Criminal Profiling Myth

Winerman, L. (2004, July/August). Criminal profiling: The reality behind the myth.
American Physiological Association, 35 (7). Web.

The article is an overview of how criminal profiling has developed more accurate overtime; however the author states that there is an abundant amount of information to be discovered in the near future. In fact, when criminal profiling first came about, an FBI agent would use their previous experience to profile a suspect, which was proven inconsistently accurate. Profiling has since been improved to incorporate "the statistical techniques of psychology to group together types of offender behaviors"(Winerman, 2004, p. 66). Winerman further discusses criminal profiling helpful to decrease the suspect pool during
Winerman (2004) provides specific facts and information that clues the reader into what criminal profilers study: “From 1976 to 1979, several FBI agents—most famously John Douglas and Robert Ressler—interviewed 36 serial murderers to develop theories and categories of different types of offenders. Most notably, they developed the idea of the ‘organized/disorganized dichotomy’"(p.66). The article then explains the two different types of dichotomy alluding to the idea of information being discovered because of dichotomy, overall a key development in criminal profiling. Winerman also offers important information about the psychology-law enforcement relationship including previous tension and the potential of the two workforces and their ability to work together to evaluate crime scenes more proficiently. Ultimately providing an unexpected answer to my research question since the article suggests that the newest developments in criminal profiling are the changes from intuition based to a more scientific outlook. Additionally, American Physiological Association is a reliable source for this kind of information, but specifically the scientific explanation for human behavior. The online version of this article also offers links to related sources that may be beneficial to the reader and
conclude the criminal profiling field is evolving to contribute to police investigation with scientific inquiry and precision. Ultimately, the article answered my research question by explaining traditional approaches to criminal profiling in the past and present, as well as how combining a range of contributions across the criminal justice field has proven helpful to make behavioral analysis more accurate. Additionally, The British Psychological Society is a reliable source for this kind of information, but specifically how different techniques build on one another improving the precision of criminal