Many people seem to think that criminal profiling and forensic psychology are one in the same. This misperception is easy to understand. Most people get their profiling information from the media. They see shows like Millenium, Profiler, and Cracker that call their stars Forensic Psychologists. Technically these characters are forensic psychologists. But, we must remember that forensic psychology is large discipline that entails all psychological aspects of criminal justice (in which investigation is probobly the smallest portion of the discipline).
What is criminal profiling? Criminal profiling is a process by which an investigator uses psychological and criminological sciences (combined with other forensic specialities) to scientifically analyze a crime scene. From this analysis a behavioral profile of the offending party is created. A criminal profiler looks for "red flags" at the crime scene that are suggestive of certain types of people and personalities. The result is a check list of personality markers that investigators can use to narrow their investigation. These will also include the offenders most likely race, age, looks, etc..
The easiest way to explain this is with an example. I will use the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman as an example. I will make no conclusions on who the murder was. I will just make a very very basic profile (basic because i'm not sufficiently schooled to make an advance on) and comment on some one of the defense theories. The Simpson crime scene was very brutal. Nicole was violently attacked in a rage type killing. Ron Goldman was also attacked violently but not to the extent as Miss Simpson. This suggests that she would be the main target (or primary victim of the rage) while Goldman may have been just a victim of circumstance that had to be dealt with. The fact that her murder was so full of rage suggests that the murder not only knew her but was emotionally linked to her. This type of murder is rage induced and very personal. This eliminates the "drug" theory that the defense had suggested. Such a killing would have been quick and clean. Since Mrs. Simpson regularily was involved with members of both white and black races it would be difficult to suggest with any certainty that the offender would be of either race. I would suspect that the offender would be of a similar age to her (this would be related to the likeliness that the two had some sort of relationship). Also I would suspect that since the murder involved such rage and was so personalized that there would be a marked change in the offender's behavior as he would feel extreme guilt at his "uncontrolled" actions.
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