Date of Conferral

12-10-2024

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Wayne Wallace

Abstract

Offender profiling is a tool used within criminal investigations to infer offender characteristics according to evidence collected from a crime scene. The practice of offender profiling has been applied since the Roman era, empirically developed, and recently popularized in media depictions. Existing studies demonstrate that there is a lack of peer reviewed literature that examines current methods of criminal profile construction, opportunities for standardization, and effective criminal investigative processes. Motivation for this study came after reviewing research that revealed high rates of serious and violent international serial offending, noted as a major challenge for law enforcement agencies, and a significant social problem causing human suffering. The purpose of this qualitative study was thus to improve the understanding of international methods of criminal profile construction, explore opportunities for standardization, and identify any contributions to effective criminal investigations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and interpretative phenomenological analysis applied as the methodology, to study the lived experiences of 10 criminal profile authors professionally based in Europe and or North America. Behavioral consistency, the homology assumption, and the profiling equation were frameworks referenced for understanding profile formulations. The results of this study indicate that there are a range of approaches to profiling implemented internationally, of which support effective criminal investigative processes, albeit there is a lack of practice standardization. Some social change implications of this study may include, an improved multiagency understanding of criminal profile methods and reasoning, of which facilitate increased crime linkage.

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