Are offender Profiles Useful in Police Investigations?

Are Offender Profiles Useful in Police Investigations?

Seamus Anderson

Griffith University

Student number:                                s5056822

Course Code:                                        1011CCJ

Tutor:                                                Kelly Hine

      Tutorial:                                   Monday 3pm-5pm

       Due Date:                                      29th May 2017        

Date Submitted:                        29th May 2017

Word Count:                                 1355 words

Question: Are offender profiles useful in police investigations?

This Essay will outline if offender profiles are useful in police investigations. Throughout this discussion I will outline how offender profiles give police a solid base to start their investigations if there is little or no evidence available to them. I will explain the accuracy of offender geo profiling and how it is used to predict offenders target location. Lastly I will then discuss how offender profiles can be used to give better victim protection. Finally I will conclude with how offender profiles prove to be an asset rather than a liability for police in criminal investigations.

Offender profiles give a solid base to begin investigations if there is a lack of evidence

By enhancing their knowledge of characteristics of offenders to give them a better understanding of the case.  Trager and Brewster (2001) also conducted interviews on police officers after using offender profiles to assist them in their investigation. 60.9% of officers reported that profiling had enhanced their knowledge and understanding of the case. When faced with multiple suspects and no obvious way of ruling anyone out, profiles can be brought in to check suspects characteristics with previous offenders of the same type of crime committed. By cross referencing characteristics of offenders with suspects, police have a better understanding of who to look for. A study by Abumere (2012) showed that of the 192 criminal profiles that were Requested during police investigations, 77% of the officers said that the criminal profile had assisted them refine their search to apprehend the suspect. By being familiar with the person they are looking for can help the process of catching them a lot quicker than before, thus proving fairly useful in investigations with no or very few lead suspects.