‘A little know piece of trivia: Superman’s 2nd greatest enemy was cilantro.’ –Tim Geoghegan
A review of the development of criminal profiling demonstrates that profiling has never been a scientific process. It is essentially based on a compendium of common sense intuitions and faulty theoretical assumptions, and in practice appears to consist of little more than educated guesses and wishful thinking. While it is very difficult to find cases where profiling made a critical contribution to an investigation, there exist a number of cases where a profile, combined with investigative and prosecutorial enthusiasm, derailed the investigation and even contributed to serious miscarriages of justice.
{ Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice/SAGE | Continue reading }
