Criminal Profiling: International Theory, Research, and Practice

Edited by Richard N. Kocsis
Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 2007

Criminal profiling (CP) is the practice of predicting a criminal’s personality, behavioural, and demographic characteristics based on crime scene evidence. Perhaps the most fundamental issue pertaining to this investigative practice is whether or not there is any scientific evidence that CP works – i.e., reliability, validity, and usefulness. Unfortunately, this issue was not tackled sufficiently in this book and my scepticism regarding the value of CP remains unabated. In fact, the vast majority of chapters appear to suggest that CP continues to be a questionable investigative practice.

Nevertheless, this book encourages scientific debate and many established academics provide insightful perspectives on the topic. The book is divided into four parts, with a total of 20 chapters; there are 8 empirical (6 original) articles and 12 opinion pieces. The chapters are authored by 29 individuals from around the world, including the USA, Canada, Australia, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Switzerland, UK, and The Netherlands. The authors represent a disparate range of professions such as psychiatry, psychology, criminology, and law.

Part 1 is dedicated to the profiling of violent crime. Chapter 1 (Palermo) reviews various theories of homicide and different types of homicides. Chapter 2 (Gerard, Mormont, & Kocsis) contains the results of a multi-dimensional scaling analysis of crime scene behaviours in an attempt to create a taxonomic classification of sexual homicides in Belgium. Chapter 3 (Gee & Belofastov) reviews the role of sexual fantasy in offending, provides an interesting discussion of the formation of sexual fantasy, and contains an overview of a tripartite model of sexual fantasy in sexual offending planning. Results contained in chapter 4 (Häkkänen) shows that variations in homicidal strangulation are unrelated to variations in offender characteristics. Beauregard, Lussier, and Proulx (chapter 5) test of the homology assumption shows that, amongst other things, crime scene behaviours are largely unrelated to background characteristics.

Part 2 focuses upon new techniques and applications. Chapter 6 (Woodhams, Bull, & Hollin) is a review the literature on linking crimes that have been committed by the same offender. The authors review the linking process, discuss the obstacles to the linking task, and outline the assumptions underlying this investigative practice. Chapter 7 (Farrington & Lambert) examines the relationship between offender characteristics and crime scene behaviours. Based on a few statistically significant relationships, the authors advocate the development of a computerized CP approach; the results of empirical tests of this promising approach in actual investigations are highly anticipated. Chapter 8 (Dean) considers the various definitional, conceptual, and theoretical obstacles to applying CP to terrorism. The last chapter (Ch. 9, Bennell & Corey) in this section reviews the possibility of using geographic profiling systems to predict the hideout of terrorists based on an analysis of attack sites. Although the chapters in this section are an interesting read, it is not entirely clear how these chapters present “new techniques and applications” to the field of CP. In actuality, only chapter 7 is related to CP; the remaining chapters are separate, albeit related, investigative practices.

Part 3 focuses upon legal and policy considerations. Meyers (chapter 10) wins the “best in book” award for her systematic review of international case law pertaining to the admissibility of CP. Her review shows that CP consistently fails legal tests for admissible expert evidence. In the chapter 11, Paclebar, Myers, and Brineman examine the impact of CP testimony on mock jurors’ decision-making and show that CP testimony has no effect upon juror’s belief in guilt, thus, implying that such testimony may be redundant and/or unnecessary. Chapter 12 (Zappala & Bosco) argues that police officers in Italy are skeptical about CP and that this skepticism can be overcome by separating CP from serial murder and clarifying the role that CP (and crime analysts) plays in investigations. In chapter 13 (Bumgarner), issues surrounding the role of public policy in the development and proliferation of CP are discussed. This article provides interesting insights into how the processes that shape a government’s agenda have implications for CP. Chapter 14 (Monet) is a rebuttal to a report by the French Ministry regarding the need for tighter controls over CP in France. In particular, Monet challenges the notion that CP should only be conducted by police officers. In chapter 15, Herdon reviews the extent to which CP has been the focal point in mass media outlets (e.g., movies, novels, true-crime books, television, and magazines).

Part 4 provides a critique of the CP field. Chapter 16 (Kocsis & Palermo) outlines some of the contemporary problems in CP and provides suggestions on how it can be advanced through better communication, collaborations, and experimental research. Chapter 17 (van der Kemp & van Koppen) contains a discussion of the potential for improving computerized geographic profiling systems by incorporating offender and offence characteristics and other geographical information. Chapter 18 (Kocsis) examines the relationship between the skills possessed by various groups of individuals and CP accuracy. Despite not using any psychometric tests to measure skills (e.g., logic, intuition), the author contends that investigative experience is an unimportant skill set in CP and that logical and objective reasoning are important skills for the profiler to possess. Chapter 19 (Gogan) reports on an examination of the role of investigative experience in CP. Unsurprisingly, the only negligible difference in CP accuracy was found between those with and without investigative experience. The last chapter of this book (Ch. 20, Kocsis) provides a short review of differing schools of thought on CP. The goal of that chapter is unclear.