What Is Forensic Profiling?

Use of varied databases is highly common in forensic profiling.

Forensic profiling is the act of accumulating evidence of a crime from a wide variety of materials. These items, or "traces," may at first glance seem insignificant. Yet, when they are carefully examined and processed, these traces may allow investigators to reconstruct or anticipate a criminal event.

Differences from Other Profiling Techniques

Most often, people might associate profiling with with the concept of "offender profiling." This is the collection of data aimed specifically at profiling and thus identifying the perpetrator of a crime. Forensic profiling involves a broader aim, and materials are collected to narrow down a wider range of criminal components. This may include profiling narcotics to determine if they are from a similar source.

Data Collection

Forensic profiling often uses ever-expanding databases. These databases serve as compilation tools as well as sources of investigation in their own right. In some contexts, cross-referencing from more than one database is used to determine if someone seems prone to future criminality or suggests a need for surveillance. Thus forensic profiling is concerned just as much, if not more, with crimes that have not yet occurred as they are with those already committed.

Privacy Issues

As this form of profiling depends upon identity information, it may end up using private information that was not collected originally for investigative purposes but is now in the database nonetheless. This speaks to considerable controversy as to an individual's right to privacy and the intention of investigators who collect it or gain access to private information.

References

• "FIDIS:" Forensic Profiling