2007-11-01 17:29:05 · 4 answers · asked by MYthoughts 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
It doesn't seem very helpful to me. Almost all the profiles I've seen are basically the same. Usually a 30-40 year old white man, lives alone, has trouble with women. In the case of the DC sniper, that profile let the two black killers go free for several weeks. They were actually stopped at a couple road blocks and let past, because they "did not match the profile."
2007-11-01 17:39:37 · answer #1 · answered by A Plague on your houses 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It can be very effective if used correctly and together with other things. Psychological profiling is the result of a massive amount of information being analyzed in order to find things that most or all have in common, and then when you have that in a new crime, you have some idea of the psychological profile of who you are looking for
To use handwriting as an example, massive amounts of handwriting was analyzed and it was found that the way the writing is slanted, the size of the letters and how they are formed can give you a means of judging a person who has the same slant in handwriting, the same size letters, and who writes the letters in the same way. In psychological profiling they can use events in a person's life, how they were in school and other things to tell what to look for in a suspect's life to either exmine them further or eliminate them as a suspect.
I will give you a link for a handwriting site and you can look yourself to see how accurate that can be.
2007-11-01 18:01:19 · answer #2 · answered by Al B 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is a way of getting a psychological profile of potential suspects by identifying behavioral characteristics. Check out any of the many books by former FBI profiler John Douglas and for interesting movie check out Murder by Numbers with Sandra Bullock.
Profiles can give police a good idea where to start looking. For example, based on the evidence, is it likely that killer knew the victim? If the profiler determines this it can give the police a good idea where to start looking. However, a profile by itself isn't going to be sufficient to determine anyone's guilt or innocence.
2007-11-01 17:37:07 · answer #3 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
very good
2007-11-01 17:36:41 · answer #4 · answered by Luís Santos 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋