Chapter 3.3/3.4: Criminal Profiling

Question 1

What is criminal profiling?

Answer 1

An investigative technique for identifying the major personality and behavioural characteristics of an individual based on analysis of crimes they’ve committed

Question 2

1) What is inductive profiling?
2) What does it assume?

Answer 2

1) based on other offenders
2) assumes personality traits can be linked with behavioural trends/similarities

Question 3

What is an issue with inductive profiling?

Answer 3

What if crimes are unique?

Question 4

1) What is deductive profiling?
2) what is the goal?

Answer 4

1) based on evidence from that crime
2) predict background characteristics

Question 5

What is an issue with deductive profiling?

Answer 5

Conclusions are based on logic and logic doesn’t = correct
(ex. assumes they must be a guitar player because they had short nails on their left hand BUT they actually had a job repairing tires)

Question 6

What is the “formula” for criminal profiling and what are 2 issues with it?

Answer 6

What + Why (motives) = Who
- too vague
- criminal profiling is an art not a science

Question 7

Profile Construction: FBI Approach

1) What does the organized model suggest?
2) What does it suggest about background and behaviour?

Answer 7

1) Crime is well planned and controlled (ex. use of restraints)
2) Behaviour:
- may suggest intelligence
- maybe they live far away?

Question 8

Profile Construction: FBI Approach

What does the disorganized model suggest about a crime?
What does it suggest about background and behaviour?

Answer 8

Crime is impulsive, chaotic
Behaviour: disturbed (maybe a psychopath?)
- may suggest they live close to the crime?

Question 9

What is an issue with the organized-disorganized model suggested by Canter et. al?

Answer 9

Most offenders are a mix of both and can’t clearly fit one or the other

Question 10

What is the organized-disorganized model used for?

Answer 10

To base a profile off the categories and find characteristics

Question 11

What is a cluster analysis?

(Goodwill et. al)

Answer 11

Grouping offenders based on how they searched, selected, approached, and assaulted their victims

good correlation!

Question 12

What can a cluster analysis tell us about victims?

Answer 12

Who is typically more at risk

Question 13

What is a multiple correspondance analysis (MCA)

Answer 13

statistical technique used to investigate relations between clusters (after cluster analysis)

Question 14

What is the Action Characteristics Equation of investigative psychology?

Answer 14

• use stats to try to find relationships between behaviour and characteristics

crime scene actions > inferences > offender characteristics

Question 15

What are some criticisms of CP?

(5 points)

Answer 15

• lacks theoretical support
• classic trait model debunked (people can change)
• “experts” aren’t any better than university students
• profile could be vague and fit many people
• directionality problem

Question 16

What does the classic trait model suggest about personality and behaviour?

Answer 16

characteristics are stable over time
- behaviour is a pattern

Question 17

Why is CP used?

(4 points)

Answer 17

• provides comfort
• try to cover all bases
• nothing to lose (could possibly direct people in the wrong direction, though)
• some people actually believe it works

Question 18

What is the goal of geographic profiling?

Answer 18

prioritize suspects (from multiple - which one lives closest to the crime scene?)
uses crime scene locations to predict where the suspect lives because they usually don’t move far from home