How much can a criminal profiler really tell us about a criminals thoughts and what they’re thinking before they commit a crime? According to Snook et al, not a lot!
Criminal profiling experts and techniques are commonly used in the Police force and other criminal justice organisations to predict physical and mental characteristics of the perpetrator from crime scene evidence. This is apparently all an illusion, as there has been found to be very little empirical evidence that any of these predictions are true, or that they have helped to identify criminals.
So for those of you who aspire to be criminal profilers, it may not be the best use of your psychological knowledge.
You can find the complete journal article here.
