Criminal Profiling - Assignment Example

Criminal Profiling al Affiliation: Criminal profiling Criminal profiling originates from the term criminal profile. Acriminal profile refers to any attempts to come up with information about a certain suspect (Kocsis, 2007). The information in a criminal profile includes details on biographical sketches on trends, tendencies, and behavioral patterns. The person who is responsible for examining evidence in any crime scene in order to develop a criminal profile is called a criminal profiler. They are the main party in criminal profiling, and their main aim is construction of accurate descriptions of the perpetrator.

Criminal profiling is the process through which the psychological profile of an offender is developed based on the manifest found on the crime scene (Kocsis, 2007). It provides a psychological sketch of the offender that helps trace offenders, psychopaths and serial killers (Petherick, 2013).The main purpose of criminal profiling is identification of personality and behavioral characteristics of crime committers based on the crime committed. Criminal profiling offers a clear insight of the offender on social and psychological details such as age, race, marital status, and demographic profile.

It allows the crime expert to evaluate psychologically the belongings found on the suspect. Criminal profiling offers suggestions on other stages of criminal investigation such as predicting the best strategy for interviewing a suspect. Criminal profiling offers simplified assumptions and eliminates false stereotypes. It enables crime experts to deal with recurring mysteries by summing up characteristics of a certain specific suspect.Inductive profiling refers to the process of profiling a criminal behavior based on emotions and behaviors of other criminals who have committed similar crimes (Turvey, 2011).

The reasoning in this form of profiling is based on statistical data of a specific criminal behavior. Inductive profiling assumes that all criminal committing a similar crime have similar motives. The main sources of information for this form of profiling are media information, practical experiences and studies on known criminals. It is advantageous since it can be done in a short period of time and does not require specialized forensic knowledge (Davis, 2007). However, it is subject to mistakes due to many assumptions that may not be necessarily accurate.

Deductive profiling refers to the development of criminal profiles based on evidence on the crime scene (Turvey, 2011). The evidence may be in the form of scene photos, study of victims, corpse examination and analysis of tangible evidence. This form of profiling does not consider any information based on similar past crimes. This form of profiling is very accurate and forms the basis for the establishment of modus operandi and criminal signatures. It is disadvantageous since it requires a lot of time and demands the services of experts in criminology.

The two forms of profiling work together in providing information on forensic and criminal investigations.Signature behavior refers to the characteristics of the offender that serves their emotional and psychological needs (Petherick, 2013). Signature behavior can also be defined as the behavioral reasons that prompt a criminal to complete a crime successfully. There are many variables that constitute signature behavior, and they are narrowed down by the use of deductive profiling strategies.

Signature behaviors are the fantasies of the offender that add up to the thoughts of committing a certain form of crime (Petherick, 2013). Signature behavior is the personality of a person, their lifestyle, and their development which leads to commitment of a crime.ReferencesDavis, B. J. (2007). Criminal profiling. Milwaukee, WI: World Almanac Library.Kocsis, R. N. (2007). Criminal profiling: International theory, research and practice. Totowa, N.J: Humana.Petherick, W. (2013). Profiling and serial crime: Theoretical and practical issues.

Burlington: Elsevier Science.Turvey, B. E. (2011). Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis. Burlington: Elsevier Science.