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Richard N. Kocsis - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Clothes Don't Maketh the Man Nor a Criminal Profiler an Expert Witness.
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 2020Co-Authors: Richard N. Kocsis, George B. PalermoAbstract:The article by Kocsis and Palermo, published in 2016, examined the findings of research which had assessed the validity of the investigative technique colloquially known as Criminal Profiling. Thes...
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Criminal Profiling as expert witness evidence: The implications of the profiler validity research.
International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 2016Co-Authors: Richard N. Kocsis, George B. PalermoAbstract:The use and development of the investigative tool colloquially known as Criminal Profiling has steadily increased over the past five decades throughout the world. Coupled with this growth has been a diversification in the suggested range of applications for this technique. Possibly the most notable of these has been the attempted transition of the technique from a tool intended to assist police investigations into a form of expert witness evidence admissible in legal proceedings. Whilst case law in various jurisdictions has considered with mutual disinclination the evidentiary admissibility of Criminal Profiling, a disjunction has evolved between these judicial examinations and the scientifically vetted research testing the accuracy (i.e., validity) of the technique. This article offers an analysis of the research directly testing the validity of the Criminal Profiling technique and the extant legal principles considering its evidentiary admissibility. This analysis reveals that research findings concerning the validity of Criminal Profiling are surprisingly compatible with the extant legal principles. The overall conclusion is that a discrete form of crime behavioural analysis is supported by the profiler validity research and could be regarded as potentially admissible expert witness evidence. Finally, a number of theoretical connections are also identified concerning the skills and qualifications of individuals who may feasibly provide such expert testimony.
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The Name of the Rose and Criminal Profiling: The Benefits of ViCAP and ViCLAS
Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 2015Co-Authors: Richard N. KocsisAbstract:Despite the continued growth in both the research and practice into Criminal Profiling, three major shortfalls continue to permeate the topic. The first is a lack of coherency in the field which has, as a consequence, led to increasingly discordant and contradictory theorems. In many respects this problem is connotative of the adage comparing apples with oranges. Likewise, the adage the elephant in the room describes the second major shortfall concerning a paucity of research testing the validity (i.e., accuracy) of espoused paradigms. Finally, the adage too many cooks spoil the broth describes the third major shortfall concerning the counterproductive popular interest surrounding the topic. These shortfalls when examined collectively appear to form a self-perpetuating cycle. The use of violent crime databases such as ViCAP and ViCLAS are suggested as potential mechanisms in arresting this cycle by rectifying these factors, which continue to stymie the cogent scientific development of Criminal Profiling.
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Disentangling Criminal Profiling: Accuracy, Homology, and the Myth of Trait-Based Profiling
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 2013Co-Authors: Richard N. Kocsis, George B. PalermoAbstract:The scholarly literature over the past decade has chronicled a growing problem in the forensic technique colloquially called Criminal Profiling. The basis of this conundrum appears to originate from a concept referred to as “offender homology,” which presumes an inherent uniformity among offenders that is believed to underpin the analytic process incumbent to Criminal Profiling. Studies thus far conducted have apparently struggled to find evidence of offender homology, and based upon these findings arguments have been promulgated that various approaches to Criminal Profiling imputably labeled as “trait-based” are therefore not viable. Indirectly contradicting these arguments, however, have been studies testing profiler accuracy that have found evidence of individuals who appear to use trait-based methods but can nonetheless proficiently predict the characteristics of unknown offenders. Against this backdrop, the present article examines a number of tenets and disjunctions that appear to have arisen from r...
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The Criminal Profiling Reality: What is Actually Behind the Smoke and Mirrors?
Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 2013Co-Authors: Richard N. KocsisAbstract:Despite developments in both the research and investigative use of Criminal Profiling over the past four decades, empirical evaluation of the accuracy of the technique, and hence its validity, remains limited. This practice update briefly examines the original empirical experiments conducted in the area thus far as well as recent omnibus analyses aimed at assessing accuracy in Criminal profiles. Issues that undermine recently promulgated challenges to profiler accuracy are also identified and discussed. Findings evidencing accuracy in Criminal Profiling from both the original and omnibus studies are also reviewed along with the theoretical implications for differing schools of thought concerning the Criminal Profiling technique.
Wayne Petherick - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Induction and deduction in Criminal Profiling
Serial Crime, 2017Co-Authors: Wayne PetherickAbstract:Publisher Summary This chapter examines the logical structure of Criminal Profiling. Inductive Profiling involves the application of statistical and probabilistic knowledge to a current case, and the source of this information is usually criminological studies, the profiler's own experience, intuition, bias, stereotypes, and generalizations. The strength of the conclusion reached through inductive Profiling is contingent on the probability of the knowledge or research that has been utilized. It is found that although useful in developing hypotheses, induction is not well suited to the final determination of offender characteristics. It is observed that deductive Profiling involves the assessment of the physical material relating to the current case. Deductive Profiling analyzes the evidence in the context of the case. Sound reasoning and critical thinking skills are applied to arrive at a logical conclusion. It is suggested that once the case has been thoroughly examined and hypotheses have been generated, then the profiler can attempt to provide a behavioral interpretation of the physical evidence. Apart from the practical implications, through an increased awareness of the logic and reasoning employed in the Profiling process, one will also be better able to understand the individual methods and the utility they offer.
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Metacognition in Criminal Profiling
2017Co-Authors: Barry Woodhouse, Wayne PetherickAbstract:Publisher Summary This chapter represents the comprehensive review of metacognition and how it applies to the field of Criminal Profiling. Metacognition is recognized as an established concept in cognitive psychology and is defined as one's knowledge and awareness of their cognitive processes. It is suggested that metacognitive deficits are evident when individuals fail to alter their behavior, even in the face of evidence that their thinking strategies lead to poor reasoning. The concept of metacognitive monitoring can aid in explaining the ongoing flaws of thinking evidenced in the Profiling community. This cognitive process refers to an individual's ability to reflect on and judge his or her own performance, and is crucial for overcoming a metacognitive deficit. It is found that inexperienced individuals tend not to possess the degree or depth of metacognitive ability necessary for accurate self-assessment compared to their more accomplished peers. It is suggested that metacognitive skills are responsible for the failure to critically evaluate profiles, and by failing to evaluate a profile, a non-expert will assume it to be accurate and insightful.
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Criminal Profiling: Behavioural consistency, the homology assumption and case linkage
2012Co-Authors: Wayne Petherick, Claire FergusonAbstract:Criminal Profiling is an investigative tool used around the world to infer the personality and behavioural characteristics of an offender based on their crime. Case linkage, the process of determining discreet connections between crimes of the same offender, is a practice that falls under the general banner of Criminal Profiling and has been widely criticized. Two theories, behavioural consistency and the homology assumption, are examined and their impact on Profiling in general and case linkage specifically is discussed...
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Criminal Profiling: Science, Logic, and Cognition
Criminal Profiling, 2012Co-Authors: Wayne Petherick, Brent E. TurveyAbstract:A Criminal profile is a collection of inferences about the qualities of the person responsible for committing a crime or a series of crimes. With no shortage of inferences based on a variety of methods, the Criminal-Profiling community and the literature it spawns suffer greatly from an absence of accuracy and applied understanding with respect to precisely what an inference is and how to make one without becoming lost in fallacy. This chapter explains how valid inferences are made against the framework of Criminal Profiling. It requires the use of the scientific method, an applied understanding of the science of logic, and the ability to know when someone is wrong. It also requires some understanding of bias. The forensic community's affiliation with both law enforcement and the prosecution has fashioned an atmosphere in which an unsettling number of forensic professionals have all but abandoned objectivity and have become completely partial to the prosecution's objectives, goals, and philosophies. The scientific observers are also inherently imperfect. This stems from the fact that subtle forms of bias, whether conscious or unconscious, can easily contaminate their seemingly objective undertakings. Observer effects are present when the results of a forensic examination are distorted by the context and mental state of the forensic examiner to include the examiner's subconscious expectations and desires. A strict adherence to, and a full embrace of, the scientific method is the first in a series of steps that can blunt the effects of even the most pervasive forms of bias.
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Alternative Methods of Criminal Profiling
Criminal Profiling, 2012Co-Authors: Wayne Petherick, Brent E. TurveyAbstract:Publisher Summary The application of the scientific method creates two different types of knowledge: idiographic and nomothetic. Nomothetic (group) study results in knowledge about the characteristics of groups, which is not only useful but also necessary when trying to define groups, solve group-related problems, or generate initial theories about issues in specific cases. Nomothetic offender profiles, therefore, are characteristics developed by studying groups of offenders. There are four main types of nomothetic Profiling: Criminal investigative analysis (CIA), diagnostic evaluation (DE), investigative psychology (IP), and geographic Profiling. The FBI's Profiling method, CIA, is the most commonly known nomothetic method of Criminal Profiling. Diagnostic evaluations are not a single Profiling method or representatives of a unified approach. They are services offered by medical and mental-health professionals who rely on clinical experience when giving Profiling opinions about offenders, crime scenes, or victims. DE profiles are commonly offered as a footnote to primary reports, such as mental-health evaluations, personality inventories, or autopsy findings. IP purports to cover all aspects of psychology that are relevant to the conduct of Criminal and civil investigations. It involves research on various offender groups. Commonly, the result is a profile that is more or less a literature review of published studies examining ostensibly similar cases. Geographic Profiling focuses on determining the likely location of the offender's home, place of work, or some other anchor point. It assumes that an offender's home, or other locations the offender is familiar with, can be determined from the crime locations. It is based on theories and assumptions built from group studies of offenders that do not necessarily hold true in individual cases.
Brent E. Turvey - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Behavioral Evidence Analysis - Applied Criminal Profiling
Behavioral Evidence Analysis, 2016Co-Authors: Brent E. TurveyAbstract:Abstract Real Criminal profilers examine evidence for clients; they do so with expectation of giving evidence in court, no matter the circumstance (because if they are any good at what they do, it is going to wind up in court whether they like it or not); and they write clear, well-cited reports based upon their examinations. They do not confuse reading the newspaper for conducting research—because they know the newspaper is not a reliable source for data; they do not confuse themselves for mental health professionals and attempt to “diagnose” the crime scene (unless they have those credentials and have conducted the proper assessments—in which case they are not Profiling a crime scene but assessing a subject); they know their methods, and any inherent limitations, as they can be distinguished from the methods of others; and they do not play on the ignorance of the public or other professionals when doing their work. And this is all made clear by virtue of the nature, quality, and existence of their written findings.
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A History of Criminal Profiling
Criminal Profiling, 2012Co-Authors: Brent E. TurveyAbstract:This chapter focuses on the history of Criminal Profiling. Inferring the traits of individuals responsible for committing Criminal acts has commonly been referred to as “Criminal Profiling.” Criminal Profiling has a legal history that can be traced back to the blood-labeling of Jews in Rome. Over the past 200 years, professionals engaged in the practice of Criminal Profiling have included a broad spectrum of investigators, behavioral scientists, social scientists, and forensic scientists. The practice has never been the province of a single discipline or agency. Modern Criminal Profiling, owing to a diverse history, is grounded in the study of crime and Criminal behavior, the study of mental health and illness, and the examination of physical evidence. In its many forms, it has always involved the inference of Criminal characteristics for investigative and judicial purposes. The reasoning behind those inferences, however, has not always been consistent. It includes a basis in statistical argumentation, the examination of specific Criminal behaviors, and subjective, intuitive opinions based on personal belief and experience.
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Criminal Profiling: Science, Logic, and Cognition
Criminal Profiling, 2012Co-Authors: Wayne Petherick, Brent E. TurveyAbstract:A Criminal profile is a collection of inferences about the qualities of the person responsible for committing a crime or a series of crimes. With no shortage of inferences based on a variety of methods, the Criminal-Profiling community and the literature it spawns suffer greatly from an absence of accuracy and applied understanding with respect to precisely what an inference is and how to make one without becoming lost in fallacy. This chapter explains how valid inferences are made against the framework of Criminal Profiling. It requires the use of the scientific method, an applied understanding of the science of logic, and the ability to know when someone is wrong. It also requires some understanding of bias. The forensic community's affiliation with both law enforcement and the prosecution has fashioned an atmosphere in which an unsettling number of forensic professionals have all but abandoned objectivity and have become completely partial to the prosecution's objectives, goals, and philosophies. The scientific observers are also inherently imperfect. This stems from the fact that subtle forms of bias, whether conscious or unconscious, can easily contaminate their seemingly objective undertakings. Observer effects are present when the results of a forensic examination are distorted by the context and mental state of the forensic examiner to include the examiner's subconscious expectations and desires. A strict adherence to, and a full embrace of, the scientific method is the first in a series of steps that can blunt the effects of even the most pervasive forms of bias.
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Alternative Methods of Criminal Profiling
Criminal Profiling, 2012Co-Authors: Wayne Petherick, Brent E. TurveyAbstract:Publisher Summary The application of the scientific method creates two different types of knowledge: idiographic and nomothetic. Nomothetic (group) study results in knowledge about the characteristics of groups, which is not only useful but also necessary when trying to define groups, solve group-related problems, or generate initial theories about issues in specific cases. Nomothetic offender profiles, therefore, are characteristics developed by studying groups of offenders. There are four main types of nomothetic Profiling: Criminal investigative analysis (CIA), diagnostic evaluation (DE), investigative psychology (IP), and geographic Profiling. The FBI's Profiling method, CIA, is the most commonly known nomothetic method of Criminal Profiling. Diagnostic evaluations are not a single Profiling method or representatives of a unified approach. They are services offered by medical and mental-health professionals who rely on clinical experience when giving Profiling opinions about offenders, crime scenes, or victims. DE profiles are commonly offered as a footnote to primary reports, such as mental-health evaluations, personality inventories, or autopsy findings. IP purports to cover all aspects of psychology that are relevant to the conduct of Criminal and civil investigations. It involves research on various offender groups. Commonly, the result is a profile that is more or less a literature review of published studies examining ostensibly similar cases. Geographic Profiling focuses on determining the likely location of the offender's home, place of work, or some other anchor point. It assumes that an offender's home, or other locations the offender is familiar with, can be determined from the crime locations. It is based on theories and assumptions built from group studies of offenders that do not necessarily hold true in individual cases.
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Criminal Profiling - Psychopathy and Sadism
Criminal Profiling, 2012Co-Authors: Brent E. TurveyAbstract:This chapter discusses psychopathy and sadism as behavioral constructs, breaking them down into components that may be evident in a crime scene. Psychopathy and sadism are offender classifications that are behaviorally determined. That is to say, the diagnosis of psychopathy or sadism is largely dependent on behavioral evidence. Because Criminal profilers may encounter and address related behavioral patterns and crime-scene characteristics, they must have an appreciation for the history and interpretation of both. Psychopathy is characterized by a constellation of traits, including impulsivity, callousness, and irresponsibility. All psychopaths are not equal, and by extension all psychopathic behavior is not equal. Psychopathic behavior exists on a continuum. While motivated by the same things as other Criminals, a psychopath can use brutal and exploitative methods that can be carried out in the absence of any remorse whatsoever. Psychopaths are not encumbered by distress, empathy, or remorse. Sadism is a clinical term that has been adopted for non-clinical usage. Most often, it is used to incorrectly describe any perceived cruel act without respect to specific motivation or context. A historical review of the origins of the term reveals that sadism refers to the intentional infliction of psychological or physical suffering on a conscious victim, able to experience pain or humiliation, for the purpose of the offender's sexual gratification.
Brent Snook - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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On the Need for Scientific Experimentation in the Criminal Profiling Field: A Reply to Dern and Colleagues
Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2009Co-Authors: Brent Snook, Paul Gendreau, Paul J. Taylor, Craig BennellAbstract:In “The Criminal Profiling Illusion: What’s Behind the Smoke and Mirrors?” (Snook, Cullen, Bennell, Taylor, & Gendreau, 2008), we questioned the evidence base for Criminal Profiling (CP) and offered an explanation regarding how people have been misled into thinking that it is more effective than what research suggests. In their reply, Dern, Dern, Horn, and Horn (2009 [this issue]) challenged some of our provisional conclusions and outlined a “highly complex and scientifically well-founded practice of Criminal Profiling” (p. 1086) known as behavioral case analysis. We are pleased to be part of a dialogue that forms the basis for collaborations that promote understanding and enhance scientific contributions to CP. Here we respond to Dern et al. by highlighting some of the areas in which discussion, collaboration, and scientific experimentation are needed.
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The Criminal Profiling illusion:what's behind the smoke and mirrors?
Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2008Co-Authors: Brent Snook, Richard M. Cullen, Paul J. Taylor, Craig Bennell, Paul GendreauAbstract:There is a belief that Criminal profilers can predict a Criminal's characteristics from crime scene evidence. In this article, the authors argue that this belief may be an illusion and explain how people may have been misled into believing that Criminal Profiling (CP) works despite no sound theoretical grounding and no strong empirical support for this possibility. Potentially responsible for this illusory belief is the information that people acquire about CP, which is heavily influenced by anecdotes, repetition of the message that Profiling works, the expert profiler label, and a disproportionate emphasis on correct predictions. Also potentially responsible are aspects of information processing such as reasoning errors, creating meaning out of ambiguous information, imitating good ideas, and inferring fact from fiction. The authors conclude that CP should not be used as an investigative tool because it lacks scientific support.
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A Failure to Find Empirical Support for the Homology Assumption in Criminal Profiling
Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 2008Co-Authors: Brandy Doan, Brent SnookAbstract:A fundamental assumption in Criminal Profiling is that Criminals who exhibit similar crime scene actions have similar background characteristics. We tested this so-called homology assumption by first classifying, with pre-existing typologies, a sample of arsons ( N = 87) and robberies ( N = 177) into different crime types and then comparing the background characteristics of Criminals who committed the various crime types. Results showed that using pre-existing typologies to classify the crimes into mutually exclusive types was not easily accomplished. Notwithstanding classification difficulties, the homology assumption was violated in 56% of the comparisons of background characteristics between the different arson types and in 67% of the comparisons of background characteristics between the different robbery types. Overall, 73% of the effect sizes for the associations between crime type and background characteristics were low to moderate ( V < .3; d < .2). The implications of these findings for Profiling practices are discussed.
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Taking Stock of Criminal Profiling A Narrative Review and Meta-Analysis
Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2007Co-Authors: Brent Snook, Joseph Eastwood, Claire Goggin, Paul Gendreau, Richard M. CullenAbstract:The use of Criminal Profiling (CP) in Criminal investigations has continued to increase despite scant empirical evidence that it is effective. To take stock of the CP field, a narrative review and a 2-part meta-analysis of the published CP literature were conducted. Narrative review results suggest that the CP literature rests largely on commonsense justifications. Results from the 1st meta-analysis indicate that self-labeled profiler/experienced-investigator groups did not outperform comparison groups in predicting offenders’ cognitive processes, physical attributes, offense behaviors, or social habits and history, although they were marginally better at predicting overall offender characteristics. Results of the 2nd meta-analysis indicate that self-labeled profilers were not significantly better at predicting offense behaviors, but outperformed comparison groups when predicting overall offender characteristics, cognitive processes, physical attributes, and social history and habits. Methodological shortcomings of the data and the implications of these findings for the practical utility of CP are discussed.
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alidity of Criminal Profiling
2007Co-Authors: Joseph Eastwood, Richard M. Cullen, Jennifer M. Kavanagh, Brent SnookAbstract:The use of Criminal Profiling has increased steadily over the last 30 years despite a lack of compelling empirical evidence that it “works”. In this article, we review the extant evidence to gauge the validity of Criminal Profiling. First, we review “usersatisfaction” surveys that indicate that many police officers find Profiling to be a useful investigative tool. Second, we review the literature examining the predictive validity of profiler predictions about the characteristics of unknown offenders and conclude that profilers are no more accurate than the average person. We contend that police officers should exercise caution if they decide to use a profiler’s predictions in an investigation.
George B. Palermo - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Clothes Don't Maketh the Man Nor a Criminal Profiler an Expert Witness.
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 2020Co-Authors: Richard N. Kocsis, George B. PalermoAbstract:The article by Kocsis and Palermo, published in 2016, examined the findings of research which had assessed the validity of the investigative technique colloquially known as Criminal Profiling. Thes...
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Criminal Profiling as expert witness evidence: The implications of the profiler validity research.
International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 2016Co-Authors: Richard N. Kocsis, George B. PalermoAbstract:The use and development of the investigative tool colloquially known as Criminal Profiling has steadily increased over the past five decades throughout the world. Coupled with this growth has been a diversification in the suggested range of applications for this technique. Possibly the most notable of these has been the attempted transition of the technique from a tool intended to assist police investigations into a form of expert witness evidence admissible in legal proceedings. Whilst case law in various jurisdictions has considered with mutual disinclination the evidentiary admissibility of Criminal Profiling, a disjunction has evolved between these judicial examinations and the scientifically vetted research testing the accuracy (i.e., validity) of the technique. This article offers an analysis of the research directly testing the validity of the Criminal Profiling technique and the extant legal principles considering its evidentiary admissibility. This analysis reveals that research findings concerning the validity of Criminal Profiling are surprisingly compatible with the extant legal principles. The overall conclusion is that a discrete form of crime behavioural analysis is supported by the profiler validity research and could be regarded as potentially admissible expert witness evidence. Finally, a number of theoretical connections are also identified concerning the skills and qualifications of individuals who may feasibly provide such expert testimony.
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Disentangling Criminal Profiling: Accuracy, Homology, and the Myth of Trait-Based Profiling
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 2013Co-Authors: Richard N. Kocsis, George B. PalermoAbstract:The scholarly literature over the past decade has chronicled a growing problem in the forensic technique colloquially called Criminal Profiling. The basis of this conundrum appears to originate from a concept referred to as “offender homology,” which presumes an inherent uniformity among offenders that is believed to underpin the analytic process incumbent to Criminal Profiling. Studies thus far conducted have apparently struggled to find evidence of offender homology, and based upon these findings arguments have been promulgated that various approaches to Criminal Profiling imputably labeled as “trait-based” are therefore not viable. Indirectly contradicting these arguments, however, have been studies testing profiler accuracy that have found evidence of individuals who appear to use trait-based methods but can nonetheless proficiently predict the characteristics of unknown offenders. Against this backdrop, the present article examines a number of tenets and disjunctions that appear to have arisen from r...
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Contemporary Problems in Criminal Profiling
Criminal Profiling, 2008Co-Authors: Richard N. Kocsis, George B. PalermoAbstract:Despite the apparent popularity of Criminal Profiling among the law enforcement community, scrutiny of its merits does not appear to have occurred to any substantial extent. This chapter identifies and assesses 10 significant problems surrounding the theoretical literature and the professional practice of Criminal Profiling. It highlights many shortcomings in both the research and the practice of Profiling and serves to demonstrate that a disparity exists between the perceptions and the realities of what Criminal Profiling can reliably achieve. Suggestions for how the research and practice of Profiling may be advanced are discussed.
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Criminal Profiling: Principles and Practice
2006Co-Authors: Richard N. Kocsis, George B. PalermoAbstract:What Is Criminal Profiling? Smoke and Mirrors: The Illusions of Accuracy in Criminal Profiles Rhetoric vs Reality: Investigating the Skills and Accuracy of Criminal Profiling The Components and Processes of Criminal Profiling Defining Serial Violent Crime Operational Interpretation of the CAP Models Criminal Profiling of Serial Rape Offenses Criminal Profiling of Sexual Murder Offenses Criminal Profiling of Serial Arson Offenses Offense Location Patterns: Geographic Profiles Procedural Considerations and Format Guidelines Epilogue: Fighting Fire With Fire Appendix A: Understanding Descriptive and Inferential Statistics: A Beginner's Guide Appendices B-G: Variable and Coding Tables Index