Profiling

[joelhall]

My opinion on psychological/geographic profiling should be known by now.

Just found this today...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1311800/Real-life-police-Crackers-solve-cases-par-fortune-tellers.html

Real life police Crackers 'never solve cases and are on a par with fortune tellers'

By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 8:17 AM on 14th September 2010



Criminal profilers who try to get inside the minds of serial killers are worthless purveyors of bad science, a leading psychologist claims.

Professor Craig Jackson likened them to ‘witch doctors’ and said their techniques were based on unproven, untested ideas.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...e-tellers.html

I'm afraid I already came to this conclusion.

[Rubyretro]

.

Professor Craig Jackson likened them to ‘witch doctors’ and said their techniques were based on unproven, untested ideas.

It's probably true -although 'Professor' Ruby likens the Daily Mail to 'Bitch Doctors' and says that many of their articles are based on unproven and
demogogic ideas.

[Tom_Wescott]

As a rule, I think serial killer profilers are worthless, but I must say that just this week I read a profile compiled by someone on these boards that I thought was fantastic.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Rubyretro]

Corey !

[Tom_Wescott]

Maybe.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[joelhall]

.



It's probably true -although 'Professor' Ruby likens the Daily Mail to 'Bitch Doctors' and says that many of their articles are based on unproven and
demogogic ideas.

To be fair a great deal of their stories aren't as well. But really no matter what the journalists views, a professor of psychology describing it in such ways is quite telling.

[Scorpio]

As a rule, I think serial killer profilers are worthless, but I must say that just this week I read a profile compiled by someone on these boards that I thought was fantastic.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Who wrote this fantastic profile?, i would like to read it.

[corey123]

Hello Scorpio,

You might have to wait for that one. There is a chance it will be in Casebook Examiner this December.

[Fleetwood Mac]

My opinion on psychological/geographic profiling should be known by now.

Just found this today...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1311800/Real-life-police-Crackers-solve-cases-par-fortune-tellers.html

Real life police Crackers 'never solve cases and are on a par with fortune tellers'

By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 8:17 AM on 14th September 2010



Criminal profilers who try to get inside the minds of serial killers are worthless purveyors of bad science, a leading psychologist claims.

Professor Craig Jackson likened them to ‘witch doctors’ and said their techniques were based on unproven, untested ideas.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...e-tellers.html

I'm afraid I already came to this conclusion.

Worthless purveyors of bad science? I doubt a proponent of profiling would even begin to claim it to be scientific in the sense of verifiable through repeat testing etc.

But then science isn't the only tool to explain (or attempt to explain) the world. You can observe human behaviour and draw certain conclusions based on the rule.....although...with it not being a science.....there will always be exceptions.....in the same way you can use human behaviour as a marketing tool......e.g. people who buy certain products are likely buy certain others.....one such example is nappies being placed next to beer in the supermarket.....blokes on their way home from work who buy nappies are tempted by beer too.....this is suggested through data mining of supermarket sales and customer profiles. Not an exact science.....but data mining supports the marketing ploy. Similarly.....you can look at the behaviour and background of known serial killers and form certain patterns....that's just self-explanatory....obvious....and ultimately will yield results. There will be exceptions of course....always....

If you're asking the question: explain JTR's character and background based on other serial killers? It's an impossible ask and in this scenario profiling is redundant.

If you're asking the question: what was JTR's most likely character and background based on what we know of serial killers......you will be able to obtain a sketch using profiling.

My understanding is that philosophers such as Descartes and Spinoza believed that eventually human beings would attain the springs and mechanisms of the human mind through scientific methods......of course they were wide of the mark largely due to being enamoured with advances in mathematics.....and at this juncture....explaining human behaviour through science has proven unattainable....so what on earth 'purveyors of bad science' is intended to mean god only knows.

[Rubyretro]

Very interesting and very true, Fleetwood.

[bolo]

Hi Joel, all,

profiling seems to suffer greatly from the hype created by Hollywood and various TV series where profilers are never wrong, maybe that is why real-life profiling more often than not belies peoples' expectations.

In my opinion, profiling can be useful if it is done right, the results are utilized with care and investigators as well as the general public don't treat it as the be-all and end-all of policework. It all depends on what you make of it.

Regards,

Boris

[Fisherman]

"just this week I read a profile compiled by someone on these boards that I thought was fantastic"

Maybe I´m oldfashioned - but is not a fantastic profile first and foremost one that we know fit the profiled part to a very large extent? In other words, do we not need to have the identity of the perpetrator for comparison before we praise the profile?

I do not wish to be a partycrasher and I do not know the surrounding circumstances, and if this relates to a true case where the final comparison can be made, then so much the better!

The best,
Fisherman

[The Good Michael]

Hold on! If Corey created a great profile, it must match Tom's definition of what LeGrand was like. This is just a guess on my part, but it fits with Tom's profile.

Mike

[kensei]

Whenever it comes to profiling, I remember a show I saw on it on PBS (Public tv in America) several years ago that used as its example the Rochester, New York serial killer Arthur Shawcross. Its been a while so I may not have all the details exactly correct, but Shawcross killed a large number of prostitutes in the 1980s. The police came to believe that the killer they were after would revisit the bodies of his victims so they left one where she was found and kept the body under surveilance and that's how Shawcross was caught. An FBI profile of the killer had been compiled and Shawcross matched it to a tee except for one thing- he was significantly older than the profile predicted. However it turned out that the difference in age was the exact length of time that Shawcross had served a prison sentence for some other murders for which he managed to be granted parole, which had staunched his mental development so that in mental maturity he was an exact match for the profile. I know profiling is far from flawless, but I found that quite impressive.

[Fisherman]

Mike writes:

"Hold on! If Corey created a great profile, it must match Tom's definition of what LeGrand was like. This is just a guess on my part, but it fits with Tom's profile."

Wait a sec, Mike - aren´t you profiling Tom himself here ...?

The best,
Fisherman