CRIMINAL MIND > CRIMINAL PROFILING

Criminal Profiling: Part 1 History and Method

By Katherine Ramsland

The Anthrax Terrorist

Then after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the anthrax scare that followed, a profile was developed of what that perpetrator might be like. When they failed to make an arrest, Lawrence Sellin wrote a scathing report arguing that the profile has not yet helped to catch this person and offered a dramatically different alternative. Since it’s not yet known whether his alternative is correct, it’s also not yet known whether the FBI profilers were wrong, but the anger evident at the FBI’s imperfections is evident throughout the piece. If it turns out that they truly had tunnel vision (or worse, a bumbling rush to judgment), then the anger is justified.

A rush to judgment is inevitable when the demand is great and the public visibility is high, but that’s how mistakes get made. Perhaps it wasn’t prudent to allow moviemakers enough access to develop the image of super-sleuths that was likely to backfire. Or perhaps people (including reporters) who believe that crime solving methods are guaranteed are just setting themselves up for disappointment. In any event, those who use this method of behavioral analysis know that they cannot predict every possible human behavior or trait from what they have at a crime scene. Yet with additional crime scenes and more behavioral evidence, profiles do evolve. So, also, has the method itself.

In fact, as in the past, profiling is not just the province of the FBI. Psychologists with a specialty in criminal behavior, and some criminologists, are developing their own ideas on the subject, and even their own methods.

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1. Early Crime Analysis
2. The Psychiatric Approach
3. Famous Early Profile
4. The FBI Prepares
5. The BSU
6. The Mind Hunters
7. Art & Science
8. Where Profiling Works Best
9. An Early Case: The Vampire of Sacramento
10. The Prison Interviews
11. William Heirens & Others
12. Refining the Methods
13. High Profile for the Profiling Unit
14. The NCAVC
15. International Influence
16. Spilling into Fiction
17. Problems
18. The Baton Rouge Serial Killer
19. The Anthrax Terrorist
20. Still in the Game
21. Evolution: BSU Today
22. Always Learning
23. Bibliography