Criminal profiling, also known as offender or psychological profiling has been defined differently by different scholars. It is defined as "an educational attempt to provide investigative agencies with specific information as to the type of individual who committed the crime". (Vernon J. G.,1996)
It refers to criminal investigation techniques adopted to set up the profile of the offender who is more likely to commit certain crime by gathering evidence and information from the crime scene, victims and witnesses. (Norbert E., 2007)
Whereas David Canter sees it as "criminal shadow" and says that psychological traces or patterns are often left behind by criminals. Adding more, he stated that personalities of criminals can be monitored through his
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One of the reasons why criminal profiling can be useful in criminal investigations is that it helps investigators to apprehend the suspect without having to waste time. Since psychological and behavioral patterns can be traced, the suspect list can be narrowed, making the whole investigation process much shorter and simpler.
A psychological picture can be formed by the profiler showing the type of offenders. Formation of profiles can direct and lead the whole investigation in finding the suspect by providing the investigators with the required information. This mainly works for large crimes like serial killings, serial rapes, arson and so on.
In 1956, a well-known psychiatrist, James Brussel, created a profile on George Metesky, known as Mad Bomber of New York City, so accurate and showed a clear correction that it led to the offender's arrest. (Brussel J. A., 1968).
The city was terrorized by Metesky for almost 16 years during 1940s. In 1950s, he planted explosives in public buildings, terminals as well as at various recreational areas in New York City. Police was not able to catch him for good 16 years until Brussel's profile came
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He was the person who killed 5 people from 1989 to 1992, set more than 100 fires and killed more than 1000 animals from farms as well as pets. (Noe, 2013) The significant difference spotted from the description in both profiles challenged the validity as well the reliability on the usage of criminal profiling. (Mark G.,