Janelle Rogers

Janelle Rogers is a Senior at Minnesotat State University Moorhead with a double major in Criminal Justice and Psychology, graduating in December, 1999 with honors (Magna Cum Laude). She is a member of the Psychology Honor Society, Psi Chi. She has worked her way through college by working about half time. She is currently working in the Prairie Psychiatric Center in Fargo.

Ms Rogers will attend graduate school, beginning fall, 2000, and plans to complete her Doctorate in Psychology. She wants to work either in a Hospital setting or as a private practitioner. She does not want to administer Psychological tests, but rather be a counselor.

As a psychology student, Janelle eagerly anticipated the talk by a pioneer in the young field of Criminal Profiling, psychologist and former FBI agent, Robert Ressler this fall. Here she reports on that talk.

What do Criminal Profilers really do?

Science, not visions

TV shows such as "Profiler" and "X-Files" have clouded public notions about what profilers do. These shows portray the profiler as an individual with psychic powers who arrives on the scene and visualizes the events that occurred. Robert Ressler, a retired FBI agent and one of the pioneers of criminal profiling, made a recent presentation to MSUM students. He distinguished real world profilers from those portrayed on TV for entertainment. Profiling, according to Ressler is a logical process in which specially trained individuals aid investigators at the scene of the crime. ^{Editor's Note}. No visions, no psychic powers, just solving crimes based upon the evidence at the scene.

Profiling and serial crimes

Profilers are contacted by law enforcement to examine the evidence of similar cases to determine if there are any clues that would point to a serial offender, usually involving violent personal crime. Serial murderers often repeat their crime in the same manner, leaving a pattern that profilers use to distinguish serial killers from other murderers. Profilers then incorporate aspects of the social sciences, such as theories of personality and theories of crime to make inferences about the serial killer that aid law enforcement to identify and to capture the offender. This process is logical - it is based upon both evidence and theory. Together, theory plus evidence allow trained profilers to make connections between similar crimes, facilitating an arrest before the murderer can kill again.

Policy questions

What is the "right" way to deal with serial murderers? Throughout his discussion on the well known cases of serial murder, Ressler stressed that society should adopt a more preventative stance. Our current stance is punitive - we send serial killers to prison, usually to await execution. Ressler suggested that money would be better spent hiring 10,000 more school psychologists for classrooms to give guidance to adolescents than it would be recruiting 10,000 more police officers to put on the streets. As the number of single parent households continues to rise, children have less stability and structure. If psychologists in the classroom "save" even a few children from violent criminal careers, this is a greater social contribution than identifying, capturing and punishing current violent offenders. He argues that before we implement yet another form of deterrence, we should attempt to provide the structure and support an increasing number of children lack.

Thought and Discussion

1. Contrast Ressler's description of the work of profilers with the TV version. In what ways are TV shows like X-files and Profiler consistent or inconsistent with Rogers' depiction? Can you think of a TV show or movie that is more accurate?
   
   
2. What training do you think criminal profilers need?

   There are many books on Criminal profiling. Examine reviews of a few to answer this question. This link has brief reviews of several. One of the commonly sited is An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis by Brent E. Turvey. It is reviewed at the Barnes and Nobles site: Here
   
   

3. Despite public attraction to, yet ignorance of criminal profile, there are many web sites about Criminal Profiling. Here is a Search on criminal profiling that will turn up sites that realistically and unrealistically depict the job. Can you tell the difference?
   
   
4. Compare Rogers' description of Criminal Profiling with some law enforcement extensions.
   1. The "Drug Courier Profile," is a short hand description, a stereotype really, used at airports to spot likely drug couriers for special attention. Read this Pittsburg Press 1991 article on airport searches.
   2. Controversial "Racial Profiling" has been used in many areas of the nation to selectively stop, question and search minority drivers on roadways and strangers in residential areas. The ACLU comments on racial profiling include discussions of DWB ("driving while black") and other practices.

   A quick internet search for either drug courier profile or racial profiling will locate many similar stories and comments. The common thread of the stories is that these practices are over broad and allow law enforcement to justify virtually any airport search or any traffic stop.

   What do you think? Why? Are these Law Enforcement extensions of the idea of profiling threats to basic civil liberties or important law enforcement tools?