Offender profiling and investigative psychology

Abstract

Abstract The origins of ‘Offender Profiling’ in the advice given by police medical advisors and other experts to criminal investigations are briefly outlined. The spread of such advice to police enquiries across the United States in the early 1970s, culminating in its uptake by Special Agents of the FBI in the mid‐1970s and the widespread promotion of their services through the fictional writings of Thomas Harris and others is noted. The development beyond the early application to serial killer investigations, and the focus on psychopathological explanations, to cover the full gamut of crime from, for instance, arson and burglary to terrorism, is briefly reviewed. The consideration of the social psychological processes inherent in criminality as well as the characteristics of individual offenders also broadens out the concerns of the field. The linking of crimes to a common offender as well as predicting their future actions further widens the range of issues to be dealt with. The many psychological and practical questions raised by these ‘profiling’ activities are summarised. These include questions of inference and prediction, about criminals and their crimes, both about their characteristics and about the spatial patterns of their activities. Related topics concerning the sources of information for both investigators and research are also summarised. These cover the full range from interviewing witnesses to the management of informants. The complexity of information management and inference derivation points to the need to understand investigative decision‐making and how it can be supported. These other issues, beyond those inherent in ‘profiling’, such as data integrity and investigative decision support, taken with the central ‘profiling’ questions leads to the identification of a new domain of applied psychology, ‘Investigative Psychology’. It is argued that the core topic of this domain, as in any emerging science, is how to appropriately describe and classify the central matters under consideration, i.e. criminals and their activities. The difficulties in setting up reliable, robust and valid classification schemes are discussed and approaches to overcoming these difficulties considered. It is emphasised that although many researchers have found Multi‐Dimensional Scaling procedures to be productive they are only one of many fruitful sets of approaches that are possible. The increasing variety of areas, for which Investigative Psychology is relevant, from tax evasion to peace keeping, and from evidence in court to organisational threat management, is briefly reviewed. In conclusion it is noted that Investigative Psychology can be considered as a general approach to problem solving relevant far beyond criminal investigations. This newJournal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profilingtherefore has rich and wide‐ranging potential. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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