Question

Advantages and Disadvantages of Psychological Profiling Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Psychological Profiling. Provide examples to support your position.

Answer 1

Psychological Profiling is an important facet in comprehending the mind of a criminal, and, hence, make it relatively easier for the law enforcement to narrow down on criminals, and apprehend them.

Of course, like every other technique in the field, there are boons and banes adhered to this process as well.

Some pros of psychological profiling are as follows:

Predictive powers - psychological profiling offers data over all the circumstantial data which is visible to the naked eye, it provides an insight and perspective to view the minute details, that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, a new focal point.  

Protection - Corollary to the aforementioned point, not only does it aid in anticipating the next move of a given criminal, but it also helps in protecting a potential victim based on the pattern of the criminal.

Identify from a pool of suspects - While investigating a crime, the investigators seldom jump onto the right person at the right time, there are always a list of suspects and loop hole that need to be addressed before a person is convicted for a crime. In order to make the right decision psychological profiling comes into picture.

Beyond Material Aspects - Psychological profiling goes beyond the superficial identifiers and attributes of an individual, and digs deeper into the psyche of a person, constituting the personal as well as mental characteristics of the individual, which helps in accurate identification.

Some cons would be:

Doe snot account for randomness - Psychological profiling is based on consistencies with which a particular profile is built. If there is an incidence of random crime. This could lead to lapses in law enforcement.

Based on assumptions- The entire premise of psychological profiling is based on a multitude of assumptions made about a criminal through a pattern, but there are probabilities of the pattern being amiss, which could have dire consequences such as convicting of the wrong person.

Standardization - Apart from a few tests that can be administered to a person, the results fo which can be obtained through objective interpretation due to the prevalence of a scoring norm; the process of psychological profiling is subjective. Different investigators will have different interpretations of a particular behavior or a particular patter which would lead to discrepancies in the final result, and lapses in the conceptualization of the profile.