The History Of Criminal Profiling

Criminal profiling is a method used to predict who is committing crimes and plays a role in catching many serial killers. Profiling begins with vague generalizations, which is probably why it is often attacked. In the instance of serial killers, they are commonly a white male who is somewhere in his twenties to forties. While this clearly is not always the case, it is often correct, although this could be attributed to a large part of the population fitting this demographic. However, profilers only begin with these generalizations. The rest of their portraits become more accurate as evidence becomes available. For example, a serial killer’s victim can act as a window into who the killer is. Serge-Moses Pakhomou, a researcher at the John Jay …show more content…
Pakhomou analyzed 97 victims and corresponded their race with the race of their killer. “Among 53 (54.6 per cent) white female victims, 46 (47.4 per cent) were attacked by white males and 7 (7.2 per cent) by nonwhite males. Among 31 (32.0 per cent) black female victims, 22 (22.7 per cent) were attacked by black offenders and 9 (9.3 per cent) by white perpetrators. One Asian female (1.0 per cent) and 12 (12.4 per cent) white males were the victims of white serial killers.”(222). This shows that on average, the killer is the same race as their victims and that occasionally their victims are of the opposite gender. With this information, profilers are able to predict the approximate gender and race of the killer. The age of the victim has also been known to be correlated to the killer, although it can be harder to estimate. The majority of victims are in their twenties to late thirties, which also happens to be the average age of serial killers. This can prove to catch some killers, but unfortunately this is not always the case. Serial murderers that target children, more often than not, are within their thirties and forties, with some being even older. While not always true, when a child is murdered, it is typically an older adult that is responsible. The concept of criminal profiling is not necessarily accurate every time it is used, however when it is accurate, the results are often …show more content…
The same debate can be applied to serial killers. Criminologists have sought to answer the question of what makes a serial killer, either inherited traits or the environment in which they are exposed to in early development. For the most part, in answering this question, many support nurture. They argue that, while occasionally serial killers can be born with certain disorders that would make them more likely to behave violently, the vast majority of these disorders are developed. Disorders that have been known to be inherited, such as ASPD, can also, more commonly be developed and seeing as how most serial killers are abused as children it is the most widely accepted