Psychology 2032A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Jeffrey Dahmer, Deductive Reasoning, Robert Ressler

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2032A/B
• Professor: John Campbell

Document Summary

Identifying the personality and behavioural features of an offender based on an analysis of the crimes they have committed: used in serial crime investigations, particularly homicide and rape. The goals of profiling: criminal profiles are used for a variety of purposes, to prioritize suspects, to develops new lines of enquiry, to flush out offenders, to determine risk, to provide interrogation advice. In general, there are 2 approaches: deductive profiling, profiling an offender from evidence relating to that offenders crimes. Inductive profiling: profiling an offender from what is known about other offenders who have committed similar (solved) crimes. Criminal profiling: robert ressler, one of the original profilers, started the behavioural science unit at the fbi, many credit him with the term "profiling, but this is just one tool they can utilize to catch the killer. Al: evaluate the accuracy of criminal profiling.