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Criminal Profiling In Fiction

© Michael Decaire

The past few years have shown a increased media fascination with criminal profiling and profilers. In big media murder cases it is not uncommon to see a profiler being interviewed in regards to the personality characteristics of the offender. It is unlikely that the media just decided that this is a interesting area of the investigation to pursue (considering some of these actual cases may not have involved profilers at all other then those the media has consulted). Rather, the success of fictional stories of criminal profiling have intrigued both the media and the viewing public.

The main example of criminal profiling in mainstream entertainment is the behavioral science unit (BSU) in the highly successful movie Silence of the Lambs. In the film Jodie Foster is the protégé of Jack Crawford (the head of the BSU) who by the authors own admittance is modeled after the former FBI profiler John E. Douglas. While this movie actually features very little profiling, it is the most commonly brought up example of profiling in fiction. In fact the majority of those students who correspond with me regarding profiling claim this film was what intrigued them with the discipline.

However, Silence of the Lambs is by far not the first fictional example of criminal profiling. The first example of criminal profiling in fact actually predates the discipline. The technique was an an investigative tool used by C. August Dupin, Edgar Allan Poe's investigator in The Murders of the Rue Morgue. Poe also used a proactive technique (a method often used to bring the criminal out of hiding) similar to those employed by modern day law enforcement. My readers may find it interesting to note that this first example of profiling is currently being adapted into a telefilm by the Arts and Entertainment network in the United States. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes also can be seen using many techniques similar to criminal profiling. He is perhaps one of fiction's most abundant and best examples of criminal profiling. Sherlock Holmes was the ideal forensic investigator. The only problem is Holmes just seems to know too much seemingly useless information. A characteristic of Doyle's work that I always found left it a tad unrealistic.

The first profiling TV show was produced several years ago in the united kingdom. Cracker (which resulted in a short lived american production regarding the same story line) was critically acclaimed and received many awards and high viewership. Stateside three forensic psychology shows appeared around the same time. Profiler, Millennium, and Moloney all appeared on separate networks. While Moloney dealt with the other side of police psychology, both Profiler and Millennium where very profile oriented. While Millennium has taken a serious sway away from the profiler story line in favor of the supernatural, Profiler has remained very true to the discipline. While it seems to have a great deal of the profiling techniques down pat, Profiler's primary error is that there main profiler is a forensic psychologist. While many profilers are forensic psychologists this is not typically true of the FBI profilers who are traditionally just trained special agents. However, a second character on the show, the special agent in charge Bailey, was also a profiler in the show's history and unlike the shows main character was not a psychologist.