What Is Criminal Profiling?
Criminal profiling is the process of analyzing a crime scene to infer personality characteristics and demographic information about the perpetrator. This information is then used to identify possible suspects.
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Analyzing the Crime
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Criminal profiling analyzes the manner in which the crime was committed. The profiler carefully examines all aspects of the crime, such as victim characteristics, wound patterns, weapon use, crime scene characteristics, level of criminal sophistication and criminal motivation.
The Profile
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The profiler tries to estimate the perpetrator's age range, race, living situation, employment status, education level, possible psychiatric disorders and psychological traits.
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Crimes That May Use Profiling
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Contrary to popular belief, a crime doesn't have to be serial to benefit from profiling. A criminal profile can be developed from a single crime scene. Profiling techniques may be applied to crimes such as murder, serial rape, serial bombing, arson and kidnapping.
Profiler Backgrounds
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Criminal profilers may come from a variety of academic backgrounds, such as criminology, forensic science, behavioral science, law enforcement, psychology and psychiatry.
Profiling Accuracy
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The accuracy of a criminal profile is highly dependent on the skill of the profiler, which in turn is largely based on experience.
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