Criminal Profiling: Applications

A second reason for the lack of criminal profilers within our homicide investigation teams is the lack of scientific verification of the profiling processes. Criminal profiling has for quite some time supported two primary approaches to behavioural analysis, unfortunately the debates among the two have centered around argumentative approaches similar to they methodology debates of psychoanalysis and behavioural therapists experienced in psychologies past (and still somewhat today). The lack of well standardized and experimentally sound investigations of profiling’s reliability and validity have significantly harmed the discipline. Forensic science has continually strived to be a highly valid approach to forensic analysis, and currently profiling has not attempted to reach such levels of scientific support.

Profiling appears to have face validity. Its approaches are based on psychological patterns and principles that have long been accepted within the disciplines knowledge base. The application to real world criminal investigation of such knowledge does not seem inappropriate, just unproven. Such analysis of the validity of such applications could clearly strengthen the approach and equally benefit society. If the promoters of criminal profiling could alleviate the financial and validity barriers of their discipline the every-day applicability of the approach could finally be realized.

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