D#4HW#3 WP#1

Heather Morris
Research Proposal
D#4HW#3

No sooner did Criminal Profilers become known to the public did they become under scrutiney. There have now been questions as to whether profilers are contributors in investigations or just leading investigors farther away from their suspect. Although, it is widely believed that profilers are meant to take evidence and determine the psychological make up as well as physical characteristics of a suspect and be able to tell an investigator who committed the crime, it is far from true. Due to wide misconceptions of what criminal profilers job pretain to, the question that needs to be answered is "How do Criminal Profilers really contribute to criminal investigations?".

I will hopefully be entering this field after completing school and my interests lie strong with this subject. I know most about this field due to my research and the fact that I work alongside many officers who deal with profilers. I believe it is interesting to watch a person take evidence from a crime scene and come up with a generalized profile of a criminals behavior and possible physical characteristics. Media tends to criticize profilers because they feel that the work they produce is all guess work and is not contributing to investigations. However, if researched further a profilers created M.O. does usually give specific physical characteristics as much as it does the behavior of the criminal that can help detectives determine the offenders next move.

My research will focus on informing others on what profilers jobs include when involved in a case and how that helps detectives with their investigators. My audience will be law enforcement agencies who don't know much about profilers as well as the media and others who aren't aware of the contributions made by profilers. The purpose of conducting this research is to inform people who are ignorant to the job descriptions of Criminal Profilers.

My research plan includes using library databases, recent books written on the subject, as well as websites found on the internet including the FBI's behavioral unit site. I also intend on talking to at least one profiler through the Phoenix Police Department to get their opinions on the criticism.

My time line basically includes writing my research proposal on time as well as trying to get all the information needed to do my assignment the week before due in order to have my final paper put together in a decent amount of time to proof read and make any necessary revisions. I will also need to constantly stay on top of my assignments regardless of how hard that may be, because in the long run it will make things much easier for me.