Offender profiling: A review and critique of the approaches and major assumptions

The area of Offender Profiling generates a lot of interest in both the academic field and the everyday world as a result of a few highly prolific cases (e.g., Jack the Ripper, Boston Strangler). Historically, profiling has been based on intuition and experience, but as the field has matured, the need to be more scientific in approach has led to the development of empirically driven models/typologies of offender behaviour based. Different approaches have attempted to define, and operationalize offender profiling based on the individual principles inherent in each approach. Briefly, the Criminal Investigative approach to profiling initially relied upon the investigative experience and observation of FBI agents who soon started publishing on the topic. However, in more recent years, large databases containing information on serial and violent crime/criminals has allowed for more empirical approaches to emerge (Snook, Luther, House, Bennell, & Taylor, 2012). The Clinical approach, on the other hand, adopts a model of offender profiling that centers on the concept of motives. Finally, and most recently, the Statistical approach has aimed to provide a testable scientific framework for identifying and inferring offender characteristics/motives. However, none of these approaches alone can explain the complexities of offending behaviour. The Criminal Investigative approach brings with it a multitude of experience from investigators; the Clinical brings an abundance of medical and privileged client- based knowledge; while the Statistical approach aims to provide more objective measures and examination of offending behaviour. Without the experience, knowledge, and information offered by the first two approaches, the ability to know which variables to look for or code for would be lost. However, the latter Statistical approach allows practitioner-based knowledge to be integrated with the objective examination of offending patterns and correlated findings. Therefore, the way forward should seek to integrate all of the approaches (Alison, West, & Goodwill, 2004; Alison, Goodwill, Almond, van den Heuvel, & Winter, 2010). Together, the approaches strengthen each other and give weight and support to one another. More importantly, they help strengthen the field of offender profiling as a whole. In this chapter, an overview and critique of the offender profiling literature; its underlying assumptions; and the relationship between the crime scene actions and the offender characteristics will be presented. In addition, each of the approaches to offender profiling that have developed over its short empirical history will be described and critiqued.