Essay Example on Criminal profiling technique

Criminal Profiling Criminal profiling is a technique where a crime is observed and a profile of a suspect is built based on the patterns used and steps taken in order to carry it out Profiling has played an important role in investigation for many years It s helped in some of the biggest cases in American history From the Unabomber to Ted Bundy it has been pivotal in solving crimes both big and small Criminal Profiling and History Criminal profiling was not always considered an accurate technique Investigators criticized it as being based mostly on opinion and not on fact However many people disagreed and believed that if psychology was taken into account that one would be able to find the perpetrator One example is Dr James Brussel who is widely recognized as the first person to apply a profile His actions impacted the way people looked at the profession Two other very important figures in profiling are Howard Teten and Patrick Mullany These two men influenced the growth of criminal profiling Teten thought that using psychology would help catch the person who committed a crime He studied many unusual cases and would look at the person caught to compare his profile to the suspect s description He developed his first profile in 1970 when a young woman was murdered in her home He examined the case and the evidence and determined that the suspect was an adolescent He told the police to just knock on every door because the boy would immediately feel ashamed and guilty 

The police did so and the boy confessed immediately Soon after Teten partnered up with Patrick Mullany Together they developed a forty hour course for officers to go through where they presented many investigative tools such as behavioral analysis While doing this the team received information about the abduction of a seven year old girl named Susan Jaeger The girl had been on a camping trip with her family when someone sliced through her tent while the family was asleep grabbed her and took her Teten figured that the suspect had to have military experience he probably killed before he liked to be alone and he most likely collected trophies Trophies are items from the crime scene that the perpetrator takes with them to remember what happened such as hair jewelry clothing watches or some other type of personal item from the victim They used this profile in order to find someone in the public who knew anyone with these traits An anonymous caller told authorities that a twenty three year old Vietnam veteran named David Meirhofer could be a suspect When questioned he was polite and cooperative This gave the indication to most officers that he was innocent but Teten and Mullany were still convinced that he was the person who committed this crime

The viewer sees what kind of twisted individuals the police force must deal with At first the idea of interviewing murderers was ridiculous to everyone No one understood why they did it The pair interviewed some of the most evil people this country has ever seen These people include Charles Manson Jeffrey Dahmer Dennis Rader and more In total they interviewed 36 serial killers John Douglas helped shape what the term profiler meant He was involved in some of the most notorious cases in America He helped catch the Green River killer and BTK and became a legend in law enforcement Mark Olshaker is an author who helped John Douglas in his investigations He is the co writer of Mindhunter Because of his knowledge in psychology Douglas chose Olshaker to work with because he felt like they would make excellent progress As stated before in 1974 the FBI created the Behavioral Science Unit to solve serial rape and murder cases John Douglas and Robert Ressler made a goal to gather enough information to create a centralized database for the Bureau With the thirty six people interviewed they gathered a massive amount data