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Abby Cox

ENG 1201-OYV

Dr. Cassel

28 October 2021

Literature Review

Crime has been a deep-rooted problem in our world for centuries. The other side of this

issue is the developing techniques for how law enforcement can combat criminal behavior,

especially rape and homicide. One recent solution is criminal profiling, a new method of criminology

in which profilers take forensic evidence and draw conclusions about the possible characteristics of

the offender. How exactly are criminal profiles created and how effective and accurate are they?

Criminal profiling can unofficially be dated back to cases as early as the 1880s with the

infamous Jack the Ripper case (Winerman). In 1940, a serial bomber, later nicknamed “The Mad

Bomber”, began setting off homemade pipe bombs in Manhattan. Sixteen years into the case,

investigators finally turned to psychiatrist James Brussel. Brussel’s response would help to shape

criminal investigations for years to come. He gave investigators a list of possible characteristics and

behaviors of the bomber, stating that he was a paranoid, middle aged, orderly man who was also a

foreigner and a loner. A man named George Metesky was later arrested and charged for the

bombings, and as it turns out, matched Brussel’s descriptions perfectly (Gladwell). The case shed

light on the use of psychology in criminal investigation and profiling would slowly become a common

practice. In 1972, the FBI established the Behavioral Sciences Unit which focused on the

investigation of serial rape and homicide cases (Winerman). It was within this unit that criminal

profiling truly flourished into the well-known and widely-used method it is today. Many researchers

also noted the works of Ressler, Burgess, and Douglas who interviewed thirty-six serial killers in

search of common themes among them (Brookes). More specifically, they were searching for a

homology, an agreement between character and action (Gladwell). If similar crimes were committed

by offenders with similar personalities and behaviors, profilers could easily apply one profile to

crimes of the same composition. What they discovered was that most murders can be classified into
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two categories: organized and disorganized (Brookes). This breakthrough laid the groundwork for

future profilers and techniques. Profiling is constantly evolving and with each case profilers

encounter, more information is unlocked about the connection between an offender and the crimes

they commit.

Classifying offenders as organized and disorganized already reveals a lot of information

about their personality and the ways they commit the crime. Scott Bonn, a criminologist and

best-selling author, mentions in his article, “How the FBI Profiles Serial Offenders” that organized

killers carefully plan the attack, leaving behind little evidence and often disposing of the body or

moving it to a separate location. They are of average or above-average intelligence, attractive,

employed, educated, skilled, orderly, cunning, controlled, and hold some degree of social grace.

Bonn includes thorough details such as these throughout his article to fulfill his purpose, which is to

explain the steps of the profiling process and how profilers uncover information about an offender.

Opposed to this, disorganized killers choose their victims at random, often an unplanned blitz attack.

They use improvised weapons and often leave them behind at the crime scene along with other

evidence. The crime is sloppily executed and on-the-spot, often giving the victim a chance to fight

back. Disorganized killers are unattractive, strange, withdrawn, single, and often have a poor

self-image (Gladwell).

The criminal profile itself is the official report given to local police officers and investigators to

help them narrow down their search and get an idea of who this offender will be. It includes

psychological, physical, mental, and emotional characteristics as well as techniques that would be

most effective in interviewing and interacting with the offender. For example, it may include the age,

sex, race, ethnicity, religion, or marital status of the offender (Trajkovski and Zivotic). The profile is

usually presented verbally by the profilers as law enforcement takes notes, for they will be the ones

actually conducting the investigation (Gladwell). The police department then incorporates the profile

into their own investigative strategies and uses the descriptions to help narrow lists of suspects.

From there, profilers are only needed if any additional murders are committed or new information

comes to light so that they can update the profile (Bonn).

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Profiling is now broken into two major approaches: top down and bottom up, also known as

deductive and inductive. Top down, or deductive, profiling is the FBI approach in which they take the

big picture and slowly fill in details from there. It relies on information from previous solved cases in

order to help make assumptions about those who committed crimes of a similar nature. Profilers

under this approach draw most of their conclusions based on whether the offender they are

searching for demonstrated organized or disorganized behaviors (Brookes). Daniela Trajkovski and

Ilija Zivotic write in their journal article, “Criminal Psychological Profiling of an Unknown Perpetrator”

that using the evidence gathered at the crime scene and other data, profilers can begin to draw

conclusions about the offender's general traits and work to uncover specific characteristics from

there. They use this information to effectively explain the differences between inductive and

deductive profiling to their readers to give an in-depth explanation of what profiling really looks like.

On the other hand, bottom up , or inductive, profiling is the approach most used in Britain

where profilers start with small details and then work up to the big picture. Profilers under this

approach analyze a crime scene for constincies in the offender's behavior during the crime. David

Canter, a profiling expert who pioneered the approach, analyzed a series of crimes and identified

events and behaviors that occured together. From this study he invented typologies in which the way

a person behaves when they commit a crime and the area the crime is committed can reveal

information about that offender (Brookes). By analyzing already solved cases, profilers can compare

the relationship between crime and the offender’s personality to a similar case that is unsolved in

order to make assumptions about the personality of that unknown offender (Trajkovski and Zivotic).

Researchers have begun to raise questions about the effectiveness and accuracy of

profiling. More specifically, which methods are more accurate and useful than the others. A common

point that has come up is that crime scenes often don’t demonstrate characteristics of just organized

or disorganized, but instead elements of both (Brookes). The differences between crimes are instead

found in the type of disorganized traits shown and the interactions the offenders had with the victim

(Winerman). Malcolm Gladwell states in his article “Dangerous Minds” that profiling is simply a “party

trick” designed to seem specific while actually being vague enough to fit virtually any offender. Even
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though Gladwell provides reliable studies to explain how profiling works, his arguments towards the

end of the article seemingly tears apart the profiling process in order to demonstrate its

ineffectiveness. On the other hand Elisabeth Brookes uses her article “Offender Profiling Explained”

to combat this belief by using statistics that demonstrate the number of cases where the profile has

ultimately been successful and useful, stating that any and all contributions in this field are valuable.

Both of these articles have proven credible, demonstrating how both sides of the argument are

supported by facts and studies, leaving the effectiveness of profiling up to interpretation.

Nowadays, criminal profiling has become extremely popular, not only in real criminal cases,

but also those portrayed through television shows and movies. In the article “Criminal Profiling: the

Reality Behind the Myth”, Lea Winerman points out that shows such as “Criminal Minds” and

“Profiler” along with popular movies such as “Silence of the Lambs” highlight the concept of profiling,

yet often create misconceptions about the process. She effectively acknowledges that the media has

helped to draw attention to profiling, but also corrects common misconceptions about the topic.

Cases depicted in these films are almost always solved by the profilers and only in a matter of

weeks. In reality, profilers aren’t normally part of the investigative process and cases are solved in a

matter of months or even years, sometimes never being solved at all. While “whodunit” type

story-lines are what seem to catch the public eye, profiling can really be seen as a “hedunit”. The

crime scene does not start a search for a killer, but instead begins defining who the killer truly is by

revealing information about their behavior and personality (Gladwell).

In conclusion, criminal profiling is a method used in criminal investigations where

profilers use forensic evidence, knowledge from previous cases, typologies, and other data to

uncover as much information about an offender as possible. While some researchers do

question the validity of such a process, it has been proven that the future of criminology is

invested in criminal profiling and that profiling is already making major positive impacts in the

way that we solve these crimes.

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Works Cited

Adeyiga, J. A., et al. “A Comparative Analysis of Selected Clustering Algorithms for Criminal

Profiling.” Nigerian Journal of Technology, vol. 39, no. 2, 1 Apr. 2020, pp. 464–471.

Bonn, Scott A. “How the FBI Profiles Serial Offenders.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers,

6 May 2019,

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wicked-deeds/201905/how-the-fbi-profiles-seri

al-offenders.

Brookes, Elisabeth. “Offender Profiling Explained.” Offender Profiling - Simply Psychology, 21

July 2021, https://www.simplypsychology.org/offender-profiling.html.

Gladwell, Malcolm. “Dangerous Minds.” The New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2007,

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/11/12/dangerous-minds.

Trajkovski, Daniela, and Ilija Zivotic. “Criminal Psychological Profiling Of An

Unknown Perpetrator.” Knowledge: International Journal, vol. 42.5, no. 5, 30 Sept. 2020,

pp. 991–994.

Winerman, Lea. “Criminal Profiling: The Reality behind the Myth.” Monitor on Psychology,

American Psychological Association, July 2004,

https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/criminal.