensation strategy and design.

New York: McGraw-Hill. Turvey, B. E. (2012). Criminal profiling: An introduction to behavioral evidence analysis. Amsterdam: Academic Press. Stefoff, R. (2010). Criminal profiling. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark.