What is Criminal Profiling in Australia? - Criminal Defence Lawyers Australia

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What is Criminal Profiling?
Types of Cases Criminal Profilers Handle
How Criminal Profiling Helps Solve Crimes
Limitations of Criminal Profiling

What is Criminal Profiling?

Criminal profiling, also known as offender profiling, is a forensic tool used by law enforcement to identify potential criminal suspects and narrow down investigations based on behavioural and psychological traits.

The following outlines the history of criminal profiling, how it is currently used as a tool by police as well as key limitations of the technique.

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Types of Cases Criminal Profilers Handle

Modern criminal profiling can be traced back to the late 19th century. The first recognised use of profiling occurred in London in the 1880s when police surgeon Thomas Bond was asked to assess the mental state of Jack the Ripper, the infamous serial killer. Although the term “criminal profiling” wasn’t yet in use, Bond’s detailed psychological assessment laid the groundwork for what would become an investigative tool in forensic psychology.

Modern profiling as we know it, began to take shape with the work of FBI agent Robert Ressler in the 1970s. Ressler helped establish the Behavioural Science Unit within the FBI, specialising in studying violent criminals and serial offenders. By interviewing convicted killers and developing a classification system for their behaviour and motives, Ressler and his colleagues began the process of creating criminal profiles based on patterns.

Here are some famous criminal cases in Australia.

How Criminal Profiling Helps Solve Crimes

Criminal profiling combines insights from the specialities of criminology, psychology, and forensic science to aid law enforcement in narrowing suspects and predicting offender behaviours.

Profiling starts with analysis of a crime scene, where profilers examine details like method, weapons used, victim’s condition and other signs to gain insight into the offender’s mindset. A sub-speciality of analysis is ‘victimology’ which explores the victim’s background and relationships to understand why they were targeted and if they knew the perpetrator, which helps shape an offender profile.

Profilers also look at behavioural patterns across crimes including consistent details which give rise to psychological clues. This can help develop a “modus operandi” or method for committing crimes which provides a “signature” that can link together crimes and provide insight into an offender’s psychology.

One pattern commonly noted in profiling is distinguishing between “organised” and “disorganised” offenders. Organised offenders plan meticulously, targeting specific victims and leaving minimal evidence. Disorganised offenders, on the other hand, act impulsively, creating chaotic scenes often linked to mental health issues or drug use.

The end goal of profiling is to develop a psychological and behavioural picture of a suspect, including traits like age, occupation, and lifestyle which can aid an investigation.

Limitations of Criminal Profiling

Despite widespread use, criminal profiling is not widely considered a reliable scientific technique. This is because there have been few studies to demonstrate the accuracy of profiling and the technique is highly subjective in nature.

Some have argued that profiling is really the process of using “stereotypes” to support the “hunches” of investigators. This runs the risk that profiling could merely perpetuate the biases of investigators including tunnelling in on convenient suspects and affirming racial, socioeconomic, or gender-based biases.

By Jarryd Bartle.

Published on 14/02/2025