Insanity and competency
Name
Institution
Insanity and competency
Introduction
The Federal Criminal Profiler is responsible for helping in the identification of suspects, especially during criminal investigations (Fergurson, 2014). Notably, criminal profiling helps in presenting new leads while dealing with cases, and in the instance that it focuses on the wrong direction, it may not provide substantive results. It is believed that the FBI developed offender profiling in the 1970s (Fergurson, 2014).
The primary purpose was to help law enforcers to solve mystery crimes relating to serial crimes (Fergurson, 2014). However, a criminal profiler has the responsibility of gathering information that would help investigators meet their goals and attain investigation relevance. It is worth noting that during criminal profiling, the FBI incorporates both law enforcers and psychologists (Fergurson, 2014). Thus, does a background in law enforcement lead to a positive result for a criminal profiler as compared to recruiting one with a psychology background?
Evaluation of an appropriate background for a federal criminal profiler
In most cases, criminal profilers target high-end crimes, notably capital offenses such as murder, rape, or arson. During interviewing the suspect, the detective uses psychology to help in creating a profile of the accused person (McClure, 2020). However, the legal element of the case enables the criminal profiler to understand the motive of the crime. Additionally, case profilers ought to understand the purpose and pattern analysis of the case. Importantly, during the investigation phase, criminal profilers focus on developing strategies that could be used to apprehend the unknown criminal (McClure, 2020).
Further, they analyze the possible recurrence of the crime by examining the patterns presented (Winerman, 2004). However, in as much as criminal profiling involves evaluating the psychology of the accused, studies indicate that a criminal profiler should be more conversant with the criminal justice system rather than a forensic psychologist (Winerman, 2004). Ultimately, a criminal profiler with a law enforcement background is in a position to evaluate both the mensrea and actus reus of the case (Winerman, 2004).
Besides, all cases have a unique mensrea, and actus Reus and such conversant knowledge is limited to a person with forensic psychology (Winerman, 2004). In essence, the law enforcers work hand in hand with the forensic psychologists to integrate psychology into crime investigation. However, despite the existing loopholes, the FBI prefers having law enforcers as criminal profilers rather than forensic psychologists (Winerman, 2004).
Further, law enforcers’ personnel are used as criminal profilers since a vast majority of investigative psychology focuses on three aspects (Griffith, 2019). This includes; the offender’s behavior, the social psychology of the group of crimes, and the cognitive psychology of investigative psychology (Griffith, 2019). Additionally, during offender profiling, the characteristic and evidence gathered at the crime scene significantly affects profiles sketch. Thus, this approach affirms the importance of using law enforcers as criminal profilers rather than forensic psychologists. Notably, one of the main misconceptions about criminal profiling is that the crime profilers make assumptions about the offender’s personalities (Griffith, 2019).
Additionally, law enforcers have substantive knowledge of the specific evidence needed for the case that one could gather within the crime scene (Griffith, 2019). Profiling also determines the quality of the data collected on the current criminal and any other criminal accused of the same offense. This strategy has been effective in solving mysteries relating to serial killers. As a trained law enforcer, one has prior knowledge of geographical mapping that could help in narrowing the jurisdiction where the crime may have occurred (Griffith, 2019). This could equally help in providing meaningful information on the case, such as the patterns of crimes and the frequency. Hence, as a forensic psychologist, the narrative is limited to only one aspect, which is to understand the underlying factors that may contribute to the crime but not strategies in place to solve them (Griffith, 2019).
Analysis of serial crimes and the role of criminal profilers
In most cases, criminal profilers focus on capital offenses such as murder, sexual offenses, or arson. Most of the crimes occur in privacy, leaving loopholes for the profiler to find conclusive evidence to convict the accused person (Merckens, 2019). This study will focus on criminal profiling in the context of a serial killer. First, from a psychological analysis, the background of a serial killer is essential since it explains the main factors prompting the behavior (Merckens, 2019). However, there is a need to differentiate between speculations and inferences when the case profiler evaluates the instances. Noteworthy, criminal profilers focus on matters that are relatively complex to solve and are considered capital offenses (Merckens, 2019).
Thus, since the accused in these cases are unidentified, the formulae used involve evaluating the characteristics to establish the actus reus (Merckens, 2019). Therefore, as a law enforcer, one has the knowledge that could help in linking the crime scenes and the personality trait. For instance, most serial killers tend to have pre-existing psychological problems that prompt them to commit such crimes. Hence, based on the above analysis, it is evident that as law enforcers, one has more experience as a criminal profiler as compared to a forensic psychologist (Merckens, 2019).
References
Fergurson, C. (2014). Investigative Relevance. In Profiling and serial crime (pp. 167-184). Academic Press.
Griffith, A. (2019). The Psychology of criminal investigation. Sage Publication. Retrieved from https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/89767_Chapter_3_Psychology_of_Investigations.pdf
McClure, M. (2020). Key characteristics of a criminal profiler. Retrieved from Chron: https://work.chron.com/key-characteristics-criminal-profiler-23449.html
Merckens, M. (2019). Criminal profiling: Myth or fact? Tilburg, Netherlands: Tilburg University. Retrieved from http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=148280
Winerman, L. (2004). Criminal profiling: the reality behind the myth. American Psychological Association, 35(7), 66. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/criminal