Criminal Profiling Questions Essay

1. Analyze inductive/deductive reasoning. Inductive criminal investigative assessments: The inductive approach to profiling is a based on the simple premise that â€Å"If certain crimes committed by different people are similar, then the offenders must also share some type of personality traits. (Holmes & Holmes, 2009)† Inductive reasoning seems to be the more â€Å"scientific† of the two as it is strictly based on criminals that have committed the same or same type of crime. It is much quicker as it is strictly based upon statistics and easily conducted (with the proper databases) searches based on the types of crimes. When you combine the simplicity and the speed at which it can be done, it would seem it would be a foregone conclusion that this is the technique to use. However, inductive assessments are not completely reliable due to no connection to the current crime and strictly relegated to using similar facts and types of crimes to aid in creating a profile. Deductive criminal investigative assessments: â€Å"From a thorough analysis of the crime scene and the evidence left at the crime scene, the profiler is able to construct a mental picture of the unknown offender. (Holmes & Holmes, 2009). Deductive profiling is based upon the artistic ability of putting together the available information and picturing the events that occurred and the offenders that committed these events. Deductive profiling is more complex and takes longer to conduct a thorough enough investigation to begin putting the pieces together to form the entire puzzle. Deductive profiling is much more reliable as it is based on information pertinent to the specific crime committed and not simply based upon similar types of crime that are typically not in any way related to the current crime being investigated. The most popular form of profiling is a combined inductive/deductive profiling. Using inductive profiling, you would compile statistics about similar crimes and use the similarities between the multiple offenders and begin to form the outline of your profile. Using the crime scene information, you would then begin to evaluate from a perspective that is specific to your crime scene and not based on similarities in crimes. Upon completion of using your criminal database to build you outline, you would then apply the specific data derived from the crime scene and begin to apply the details of the offender to complete your profile. Holmes, R. and Holmes, S. (2009). Profiling Violent Crimes, an Investigative Tool (4th Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. 2. Goals of criminal profiling 1. Provide the Criminal Justice system with a social and psychological assessment of the offender. Goal 1 is to provide a detailed assessment of the offender which should include specifics (i.e. race, gender, employment, age range, etc.) that narrows the possibilities in which law enforcement can focus their efforts and reduce the scope of the investigation. 2. Provide the Criminal Justice systems with a Psychological evaluation of belongings found in the possession of the offender. Goal 2 is specific to the physical evidence and relevant information in a case and how it relates to the specific offender’s psychological profile. This will help in the case by adding to the offender’s profile and by helping derive locations, times, etc.. 3. Provide interviewing suggestions and strategies. Goal 3 is to help investigators get to the ground truth, through different methods, during the interrogation process. Different types of people respond to different stimulus, therefore different strategies must be emplaced based upon multiple categories your offender falls into.