The Use of Offender Profiles - Essay Example

The present research has identified that profiling methodologies differ largely because all profilers are not trained equally and they possess varying abilities. Essentially, there are two types of profiling that are performed by criminologists and criminal investigators in the U.S. Each describes very different approaches to this field of study. Inductive Criminal Profiling is theoretically associated with the creation of a psychological pattern of symptoms and the subsequent evidence of symptoms.

This method involves generalizations and deductions based on statistics. Deductive Criminal Profiling is a less common method of profiling. It can be considered somewhat as, very generally speaking, the Sherlock Holmes method where the profiler maintains an open mind and examines all premises, assumptions, and opinions put forth despite how eminent the provider of the information might be. This method puts emphasis on the profiler’s detachment from the situation and their ability to think critically.

 For the purpose of giving a strictly textbook legal definition of criminal profiling, it is described as “a set of behavioral indicators forming a very characteristic pattern of actions or emotions that tend to point to a particular condition”. For a more practical description, a good example can be derived from the 1994 court case of the State of Oregon v. Lawson. The defense attorney, in this case, attempted to convince the judge that his client’s actions were not that of those persons who matched the usual profile observed of offenders that committed a similar type of, in this case, fore, his client could not be found guilty as a result of this logic.

Within the judgment, the court defined profiling in this way.