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TheProffesor The Professor from USA Since: Jan, 2011
#1: Feb 17th 2012 at 10:00:39 PM

Does this actually work against criminals? Profiling seems to be romantisized in fiction, so I can't tell if Reality Is Unrealistic.

breadloaf Since: Oct, 2010
#2: Feb 18th 2012 at 2:14:42 PM

I've not actually heard of it in real life, so probably not. The few cases where I've seen profiling done (as in a, this criminal must like x) has actually hurt the police force and their investigative work a lot when they go to court. I've even seen a case thrown out because a police officer decided to execute a search of an accused's residence based solely on a profile of how the person might operate (basically that the person would have incriminating evidence on their computer but they were afraid that it might get deleted so the officer executed a search without a warrant).

So it seems like it leads more to sloppy police work that lets criminals free than actually help catch anybody.

edited 18th Feb '12 2:14:56 PM by breadloaf

Euodiachloris Since: Oct, 2010
#3: Feb 18th 2012 at 3:07:42 PM

Profiling is like any other tool: you can use it well... or totally bollocks it up, as in the example above. If you keep in mind that it can't be 100% reliable, you can use it to target your resources in the areas most likely to bear fruit by discarding the least likely scenarios.

Also, the best profiles aren't static ones: as soon as more evidence is found, it should be fed back into the profile (this doesn't always happen). Sometimes, this can totally change the initial picture. Which might not be helpful if that's the one that gets stuck in the heads of investigators on the ground. <shrugs>

In short, a profile is only as good as the evidence and constant effort put into it.

Of course, a Genre Savvy criminal can use this, if they have some background in the subject, so that's one area of their past a good profiler tries to find out the fastest.

feotakahari Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer from Looking out at the city Since: Sep, 2009
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
#4: Feb 18th 2012 at 5:10:43 PM

Anyone else remember how profilers thought the Beltway snipers would be white?

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
TheProffesor The Professor from USA Since: Jan, 2011
#5: Feb 18th 2012 at 5:40:08 PM

I read the wikipedia page on it and it seems like it has worked well in some cases.

For example, one guy was so correct with his profile that he was able to guess the criminal's favorite suit.

DeMarquis Who Am I? from Hell, USA Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
Who Am I?
#6: Feb 18th 2012 at 6:16:49 PM

Profiling is based on statistics and like all statistics, it can accurately predict the behavior of classes of people. The problem, both in practical law-enforcement terms and morally, is when you apply this technique to individuals.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#7: Feb 18th 2012 at 6:42:15 PM

When we're talking about using it in police work, profiling just seems to use the evidence on hand to indicate the type of person who's doing the crime. It means you have to be really good at reading both evidence and people. And given anything that involves reading people, it can be inexact. Basically, I figure it's like being a criminal psychologist. So yeah, I think it's useful, but it's probably not uncommon for curveballs to be thrown at the police doing it.

Flyboy Decemberist from the United States Since: Dec, 2011
Decemberist
#8: Feb 18th 2012 at 8:10:01 PM

Eh. Probably. But it's not something they're likely to ever use in court.

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."
Pykrete NOT THE BEES from Viridian Forest Since: Sep, 2009
NOT THE BEES
#9: Feb 18th 2012 at 8:55:38 PM

Criminal profiling was never evidence. It's a technique to narrow down what might be the most likely place to start looking for it.

storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
More like giant cherries
#10: Feb 18th 2012 at 9:43:13 PM

For example, one guy was so correct with his profile that he was able to guess the criminal's favorite suit.

That's because if enough people make enough guesses enough times, someone's bound to get lucky. People remember the sucesses and ignore the failures.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
TheProffesor The Professor from USA Since: Jan, 2011
#11: Feb 19th 2012 at 1:09:23 AM

[up]I've heard that before somewhere...

edited 19th Feb '12 1:10:28 AM by TheProffesor

Inhopelessguy Since: Apr, 2011
#12: Feb 19th 2012 at 1:25:30 AM

[up][up] I think that is also due to the dispositional vs. situational effect; i.e. they succeeded because of themselves (disposition, it was all internal), but they failed because of the lack of information (situation, it was due to external forces). People will more likely remember things that they perceive they've done (i.e. due to their disposition), rather than things that were perceived to be due to external forces (i.e. due to the situation).

Anyway, profiling is a statistical clue. It can only work for groups of people, in effect. Individuals are too far from the group mean for it to work effectively as it would for a group. Therefore, the successes would be limited. Theoretically speaking, profiling is just criminal psychology that's been applied. You would only need a certain knowledge of psychology in order to subvert such things.

Also, like many other pathology-based tools, it is as only as good as the interpretation of the information, and ultimately, the quality too.

edited 19th Feb '12 1:31:16 AM by Inhopelessguy

DeMarquis Who Am I? from Hell, USA Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
Who Am I?
#13: Feb 19th 2012 at 11:50:24 AM

Profiling is also vulnerable to Proof by Examples

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
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