Fair enough, Nancy. Here are a few refernces that I hope would convince you to adjust at least a little bit your over-confident stance toward a practice that you admit to know alomst nothing about:
TI: Criminal psychological profiling: Validities and abilities. SO: International-Journal-of-Offender-Therapy-and-Comparative-Criminology. 2003 Apr; Vol 47(2): 126-144 PB: US: Sage Publications. AB: Criminal psychological profiling has attained unprecedented recognition despite little empirical evidence to support its validity and the absence of any thorough exposition of the skills involved with the technique. This article reports on the empirically derived conclusions of studies that sought to examine the accuracy and skill of various groups performing a profiling task. The conclusions provide some support for the contention that professional profilers can produce a more accurate prediction of an unknown offender in comparison to other studied groups. The results also give an indication of the type of skills required for proficient profiling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved) TI: Expertise in psychological profiling: A comparative assessment. SO: Journal-of-Interpersonal-Violence. 2000 Mar; Vol 15(3): 311-331 PB: US: Sage Publications. AB: Examined the abilities contributing to proficient performance in psychological profiling. The authors sought to address this issue by comparing the accuracy of psychological profiles for a closed murder case generated by groups differing primarily in characteristics posited to underlie the profiling process. In addition to a sample of 5 professional profilers (aged 27-48 yrs), the study recruited 35 police officers (aged 26-45 yrs), 30 psychologists (aged 21-68 yrs), 31 university students (aged 20-52 yrs), and 20 self-declared psychics (aged 25-60 yrs). 23 college students (aged 17-30 yrs) compiled a generic profile of murderers without knowledge of the specific case given to the other groups. Despite the small size of the sample of profilers, there were indications that this group had a set of profiling skills superior to the individual skills represented by the other expertise groups. In addition, the performance of psychologists was better in some respects than that of police and psychics, suggesting that an educated insight into human behavior might be relatively pertinent to psychological profiling. On the other hand, it would seem that psychics relied on nothing more than the social stereotype of a murderer in their production of the offender's profile. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved) TI: An explanation of the profiling of hostage incidents in HM Prison Service. SO: Issues-in-Criminological-and-Legal-Psychology. 1997; No 29: 41-46 PB: United Kingdom: British Psychological Society. AB: The aim of this paper is to begin the process of providing an objective basis on which to distinguish between incident types. Nominal data are gathered from 86 hostage incidents in HM Prison Service, representing perpetrators' behaviours during each one. A multidimensional scaling procedure called smallest space analysis (SSA), is used to examine which behaviours tend to occur together in the same incident. Groups of behaviors that tend to co-occur are then identified. The features of each group of associated behaviours provide the basis on which to establish incident types. The potential of using a medical diagnostic framework for research into optimizing negotiation strategies during hostage incidents is discussed, with specific reference to the role that an incident typology could play within it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved) No doubt, like in most other areas in our field, not all studies are positive. Here's an example for a negative one: TI: Investigative experience and accuracy in psychological profiling of a violent crime. SO: Journal-of-Interpersonal-Violence. 2002 Aug; Vol 17(8): 811-823 PB: US: Sage Publications. AB: Although psychological profiling has achieved wide acceptance in law enforcement investigations, there has been little empirical research into the skills required for profiling. One attribute that is frequently cited as quintessential for effective profiling is experience in police investigations. In a study similar in design to R. N. Kocsis et al (see record 2000-13955-006), this study examined the importance in profiling of investigative experience by testing groups of homicide detectives, senior police detectives, trainee detectives, police recruits, and undergraduate chemistry students. The chemistry students tended to produce the most accurate profiles of the perpetrator of a closed homicide case. Of all the groups, the chemistry students most consistently outperformed a control group given no information about the case when constructing a profile of the offender. There was also some evidence of an inverse relationship between investigative experience and profile accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved) Cordially, Danny On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Actually most of us don't know these people except on TV, and if you have > something besides anecdotal testimony (controlled scientific study) about the > accuracy of profiling, I'd like to see it. As far as I understand, there is no > solid evidence for it's usefulness, anymore than there is evidence > supporting the usefulness of psychics who "solve crimes." > > Profiling is a bunch of hoodoo. I am not proud of it, I loathe it. It's just > one more media circus version of psychology. This is not my psychological > science, it's simple bunk. > > Nancy Melucci > Long Beach City College > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
