PSYC 2400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Statistical Significance, Barnum Effect, Distance Decay
29 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
What is criminal profiling: a technique for identifying the personality, behavioural & demographic features of an offender based on an analysis of the crimes he/she has committed. Goals of profiling: suspect prioritization, new lines of enquiry, interview strategies, predict dangerousness, flush out offender. The history of profiling: many well documented cases of profiling that pre-date the fbi, profiling milestones, jack the ripper, hitler, new york mad bomber. The fbi profilers: robert wrestler, john douglas, roy hazelwood. The current state of affairs in canada: rcmp behavioural sciences section, criminal profiling, geographic profiling, truth verification, viclas, national sex offender. How is a profile constructed: what (events) + why (motivation) = who (profile) Inductive profiling: profiling an offender from what is known about other offenders (by querying databases, ex. 80% of serial killers who attack people in parking lots are white males: our offender has attacked three people in parking lots, therefore it is likely that our offender is a white male.
