D#6, HW#2

Everyday we turn the TV on, switch the channel to the news and immediately hear about horrifying crimes such as a child being beaten, a string of women being raped, or an entire family being murdered in their home while sleeping. Most times investigators are fortunate enough to get fingerprints or other evidence that tells them who the murderer is, but they aren’t always that lucky. What do they do when there isn’t enough evidence to capture a suspect? Recently they’ve been turning to a new form of technology, criminal profiling.
Criminal profiling has just become a new topic of discussion. Unfortunately, profiling has not been getting the best reviews. After the release of the movie The Silence of the Lambs in 1991 the public now has a skewed view of what profilers really do. They have been portrayed to the public through fictional media as being dark, having the ability to get into the mind of a criminal, and having an almost psychic ability when naming a suspect. Though many believe this highly exaggerated description, it is far from the truth.
Due to this misconception, most have now made it widely known that they feel profilers have no place aiding investigators in unsolved criminal cases. It is felt by many that criminal profilers do not help, but instead tend to divert investigators from processing a true suspect and ultimately leading them on a wild goose chase. The Washington Shooters case in the late 90’s had only reinforced this to the public when an inaccurate profile had been created and then used to identify a suspect. Since then it has been hard for profilers to rebuild a credible status.
Because of recent events people are now asking, “Should Criminal Profilers be used in criminal investigations?” There have been some very bad incidents where a profile has either been inaccurate or misconstrued and has left a dark shadow of doubt on the use of profilers. If only the public was properly informed of what profiling really entails, they would not be as judgmental about the use of profilers.
In order for people to understand how profiling really works research needs to be done on the process of creating a profile, what the information in a profile really means, and how that information really aids investigators. To properly convince people of the credibility of profilers, interviews from a profiler and a department that uses profilers need to be added to help support any information given. It would also be helpful to include examples of cases where a suspect was correctly identified from the use of a profile.
There are certain limitations to obtaining supporting evidence needed due to there being a minimal amount of people to possibly interview. Fortunately, working in a department of law enforcement is beneficial when it comes to contacting someone in a police station. As far as interviewing a profiler, there is no certainty that there will be someone to interview. A majority of the information that will be used to complete the final essay will be from books, online sources, newspaper articles, and hopefully from people within the law enforcement agencies.