Running head: CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Criminal Justice
Name
Institution

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2
Criminal Justice

The literature on criminal profiling has risen to a considerable volume. It includes not
only a high number of true criminals but also many scholars articles and texts. Courts all over
the world have different interpretations of profiling but all are aimed towards ensuring that all
victims receive justice and the wrongdoers punished. Therefore, inductive and deductive
profiling are some of the segments of profiling and are used according to the nature of a case. In
light of this, the paper discusses the history of profiling, with specific analysis of inductive and
deductive profiling.
History of Profiling
Criminal profiling, is an investigative exercise that was established to provide behavioral
counsel to police investigations. Similarly, people have projected many definitions of what
essentially institutes a profile, and objectives of this advice. Petherick states it is an educated
endeavor to provide investigation organizations with particular information on who is alleged to
have executed a criminal offense (2009). Whereas many variation exists about content and form,
the main aim of a profile is to give the police substantial information of the likely wrongdoer. It
essentially includes demographic variables such as marital status, age, ethnicity, and more
specific considerations of a past of the criminal, and likely residential area.
Inductive Profiling
Induction is where the conclusion of a case is made likely by the supporting premises or
evidence. A strong inductive argument gives solid backing for the conclusion but the argument is
not infallible. For instance United States, crime statistics indicates that ninety percent of
individuals who committed murder in 2002 were men. However, this is not a guarantee to the
conclusion that an unknown wrongdoer for a given case will be male. The following inductive

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profile was provided to a Coroners Court in Australia in 2003 (Petherick, 2009 3rd Edition). In
this regard, the evidence was presented by a state police profile trained under the International
Criminal investigative Fellowship (Peatherick, 2009 2nd edition). When asked on the racial
extraction of the offender, the profiler remarked as follows:
The likely characteristic of the person responsible for are that he would be male and
would be of white European racial extraction. That is based on the victim being white European
and generally these crimes are committed Intra racially and also you have the demographics of
the area which was also predominantly white European (Petherick, 2009 p.27 2nd Edition).
The rationality of such profiling can be broken down as follows:
Premise 1: The victim was a European.
Premise 2: Such crimes are committed Intraracially (p. 28).
Premise 3: The demographics of the place are predominantly European.
Conclusion: The likely individual for responsible is European.
Deductive Profiling
Deductive profiling is where the conclusion is made certain by the supporting premises or
evidence. A scientific paradigm comes up with hypotheses about a case from which trials are
made to falsify opposing hypotheses on the basis of the available physical facts. Principally, the
result is a collection of conclusions that is, on the basis of all available deductive physical
evidence. Nonetheless, the resulting profile is never static, at the availability of new progress in
logic oppose existing hypotheses. Therefore, a deductive profile attempts to ascertain the manner
in which this proof fits the profile (Petherick, 2009, 2nd Edition). It implies that the new
development should change the existing hypothesis. If that is the case, the profile is rationalized
to fit the new paradigm schedule. Contrariwise, it is categorized as a weaker hypothesis but not

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rejected. On the basis of physical evidence, courts reason from the hypothesis that a lawbreaker
is to carefully win a case over the victim that he or she has proven some degree of medical
knowledge.
Premise 1: If a criminal wins a case against a victim, then he or she has shown some degree of
medical know-how.
Premise 2: The victim was not hurt with associated chopping items such a power saw.
The paper is on the history of profiling with specific analysis of inductive and deductive
profiling. It is clear that criminal justice is a controversial process because of the issues dealing
with profiling. In spite of this, courts apply deductive and inductive profiling to determine if the
accused person is actually the wrongdoer.

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References
Petherick, W. (2009). Serial Crime.Theoretical and Practical Issues in Behavioral Profiling. 2nd
Edition London: Elsevier Academic Press.
Petherick, W. (2009). Profiling and Serial Crime. Theoretical and Practical Issues. 3rd Edition.
UK: Anderson Publishing.