16.1.4

Evaluation of Offender Profiling

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Limitations of Offender Profiling

Offender profiling is controversial for a number of reasons, one being that its not always effective. For example the Rachel Nickell murder case where profiling was misused.

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Effectiveness

  • There are many biases and weaknesses in using offender profiling.
  • First, offender profiling has been found to not be very effective.
  • Holmes (1989) found that only 88 out of 192 cases where offender profiling was used resulted in arrest.
    • This is an effectiveness of only 46%.
  • Among those 88 cases, the profile was used to make the arrest in only 15 cases (17%).
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Specific crimes

  • Secondly, profiles can only be used for a small amount of crimes such as rape or murder.
  • Crimes like theft or robbery, where the purpose is material gain, have been difficult to develop profiles from.
  • There has been use of profiles in other crimes like arson and stalking.
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Misuse and misunderstanding

  • Thirdly, the aim offender profiling has been misrepresented (Douglas et al., 1986).
  • The concept of profiling is to not identify one specific person; the aim of profiling is to identify a specific type of person.
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Applicability

  • Finally, a report done by Copson (1995) stated that only 14% of senior police officers believed that profiling aided them in solving cases.

Rachel Nickell Murder Case

The Rachel Nickell murder case is an example of profiling being misused and ineffective.

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The case

  • This case is an example of where offender profiling was abused.
  • In 1992 Rachel Nickell was murdered in front of her two-year-old child.
  • Paul Britton developed a profile of a person and it was broadcast on TV.
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The consequences

  • Four callers identified a man, Colin Stagg, as the offender.
  • There was no forensic evidence (DNA, fingerprints, etc.) that linked him to the crime
  • A sting was set up using an undercover policewoman.
  • She befriended Stagg in an attempt to get him to confess to the crime.
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Outcome

  • However, Stagg never confessed and denied any involvement. - He was still arrested and charged for Nickell’s murder.
  • When the case got to court, the judge acquitted the charges and criticised the police’s tactics.
  • Robert Napper, in 2008, admitted to have killed Rachel Nickell.
  • He plead guilty to manslaughter.

Jump to other topics

1Social Influence

2Memory

3Attachment

4Psychopathology

5Approaches in Psychology

6Biopsychology

7Research Methods

8Issues & Debates in Psychology (A2 only)

9Option 1: Relationships (A2 only)

10Option 1: Gender (A2 only)

11Option 1: Cognition & Development (A2 only)

12Option 2: Schizophrenia (A2 only)

13Option 2: Eating Behaviour (A2 only)

14Option 2: Stress (A2 only)

15Option 3: Aggression (A2 only)

16Option 3: Forensic Psychology (A2 only)

17Option 3: Addiction (A2 only)

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