Criminal Profiling

Profiling a criminal, also known as criminal investigative analysis, is a behavioral and investigative tool that rests on the assumption that characteristics of an offender can be deduced by a systematic examination of characteristics of the offense. It is mostly used in investigations of serial crimes. Although the role of FBI in developing much of the criminal profiling within the law enforcement community is significant,  psychology has played a key role in adding to what we know about profiling and helping to refine profiling methods.

         The primary goal of criminal profiling is to develop an offender description after examining evidence from crime scenes and reports of witnesses and victims. Personality traits and behavior patterns can be included in the description, as well as race, age, and geographic location. When there is a need to narrow down a field of suspects, criminal profiling can be used. Investigators also use profiling to get an idea how to interrogate a suspect who is already in custody.

Although criminal profiling is still developing, in recent years, many psychologists, criminologists and law enforcement officials have brought more science into it by applying various methods of psychology. Moreover, psychologists have contributed into criminal profiling by using their behavioral expertise.

It should be mentioned that criminal profiling has a long and multifaceted history. It was applied for the first time by George Phillips and Thomas Bond in the 1880s, when they  used clues from crime scene to figure out the personality of British serial murderer Jack the Ripper.

At the same time, criminal profiling has been adopted by American investigators. Until recently, profiling of criminals had an informal character as profilers relied mostly on their own intuition. They usually looked through the cases, listed as many factors as they could, and then added them up to see which were the most common. It was only in 1974, when Behavioral Science Unit was formed by the FBI for serial rape and homicide cases investigation.

     Criminal profiling unit can be credited to the work of Howard Teten and Pat Mullany. Only some years later John Douglas and Robert  Ressler became leaders in Behavioral Sciences Unit (BSU) for the FBI after Teten left in 1978. They were the ones who actually developed the organized method of profiling the criminal still in use today.

In 1979 the BSU agents initiated a serious study in which they entered into correctional facilities and interviewed offenders about their backgrounds, crimes, and victims. Apart from this, they used such official sources of information as police reports, court transcripts, and psychiatric and criminal records. In four years  they managed to collect data which served as the basis for the criminal profiling method they developed and is still in use in many jurisdictions.