DEVERY (2010) - Criminal Profiling and Criminal Investigation

Journal of Contemporary Criminal
Justice
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Criminal Profiling and Criminal Investigation

Christopher Devery
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 2010 26: 393
DOI: 10.1177/1043986210377108
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Articles
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice
26(4) 393–409
Criminal Profiling and © 2010 SAGE Publications
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DOI: 10.1177/1043986210377108
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Christopher Devery1
Abstract
A review of the development of criminal profiling demonstrates that profiling has never
been a scientific process. It is essentially based on a compendium of common sense
intuitions and faulty theoretical assumptions, and in practice appears to consist of little
more than educated guesses and wishful thinking. While it is very difficult to find cases
where profiling made a critical contribution to an investigation, there exist a number
of cases where a profile, combined with investigative and prosecutorial enthusiasm,
derailed the investigation and even contributed to serious miscarriages of justice. As a
result, police agencies should carefully consider whether the development of in-house
profiling capability, or use of external consultants to provide such services, is justified.
Keywords
criminal profiling, investigation, miscarriages of justice
Introduction
Criminal profiling describes a process, typically applied to serial murder, sexual assault,
and arson, that attempts to identify characteristics of an unknown offender, through a
detailed examination of crime scene and victim characteristics, informed by information
about prior similar cases. According to Farrington (2007),
The basic idea of profiling is very simple. Its aim is to predict characteristics
of the undetected offender(s) from characteristics of the offence(s) and the
victims(s). However, this simple aim leads to many complex and unanswered
questions. (p. 486)
1
New South Wales Police Force College, Goulburn, Australia
Corresponding Author:
Christopher Devery, New South Wales Police Force College, McDermott Drive, Goulburn,
NSW 2580, Australia
Email: deve1chr@police.nsw.gov.au
394 Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 26(4)
Criminal profiling is also known as “psychological profiling,” “offender profiling,”

or just “profiling.” For simplicity, this article uses the term profiling to refer to the suite
of techniques and approaches developed over the years to pursue the original aim of
“determining the likely characteristics of a crime’s perpetrator by examining the details
of the crime itself” (Risinger & Loop, 2002, p. 230).
In recent years, the scientific validity of criminal profiling has increasingly come
under question. Ten years ago, Risinger and Loop (2002) published a devastating critique
of the logic of profiling. More recently, a review by Snook and colleagues concludes
that belief in the effectiveness of profiling is an illusion without theoretical or empirical
support (Snook, Cullen, Bennell, Taylor, & Gendreau, 2008). A Canadian Human Rights
Commission report (Bourque, LeBlanc, Utzschneider, & Wright, 2009) similarly notes
the lack of empirical and theoretical validation for extant profiling approaches and
typologies, and recommends that methods and performance criteria should be developed
and empirical research conducted to measure the true effectiveness of profiling.
This article proposes that profiling, as it has been practiced, particularly in the
American tradition,1 has never been an overtly scientific process. Some of the literature
of profiling had a surface appearance of scientific rigor. These articles, involving the
famous FBI profilers Ressler, Douglas, and their collaborators, tended to be generally
careful and circumspect in their claims. The popular literature, often in the form of
coauthored memoirs, and the professional papers published by the FBI tended to be far
more upbeat about the accuracy of profiling and its contribution to solving difficult and
complex cases. This body of work, on which much of the portrayal of profiling in crime
fiction, movies, and TV is based, essentially conveys profiling as a mysterious skill
practiced by experienced police officers dedicated to the mission of bringing pathologi-
cal killers and rapists to justice.
Development of Profiling
Profiling is closely associated with the FBI Behavioral Science Unit, which was estab-
lished in the 1970s at the FBI Academy, Quantico. The pioneer of profiling at the FBI
was Howard Teten, who had studied with renowned forensic psychiatrist Dr. James
Brussel (Risinger & Loop, 2002, p. 230). Teten became the first head of the FBI’s
Behavioral Science Unit when it was created from the hostage negotiation unit in the
early 1970s. In the late 1970s, the FBI embarked on a program of interviews with a
number of serial killers in the hope that information gathered would be of assistance
in the analysis of future crimes. These interviews were conducted by John Douglas and
Bob Ressler, and appear at first to have been relatively informal. In Douglas’ terms
(Douglas & Olshaker, 1996),
The prison visits became a regular practice whenever Bob Ressler or I were on
the road . . . and could get the time and cooperation. Wherever I found myself,
I’d find out what prison or penitentiary was nearby and who of interest was “in
residence.” (p. 117)
Devery 395
It has been observed more than once that there is no evidence that Ressler and Douglas
had any training or knowledge of research design. The interviews did not appear to be
conducted on the basis of a defined interview schedule or result in the compilation of
formal notes or records of these interviews (Risinger & Loop, 2002). Rather, in Douglas’
own words, the program was informal and aimed at “letting us see the way the offender’s
mind worked, getting a feel for them, allowing us to start walking in their shoes” (Douglas
& Olshaker, 1996, p. 117).
It is highly unlikely that the sample of serial killers was representative even of serial
killers of their time, as the sample was one of convenience—only available killers who
agreed to speak with Douglas and Ressler and their collaborators were included in the
study. It also appears that the interviews were relatively ad hoc and varied according
to who was being interviewed (Canter, Alison, Alison, & Wentink, 2004). It has been
suggested (Turvey, 2002) that a sample of serial killers, likely suffering from a range
of mental illnesses, were the least reliable informants that could be imagined, and as a
result, material collected from the interviews needed to be very carefully considered
in the light of the tendency of criminals to lie about their history and activities, particu-
larly when being interviewed by FBI agents. This would particularly be apparent in
accounts of prior offending history offered up by the serial killers to the agents.
Research based on such small and unrepresentative samples may identify certain
behavioral characteristics of the serial killers, but without a control sample of nonserial
killers, the identified characteristics can’t tell us much about how common such charac-
teristics are in the general community. This is an important information if we are interested
in using the data to assist in narrowing a list of suspects. In part, this is the reason why
so many profiles appear to be vague and contain information that could apply to many
people. The FBI serial killer study found high levels of pornography use and compulsive
masturbation (Ressler, Burgess, & Douglas, 1988), but this is of little help in assisting to
identify an offender, when an interest in pornography and masturbation is not uncommon
in the broader community. The inclusion of such characteristics in profiles can be danger-
ous because many potential suspects will exhibit some of the behaviors or characteristics
the profile attributes to the offender. This creates a situation where it is all too easy to
decide that a suspect fits the profile and therefore must be guilty.
Profiling appears to have been introduced to the broader law enforcement community
in the United States by virtue of an article in the March 1980 issue of the FBI Law
Enforcement Bulletin by Behavioral Science Unit members Richard Ault and James
Reese (Ault & Reese, 1980). The article essentially recounted Ault and Rees’s apparent
success in assisting local police solve a baffling rape and gave a brief overview of the
process of profiling, focusing on the potential for clues left at the crime scene to give
the profiler insight into the motivations and character of the offender. The article con-
cluded with an invitation for police who wanted a profile to contact a local FBI field
office and indicate that they were seeking assistance from the training division’s Behav-
ioral Science Unit. However, they warned that there were limited resources available
and cases would be dealt with on a “time available basis, with the more severe cases
being given priority.”
In April 1980, Roy Hazelwood and John Douglas published a short article in the
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin called “The Lust Murderer.” Where the Ault and Rees
(1980) article essentially announced the availability of profiling services to American
Law Enforcement, Hazelwood and Douglas outlined the rationale behind profiling and
most importantly introduced the idea of the organized versus the disorganized offender,
which is the core of the FBI approach. The article contained descriptions of the two
kinds of offender that hint at the kinds of characteristics of the offender that would be
highlighted in a profile developed on the basis of the distinction between organized
and disorganized offending. According to Hazelwood and Douglas (1980), the descrip-
tion of the organized offender is as follows:
Exhibits complete indifference to the interests and welfare of society and displays
an irresponsible and self-centered attitude. While disliking people in general he
does not avoid them. Instead, he is capable of displaying an amiable façade for as
long as it takes to manipulate people towards his own personal goal. He is a
methodical and cunning individual, as demonstrated in the perpetration of his
crime. He is fully cognizant of the criminality of his act and its impact on society,
and it is for this reason that he commits the crime. He generally lives some distance
from the crime scene and will cruise seeking a victim. Dr Robert P Brittain . . .
has stated “they . . . are excited by cruelty, whether in books or in films, in fact or
fantasy. (p. 18)
The disorganized offender, according to Hazelwood and Douglas (1980),
Exhibits primary characteristics of societal aversion. This individual prefers his

own company to that of others and would be typified as a loner. He experiences
difficulty in negotiating interpersonal relationships and consequently feels rejected
and lonely. He lacks the cunning of the [organized] type and commits the crime
in a more frenzied and less methodological manner. The crime is more likely to
be committed in close proximity to his residence or place of employment, where
he feels secure and more at ease. (p. 19)
According to Hazelwood and Douglas (1980), murders committed by both kinds of

offenders are characterized by their brutal and sadistic manner, and the body will exhibit
“gross mutilation and/or displacement of the breasts, rectum, or genitals” (p. 20). The
organized offender may dismember the body to attempt to hinder the identification of
the victim, is more likely than the disorganized offender to sexually penetrate the victim
with his penis, and will generally leave less physical evidence at the scene than the
disorganized offender, as a result of his cunning and methodical character. He will be
more likely to carry a weapon to the scene and take it away when departing. Hazelwood
and Douglas stated that the organized offender has “an almost obsessive desire . . . to
assess the police investigation, even to the extent of frequenting police ‘hangouts’ to
eavesdrop on discussions of unsolved crimes, or in some manner, inserting himself into
Devery 397
the investigation” (p. 20). This behavior they interpret as indicative of the tendency of
the offender to see himself in some kind of game with the authorities.
The disorganized offender is indicated when the victim was subjected to torture or
mutilation prior to death. Disorganized offenders are more likely to use a weapon of
opportunity that may be left at the scene. Mutilation performed by the disorganized
offender has a childlike character, where the offender “involves himself in an exploratory
examination of the body in an attempt to determine how they function and appear beneath
the surface.” The disorganized offender is less likely to penetrate the victim with his
penis but “commonly inserts foreign objects into the body orifices in a probing and
curiosity-motivated, yet brutal, manner,” with evidence of ejaculation perhaps being
found on or near the victim. Consumption of body parts is indicative of the disorganized
offender (Hazelwood & Douglas, 1980, p. 20).
Both kinds of offender may return to the crime scene, but for different reasons. The
organized offender may return to the scene to engage in further mutilation or to relive
the offence; the organized offender is more likely to see if the body has been discovered
or to check on the progress of the investigation. Later on, a third category (mixed) was
added to the typology of offenders, apparently to cater for those crime scenes that
exhibited evidence of both kinds of offending behavior. The mixed category appears
to have been developed in the early 1980s and first appeared in print in a special edition
of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin in 1985 (Ressler & Burgess, 1985).
In terms of its structure and content, the 1980 article by Hazelwood and Douglas on
lust murder falls far short of what would be considered an acceptable social scientific
exposition of a concept. There is no discussion of the evidence on which the distinction
between organized and disorganized offenders was based, other than statements that
“are based on the author’s examination of case reports, interviews with investigative
personnel, and a careful review of the literature” (Hazelwood & Douglas, 1980, p. 18).
The careful review of the literature appeared to include only six publications on murder
and sex crimes; it has been suggested that the elaboration of the organized/disorganized
distinction proceeds “in a kind of stream-of-consciousness collection of unqualified
declarative sentences to describe what they claim to be the characteristics of these two
types of murderers” (Risinger & Loop, 2002, p. 234).
The typology has not been supported in subsequent research. A multivariate analysis
of 100 serial killers conduced by Canter et al. (2004), concluded that the organized–
disorganized typology had little empirical value. More recent information leads us to
the conclusion that this is not surprising, given the origin of the typology. In an interview
with Katherine Ramsland of Court TV (Ramsland, n.d.-a), Hazelwood described the
origin of the typology between organized and disorganized offenders as follows:
I had noticed that in a number of cases, there were some that seemed to be well
thought out and others that were highly spontaneous. I went to John [Douglas]
and told him my ideas. So we sat down and came up with the characteristics of
each type. But then the members of the Behavioral Science Unit told us that it
would never fly. It won’t stick because it was too simple. They said we had to add
something like “organized asocial” and “disorganized nonsocial.” So in the article,

we tacked those terms on. But what happened? You go anywhere in the world in
law enforcement, and among criminologists and mental health workers, and you’ll
hear that there are two broad categories of killers: organized and disorganized. So
it did stick.
In addition to the introduction of the organized/disorganized typology, Hazelwood

and Douglas (1980) is interesting because it contains an early clear statement of the
purpose and nature of the psychological profile:
A psychological profile is an educated attempt to provide investigative agencies

with specific information as to the type of person who committed a certain crime.
It must be clearly stated at the outset that what can be done in this area is limited,
and prescribed investigative procedures should not be suspended, altered or
replaced by receipt of a profile. Rather, the material provided should be considered
and employed as another investigative tool. The process is an art and not a sci-
ence, and while it may be applicable to many types of investigations, its use is
restricted primarily to crimes of violence or potential violence.
A profile is based on characteristic patterns or factors of uniqueness that distin-

guish certain individuals from the general population. In the case of lust murder,
clues to those factor of uniqueness are found on the victim’s body and at the scene
and would include the amount and location of mutilation involved, type of weapon
used, cause of death, and the position of the body. The profiler is searching for
clues which indicate the probable personality configuration of the responsible
individual. (p. 22)
In the 1980s, the research became more formalized when Dr. Ann Wolport-Burgess,
a psychiatric nurse, joined Roy Hazelwood in a study of autoerotic strangulation that
accumulated a collection of 150 cases. The FBI’s interview program matured during
this time and with the assistance of Wolport-Burgess had developed a “five part, 57-page
interview protocol that was completed in conjunction with 5- to 10-hr intensive inter-
views of the murderers by veteran FBI agents with behavioral science backgrounds”
(Depue, 1986, p. 3). While data collection took place between 1979 and 1983, it was
not until 1982 that the project was formalized with a grant from the National Institute
of Justice (Ressler et al., 1988).
The context of the formalization of the FBI research program was growing concern
with the rise of violent crime in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. In an article
in 1986, Roger Depue (1986), unit chief of the Behavioral Science Unit, wrote of the
“violent crime wave which had begun in the 1963 and was showing no signs of abate-
ment well into the 1980s” (p. 5). Depue’s article identifies the FBI’s Behavioral Science
program as an important policy response to the problem of violent crime, culminating
Devery 399
in the announcement by President Regan in 1984 of the establishment of the National

Centre for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) with the primary mission of iden-
tifying and tracking repeat killers (Depue, 1986).
The NCAVC established four programs: research and development, training, profiling
and consultation, and the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. The goal of NCAVC
was to
collect and analyze violent crime data and provide assistance to law enforcement
agencies in their attempts to locate, apprehend, prosecute and incarcerate the
persons responsible” for “the most baffling and fearful of the unsolved violent
crimes, such as homicide, forcible rape, child molestation/abduction and arson.
(Depue, 1986, p. 5).
Against this background, the FBI sponsored research project was published in May
1985, in the form of a report to the Trustees of Health and Hospitals of the City of Boston
Inc. (Burgess & Ressler, 1985) and in special edition of the FBI Law Enforcement Bul-
letin in August 1985 (Ressler & Burgess, 1985). The May report was aimed at the
academic audience and contained a range of statistical analysis and qualitative material
collected during the study of 36 serial killers, whereas the August report provided a
summary aimed at the law enforcement audience.
The May report limited itself to consideration of two questions:
To test, using statistical inferential procedures, whether there are significant behav-
ioral differences at the crime scene between crimes committed by organized sexual
murders and those committed by disorganized sexual murderers, and to identify
variables that may be useful in profiling sexual murderers and for which organized
and disorganized sexual murderers differ. (Burgess & Ressler, 1985, pp. 3-4)
The report concluded that there were some variables that were statistically associated
with organized and disorganized crime scenes and that some variables might be useful
in distinguishing between the organized and disorganized offenders in the sample.
Importantly, the study concluded that
It is imperative that this be viewed as demonstrating only that profiling is an

objective possibility. The study does not establish that profiling can, in fact, be
done, or that if it were done, it would be successful. Instead we show that further
study of profiling is, indeed reasonable and appropriate. (Burgess & Ressler, 1985,
p. 32, Italics in original)
In comparison to this circumspect conclusion, the articles appearing in the August

1985 FBI Bulletin were upbeat about the potential of profiling and cited a number of
cases where the subsequent arrest of an offender demonstrated the accuracy of a profile.
It was stated that “in sex related crimes, the structure of the crime scene provides insight
into the offender’s patterns of behaviour,” and “this study demonstrates that there is
reliability in the classification of crime types and scenes by BSU Agents (Ressler &
Burgess, 1985, p. 16). The research project was cited as establishing the existence of
variables that may be useful in a criminal profile and distinguish between organized and
disorganized offenders. The possibility of the use of artificial intelligence to generate
automatic profiles was also mentioned (Ressler & Burgess, 1985), a process that obvi-
ously would require the development of a significant number of valid variables relating
to crime scene classification and linking offender dispositions and character to the crime
scene information.
One article in the August 1985 Law Enforcement Bulletin presented an examination
of the interrater reliability of the organized/disorganized distinction. Five different agents
were presented with an information about a series of preclassified crime scenes and were
asked to assess whether they were characteristic of an organized or disorganized offender.
If the classification schema is reliable, then the agents would tend to agree in their
assessment of each case. Unfortunately, the FBI profilers showed large variations in
performance in classifying a series of crime scenes according to the organized and
disorganized categories, arguably the simplest step in developing a profile (Ressler &
Burgess, 1985). Although the article puts a positive spin on the results, it is not supportive
of the interrater reliability of the organized and disorganized typology.
While both the primary report and the Law Enforcement Bulletin accounts of the
project presage further research aimed at assessing the validity and accuracy of profiles,
there is no evidence that such research was carried out. In fact, subsequent publications
generally rehashed the original material, with a book-length version containing most
of the articles as chapters appearing several years after the original Law Enforcement
Bulletin articles, supplemented with more case studies and some chapters of new mate-
rial on forensic pathology, the role of the police artist, and the victims families response
to trauma (Ressler et al., 1988).
The pinnacle of the FBI program was the development of the Crime Classification
Manual (Douglas, Burgess, Burgess, & Ressler, 1992). The manual is a compendium of
detailed subgroups of homicide, arson, and rape and sexual assault, each accompanied by
information about the victimology, typical investigative considerations, crime scene indica-
tors, and typical forensic findings, all liberally illustrated with case examples. In comparison
to the earlier publications, it is stated that the crime scene will be rarely completely orga-
nized or disorganized but will more likely be somewhere on a continuum (Douglas et al.,
1992). The manual also contains a more nuanced definition of profiling:
Investigative profiling is best viewed as a strategy enabling law enforcement to

narrow the field of options and generate educated guesses about the perpetrator
. . . the investigative profile is particularly useful when the criminal has demonstrated
some clearly identifiable form of psycho-pathology. In such a case, the crime scene
is presumed to reflect the murderer’s behaviour and personality in much the same
way as furnishings reveal the homeowner’s character. (Douglas et al., p. 21)
Devery 401
Profiling and Criminal Investigative Analysis

The Crime Classification Manual introduced the term criminal investigative analysis”
to refer to a broader set of methods that led up to the production of a profile:
1. Evaluation of the criminal act itself;

2. Comprehensive evaluation of the specifics of the crime scene(s);
3. Comprehensive analysis of the victim;
4. Evaluation of preliminary police reports;
5. Evaluation of the medial examiner’s autopsy protocol;
6. Development of the profile, with critical offender characteristics;
7. Investigative suggestions predicated on construction of the profile (Douglas
et al., 1992, p. 310)
According to the manual, the process is “quite similar to that used by clinicians to
make a diagnosis and treatment plan,” and although criminal investigative analysis
“unfortunately does not provide the identity of the offender,” it does “indicate the type
of person most likely to have committed a crime having certain unique characteristics”
(Douglas et al., 1992, p. 310). While it was hoped that the manual would provide an
important reference against which investigators could classify serious offences, Douglas
et al. (1992, p. 22) had to admit that “at present there have been no systematic efforts
to validate these profile based classifications.”
As the FBI developed and refined its approach, there was an explosion of public
interest in criminal profiling. The novelist Thomas Harris undertook research with the
FBI before writing a series of novels that dramatized their activities, and the public’s
infatuation with profiling was fuelled by the release in 1991 of the Academy Award
winning film of one of the novels, Silence of the Lambs. At this time, a number of the
pioneering FBI profilers had retired and were able to take advantage of the growing
public interest in profiling by producing coauthored accounts of their careers aimed at
the popular audience. These books had catchy titles—for example, Whoever fights
Monsters: A brilliant FBI Detective’s Career-long War Against Serial Killers (Ressler
& Shachtman, 1992)—and portrayed the detectives and their cases in a most positive
light. The claims of amazing accuracy in these popular books, as well as in the articles
in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, are often in stark contrast to the more measured
claims in the research articles that were published in the social science journals (Risinger
& Loop, 2002.) More recently, profiling has featured in a number of popular television
shows, such as Criminal Minds, Millennium, Cracker, and Profiler. One could even
argue that profiling is as much a cultural phenomenon as a scientific one (Seltzer, 1998,
Warwick, 2006).
While public and media interest in profiling grew, the FBI went through the usual
series of restructures and reorganizations that are characteristic of large bureaucratic
organizations. For example, after September 11, 2001, three sections dealing with
behavioral science applications to counterterrorism, crimes against adults and crimes
against children, were created (Ramsland, n.d.-b). In its current structure, investigation
support is provided by the National Centre for the Investigation of Violent Crime. In
recent years, the FBI’s mission has been increasingly organized around counterterrorism
activities, compared to the focus on serial crime that led to the establishment of the
Behavioral Science Unit in the 1980s.
In 1991, the FBI suspended its Police Fellowship Program, which since 1985 had
provided training and accreditation for FBI and other officers. The void was filled by
the creation of the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship (ICIAF)
in 1992. The Fellowship is a private organization formed by the graduates of the FBI’s
original Police Fellowship Program and exists to train and accredit police officers in
criminal investigative analysis. It is tempting to speculate that the ICIAF had been set
up to “corner the market” in criminal investigative analysis and profiling training and
accreditation, but it is worth noting that a number of private companies and universities
in the United States offer some degree of training in CIA, often with the involvement
of former FBI officers and apparently outside the auspices of the ICIAF.
As the idea of criminal investigative analysis that was introduced in the Crime Clas-
sification Manual matured, it came to include a range of techniques relevant to the
investigation of complex crimes. These include crime scene reconstruction, forensic
pathology, sexual assault offenders and typology, sexual homicide, equivocal death
analysis, interview and interrogation, normal and abnormal behavior, analysis construc-
tion, blood spatter analysis, and statement analysis of arson and bombing (ICIAF
Understudy Program, cited in Bourque et al., 2009).
Commenting on a U.S. case, Cochran (1999) distinguished profiling from criminal
investigative analysis in the following terms:
Criminal investigative analysis involves a detailed review of all aspects of a par-

ticular crime, which may have been committed by either a known or unknown
offender. Profiling, on the other hand, is an analysis of a crime or series of crimes
committed by an unknown offender which results in a detailed description of the
type of person who would have done such a crime or series of crimes. This “profile”
of the unknown offender is designed to be used by investigators to assist in catching
the offender. As the offender in this case . . . was already known, the case involved
the use of Criminal Investigative Analysis, not true “profiling” (p. 87 at note 139).
The range of services offered under criminal investigative analysis is broad and
include activities that, arguably, in some jurisdictions could only be conducted by a
registered psychologist, in particular techniques such as the indirect personality profile
and psychological autopsy.
Coyness in Regard to the Methodology of Profiling

It is difficult to delineate all of the activities that are conducted under the criminal
investigative analysis model, as the FBI or the ICIAF do not appear to have published
a detailed account of the methodology or even an overview of the criminal investigative
Devery 403
analysis process as it is currently practiced and taught. It could be argued that this is a
viable strategy, as publicizing the details of criminal investigative analysis would
potentially alert serial criminals, providing them the opportunity to manage their crime
scene behavior to circumvent profiling methodology. Indeed, this kind of reasoning
seems to have influenced the recent Canadian Human Rights Commission report
(Bourque et al., 2009), which recommends that “inferential methods in behavioral
profiling should be formalized and recorded (which does not mean, we should point
out, that they must remain public as criminals would then come up with a method to
defeat them)” (p. 45).
Whatever the value of keeping the methodology secret from criminals, this lack of
transparency makes it very difficult to assess the virtues of the ICIAF approach and
any advantages it might have over investigative psychology or the range of services
that can be delivered by a forensic psychologist. It is tempting to speculate that secrecy
regarding profiling in part serves the interests of the ICIAF in establishing itself as the
only body training and accrediting profilers in the FBI tradition, while protecting the
methodology from critical analysis.
Against the general concern with the increase of violent crime, and in particular the
publicity accompanying distressing and sensational serial murder cases, it is understand-
able that the FBI was keen to develop the informal expertise of the Behavioral Science
Unit into a scientifically validated method of solving difficult cases. Making the expertise
of the FBI available to support local police was an important strategy, given the fact
that U.S. law enforcement is made up of so many agencies, large and small. The large
agencies could be expected to have well-resourced and trained specialist criminal
investigators, quite capable of undertaking complex and difficult investigations. How-
ever, the resources of smaller jurisdictions would be stretched in the face of a serial sex
murder investigation, a situation exacerbated when a case involved a number of juris-
dictions such as local, city, and state police, as a result of the location of crime scenes.
In these circumstances, the assistance of an experienced FBI investigator to examine
the totality of evidence and make recommendations in relation to investigation strate-
gies, quite apart from any contribution that a profile might make, would be very valu-
able. This strategy is not directly applicable to large police forces in other countries,
where investigative agencies are well resourced with specialist detectives who can draw
on a range of intelligence and investigation support services.
Whatever the benefits of a broader approach to criminal investigative analysis is, in
which profiling is but one of a number of techniques, in reviewing the historical devel-
opment of profiling, it is hard not to note that a lofty edifice has been built on a relatively
flimsy foundation. While some publications attempted to establish that profiling was
scientifically valid, other comments by the iconic profilers emphasized its mysterious,
almost mystical quality, with Douglas (Douglas & Olshaker, 1996) even implying that
there may even be a psychic component involved:
What I try to do with a case is to take in all the evidence I have to work with—the
case reports, the crime scene photos and descriptions, the victim statements or
autopsy protocols—and then put myself mentally and emotionally in the head of
the offender. Exactly how this happens, I’m not sure, . . .If there is a psychic
component to this, I won’t run a way from it, though I regard it more in the realm
of creative thinking. (p. 51)
As Risinger and Loop (2002) comment, the claim appears to be that profilers can beat
the odds as a result of experience and intuition and that this approach, in the right hands,
can be more successful than objective scientific methods which require that judgments
be validated by data or reasoning. Of course, such claims for the priority of intuition and
insight are characteristic of a range of practices, from dowsing and astrology to diagnos-
tics, and it has been known for some time in psychology that clinical judgments are much
less reliable than statistical, actuarial techniques (Grove & Meehl, 1996). Arguably, where
clinical judgments are made in the absence of a valid empirical and theoretical body of
scientific knowledge, they are likely to be even more unreliable. In this regard, the evi-
dence suggests that profiling is not analogous to clinical decision making in medicine,
which, while not perfect, is based on an active and expanding base of medical science.
In comparison, there is very little evidence of an actively expanding knowledge base for
profiling. In fact, the theoretical and empirical basis of profiling has received very little
support from the research literature. (Bourque et al., 2009; Snook, Eastwood, Gendreau,
Goggin, & Cullen, 2007; Snook et al., 2008).
Profiling in Practice
In addition to the lack of research support, there is a singular lack of anecdotal evidence
that profiling has ever made a substantial contribution to solving baffling cases of serial
rape or homicide. Sometimes, a profile has been found to be somewhat accurate after
the case has been solved. Garry Ridgway is regarded as the most prolific serial killer
in U.S. history and admitted the murder of 48 women, mainly prostitutes, over a 22-year
period. In the end, Ridgway was apprehended as a result of DNA analysis, and a profile
prepared by John Douglas was found to be reasonably accurate (Levi-Minzi & Shields,
2007). However, unless profiles can be shown to make some kind of practical contribu-
tion to an investigation, the fact that after a case is resolved the profile can be seen to
have accurately described something about the offender does nothing to establish the
utility of profiling utility as an investigative tool.
More troubling are a succession of cases where it appears that investigative enthu-
siasm combined with a profile sidetracked investigations or even contributed to the
arrest of a person who was convicted and subsequently found not guilty, often on the
basis of DNA evidence. These include the bombing a the Atlanta Olympics in 1996,
where a security guard who had discovered the bomb was identified as a suspect on
the basis of a profile that was leaked to the press and who was subsequently crucified
by the media (Rostrow, 2003). The offender was identified in 2003 following the
investigation of a series of bombings at abortion clinics.
Less well known is the case of Kirk Bloodsworth, who in 1993 was the first prisoner
released from death row as a result of DNA examination of original crime scene evi-
dence. According to one account of the case,
Devery 405
The Psychological profile played a very significant role. The report became the
Rosetta stone for Detectives Capel and Ramsey. It caused them to single out a
suspect who had previously received scant attention and later helped convince
both of them and the state prosecutors involved that this suspect truly was the
murderer. The psychological profile became an important part of the foundation
for their unwavering belief that the man they arrested was guilty of the Dawn
Hamilton slaying (Junkin 2004, p. 75).
In Canada, Guy Paul Morin was convicted of murder of a 9-year-old girl in 1992,
only to be acquitted in 1996 after improved DNA technology excluded him as the mur-
derer. A subsequent inquiry (Kaufman, 1998) revealed that a profile prepared by John
Douglas had contributed to the miscarriage of justice. The detectives in this case went
so far as to alter the profile so that it more closely resembled Morin, with a view to
“spooking” him. The inquiry was very critical of the role of the profile in contributing
to persistent “tunnel vision” on behalf of the detectives involved. As in the Bloodsworth
case, so convinced were the detectives of Marin’s guilt that they persisted in arguing
that he was the offender even after he was acquitted on the DNA evidence (Junkin, 2004;
Kaufman, 1998). The Commission found that the profile, which was supplied by John
Douglas, was used by the detectives to confirm their own strongly held view that Marin
was the offender and that they ignored aspects of the profile that did not match Morin.
In Baton Rouge in 2002 and 2003, police spent months and millions of dollars col-
lecting DNA samples from nearly 1,200 young White men who drove pickups, largely
on the basis of a profile. The possibility of an African American offender was discounted,
even after a woman had reported to her suspicions about the possible involvement of
Derrick Lee, who had an extensive record for domestic violence and had stalked her
for 2 years (Abraham, 2005; Newsome, 2007). Lee was eventually arrested and con-
victed after a new test of crime scene samples suggested that the offender was likely
to be of primarily sub-Saharan African ancestry (Wade, 2003).
A number of themes in these cases were also apparent in the conviction of Jeffrey
Deskovic for the murder of a 15-year-old classmate in 1989. Detectives developed a
profile of the offender that resembled Deskovic, who became the sole focus of the
investigation (Leo & Drizin, 2010). In spite of DNA evidence establishing that he was
not the source of blood and semen samples taken from vaginal swabs of the victim,
Deskovic was convicted and spent 16 years in jail. Eventually, after a series of unsuc-
cessful appeals, the crime scene DNA was matched to a convicted murderer who
confessed to the crime and Deskovic was exonerated in 2006. A subsequent inquiry
(Snyder, McQuillan, Murphy, & Joselson, 2007) was extremely critical of the way in
which the profile structured the investigation of the case, and it is notable that the profile
was in every respect wrong about the real offender. According to Leo and Drizin (2010),
misclassification of an innocent person as a suspect is the first step in the process that
has led to many miscarriages of justice. In this case, they comment, the mythology that
“trained police officers can create a detailed and accurate profile of a suspect” (p. 16)
played a very significant role in the classification of Deskovic as the guilty suspect,
leading to a biased and deficient investigation.
Consideration of these dangers of profiling is almost entirely absent from the extant
literature, the exception being Alison and Canter’s (1999) admission that one of their
early profiles suggested a White male between 20 and 30 years, while the offender
turned out to be a 12-year-old Black girl.
Conclusion
Whatever value there may be in other kinds of advice provided by qualified practitioners
either under the Criminal Investigative Analysis model in the US, or the Behavioural
Investigative Advice model from the UK ( Alison, Goodwill, Almond, van den Heuvel
and Winter, 2010), the use of profiling in criminal investigations should be approached
cautiously, if at all. The literature on profiling suggests strongly that the hopes and
aspirations of practitioners and the hype of media and popular culture have far exceeded
the reality of practice. In the words of one recent review (Snook et al., 2007),
Based on the results of the narrative review and meta-analytic reviews presented
herein, profiling appears at this juncture to be an extraneous and redundant tech-
nique for use in criminal investigations. CP will persist as a pseudoscientific
technique until such time as empirical and reproducible studies on the abilities
of large groups of active profilers to predict, with more precision and greater
magnitude, the characteristics of offenders. (p. 448)
Theoretically, the underlying concepts of profiling are undeveloped and not supported
empirically. Methodologically, the clinical judgment model at the centre of the profiling
practice is inherently unreliable, a feature that it shares with a range of other forensic
individuation techniques that are founded on expert judgment (Committee on Identifying
the Needs of the Forensic Science Community, 2009). Overall, the research literature
in support of profiling can be characterized as poverty stricken. In practice, profilers
have sometimes lacked professional detachment and objectivity, and have given faulty
advice in the spirit of advancing the cause of the investigation, without adequate caveats
and qualifiers. Police officers have at times been overly credulous in the receipt of
profiling opinion and have sometimes subsequently given far too much weight to the
information contained in a profile, to the extent that investigations have been sidetracked
and in some cases significant miscarriages of justice have occurred.
Given the dearth of theoretical and empirical evidence in regard to profiling, the
mystery and secrecy that appears to surround its practice, and the documented cases
where profiling has derailed investigations, police agencies need to carefully consider
whether investing in the development of profiling capacity, or even using outside profil-
ers on a consultancy basis, is worth the risk and represents value for money.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or
publication of this article.
Devery 407
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.
Note
1. This article does not consider profiling as practiced by in the United Kingdom. This tra-
dition adopts a more explicitly scientific approach, but as pointed out by Hicks and Sale
(2006), Cantor has not provided evidence that his approach is able to provide a link between
behavioural aspects of offenders and their actions during the commission of crimes. See also
Sturidsson et al. (2006, 2009).
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Bio
Christopher Devery, PhD, is the manager of executive development and research, education and
training command, NSW Police Force, and senior academic associate in the School of Policing
Studies, Charles Sturt University. His research interests include police culture, police training,
crime trends, and science in policing. He is a coauthor with Sally Doran of Janet Chan’s Fair Cop:
Learning the Art of Policing (2003) and has published in the International Journal of Police
Science and Management.

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Criminal Profiling and Criminal Investigation

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>> Version of Record - Sep 29, 2010

Criminal profiling is also known as “psychological profiling,” “offender profiling,”

The disorganized offender, according to Hazelwood and Douglas (1980),

Exhibits primary characteristics of societal aversion. This individual prefers his

According to Hazelwood and Douglas (1980), murders committed by both kinds of

something like “organized asocial” and “disorganized nonsocial.” So in the article,

In addition to the introduction of the organized/disorganized typology, Hazelwood

A psychological profile is an educated attempt to provide investigative agencies

A profile is based on characteristic patterns or factors of uniqueness that distin-

in the announcement by President Regan in 1984 of the establishment of the National

It is imperative that this be viewed as demonstrating only that profiling is an

In comparison to this circumspect conclusion, the articles appearing in the August

Investigative profiling is best viewed as a strategy enabling law enforcement to

Profiling and Criminal Investigative Analysis

1. Evaluation of the criminal act itself;

Criminal investigative analysis involves a detailed review of all aspects of a par-

Coyness in Regard to the Methodology of Profiling

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

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