'Criminal profiles are only one tool in LE's arsenal, but serves many purposes; from narrowing a suspect down to throughout the prosecution'. Imo, this is a very interesting read:
http://law.wustl.edu/journal/54/Ingram_.pdf
IF THE PROFILE FITS:
II. CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILING
Criminal psychological profiling has its initial roots in Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle’s and Agatha Christie’s crime novels.18 The detective
characters in those novels would pay close attention to crime scene
details and then would formulate a profile of the type of person most
likely to commit the crime.
Police detectives began to mimic their
fictitious counterparts in these novels by occasionally seeking
psychologists’ impressions after observing crime scene evidence of a
perpetrator’s personality. This procedure proved helpful in Criminal
Personality Profiling in the Investigation of Violent Crime: Recent Advances and Future
Directions, 10 BEHAV. SCI. & L. 475, 475 (1992).
apprehending criminals and, with profiling’s increased popularity, the
FBI’s Quantico, Virginia training facility began looking into different
profiling techniques.
After years of researching the criminal mind
and borrowing from the fields of psychology and sociology, criminal
psychological profiling became an important part of the FBI’s
investigations into serial and sexual offenses.
* The first modern case involving a criminal psychological profile (though not termed as
such) was the “Mad Bomber” case in the 1950s.
24. See John E. Douglas et al., Criminal Profiling from Crime Scene Analysis, 4 BEHAV.
SCI & L. 401, 402 (1986).
25. Profiles assist with the prosecution of offenders in ways other than admitting the actual
profile into evidence. For example, profiles have been used in several cases to establish probable cause to search a residence. Investigators have also used profiles to elicit
confessions from suspected offenders.
See JOHN E. DOUGLAS ET AL., CRIME CLASSIFICATION
MANUAL: A STANDARD SYSTEM FOR INVESTIGATING AND CLASSIFYING VIOLENT CRIMES 306-
08 (1992). Along with the typical contents of a profile, investigators will also include suggestions of how to interview an apprehended offender. See id. For example, an officer who has the criminal psychological profile of a person he is interviewing will know certain personality traits of the offender that can be exploited to secure a confession.
CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILES 243
assessment of the offender, (2) the evaluation of belongings found in
the suspected offender’s possession, and (3) suggesting strategies for
interviewing the suspected offender upon apprehension.26 Although
criminal psychological profiling is helpful with the investigation,
apprehension, and prosecution of an offender, only certain types of
offenses lend themselves to profiling.27 Such offenses include
“motiveless” murder,28 rape and sexual assault, and arson.
Profiles assist in the investigations of these crimes because offenses of these
types tend to reveal something about the offender’s personality and behavior.
John Douglas has set forth the qualifications of a typical profiler.
He indicates that most profilers have a background in
psychology and organized criminology.
In addition, the profiler is an organized thinker, has field experience in criminal investigation, and exhibits the ability to make judgments based on instinct.
read more - much more..
