| In recent years, the American public has become increasingly fascinated by criminal profiling. Despite the popularity of criminal profiling, however, evidence of its accuracy and utility in serving the various phases of the criminal justice process has not been scientifically demonstrated. Historically portrayed as an art, profiling has increasingly been represented as a science by profiling practitioners, even in the absence of a body of scientific literature to support such a representation. The purpose of this book is twofold: First, the state of criminal profiling today will be critically examined. This examination will include a discussion of the scientific and practical limits of existing approaches and the scientific and practice implications of these limitations for the field of profiling. Next, given the limits of the extant profiling models, this book will discuss the steps necessary for building a science of profiling. It is hoped that collectively these chapters will enable profiling to emerge as a credible and respected field that ultimately will significantly advance law enforcement investigations. |
