Essay Questions
3. What is offender profiling and how well does it work?
Key Points:
- Point out that offender profiling is a hotly debated topic and that techniques are likely to become more sophisticated.
- Identify Wrightsman’s (2001) differences between profiling.
- Consider Turvey’s (2000) distinction between inductive/clinical methods and deductive/statistical methods.
- Discuss attempts to construct psychological profiles of historical figures.
- Profiling criminals from the crime scene, including the role of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
- Identify the distinction within the FBI framework between ‘organized’ and ‘disorganized’ offenders.
- Consider the method of profiling common characteristics of known offenders – looking to empirical data, rather than an expert’s opinion, to construct profiles.
