Empirical Assessment of Content in Criminal Psychological Profiles

• NCJ Number: 198850
• Journal: International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2003 Pages: 37-46
• Author(s): Richard N. Kocsis
• Date Published: February 2003
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study requested a sample of professional criminal profilers, police officers, psychologists, college students, and self-declared psychics to develop a profile of an offender based on information supplied from a solved murder case, so as to determine the comparative accuracy of various profiling techniques used by these groups.

Abstract

Psychological profiling is the process of integrating information gleaned from the investigation of a crime into a description of the likely offender. Despite the proliferation and apparent acceptance of criminal psychological profiling by law enforcement bodies throughout the world, there is little empirical research that has focused on issues associated with the technique, such as what information should be contained in a profile, how detectives make sense of a profile, or the validity of profiles. The profiles developed in this study were examined and coded with respect to the following dimensions: physical aspects of the offender; nonphysical aspects of the offender; and aspects of the crime and/or the offender's behavior before, during, or after the crime. Consistent with the findings of Pinizzotto and Finkel (1990), professional profilers wrote more lengthy profiles than did any of the other groups. In addition, these longer profiles contained more predictions about the offender. In the provision of nonphysical characteristics of the offender, the profilers surpassed all of the groups. In the generation of crime scene and/or behavior information, the profiles composed by the professional profilers surpassed all of the other groups except the psychologists. The professional profilers produced profiles that were more accurate than those of other groups. Suggestions are offered for future research in this area. 1 table, 24 references, and appended listing of options for various profiling factors