Criminal Profiling Flashcards
What is criminal profiling
The process of using information from the crime and crime scene to create a profile or portrait of the unknown perpetrator.
What is profiling based on?
Part intuition, part experience; getting inside the mind of the killer.
Ex: Jack the Ripper
Dr. Thomas Bond described him as strong and wearing a cloak
Ex: Mad Bomber (George Metetsky)
Dr James Brussell profiled him(sucked)
What is the logic behind profiling models?
Crime scene info → offender type → behavioral/personality characteristics
Describe a disorganized offender
Low intelligence, impulsive, prefers unskilled work, likely harsh childhood
What model introduced the organized/disorganized typology?
FBI Model
What typology did Holmes and Holmes propose?
Visionary, Mission, Hedonistic, Power-Control.
What does a Visionary type killer believe?
Driven by psychotic hallucinations or delusions.
What characterizes a Mission-oriented killer?
Aims to eliminate a particular group.
Describe a Hedonistic killer.
Kills for pleasure, thrill, or gain.
What motivates Power-Control killers?
Pleasure from domination over helpless victims.
What is the homology assumption?
Offenders with similar crime scenes have similar personalities—unsupported by research.
What is the behavioral consistency assumption?
Offenders act similarly across crimes—generally not supported.
What did Canter et al. (2004) find about organized/disorganized typology?
Only a subset of organized features were common; disorganized features were rare.
What did Mokros & Alison (2002) find about rapists?
Similar offending behavior didn’t mean similar demographics.
What did Pinizotto & Finkel (1990) study?
Compared accuracy of profilers, detectives, psychologists, and students on homicide and sex offender cases.
Name several criticisms of profiling.
Untested ideas, low-quality data, biased samples, ambiguous predictions, Forer effect.
What is geographical profiling?
Using crime locations to predict the likely home base of an offender.
What are the limitations of geographical profiling?
Difficulty distinguishing between multiple offenders; simple rules may perform as well as complex models.
What are potential solutions for improving profiling?
More realistic predictions, data-driven approaches, machine learning, statistical models.
What is SPOT and what were its effects?
A statistical method applied to burglary cases; led to triple the arrest rate in trained agencies.
Do courts accept profiling as evidence?
Generally no—courts reject testimony based on general profiles.
