Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis -
Brent E. Turvey, Diana Tamlyn (Contributor), W. Jerry Chisum (Contributor)
Summary - Brent Turvey presents an introduction to the field of criminal profiling that is long overdue on the market. However, students that expect a step-by-step teaching guide to profiling will be disappointed. This book does not put one through the logical procedures and considerations of building a profile but rather focuses on the ideologies and uses of profiling and how profiling is viewed as a tool and a profession from within and without law enforcement. Turvey includes one case example he would have been wise to leave out (West Memphis Three) and graphic pictures that serve no purpose in connection with the information included in this text. Turvey does give good credit to the authors of work accomplished in the field and these references will be very useful to the student of profiling. All in all, this is an exceptional book and a wonderful contribution to the field of profiling.
Preface - Turvey brings up the issues that have prevented criminal profiling from being an effective profession. He notes that criminal profilers have been kept out of the field of serial homicide investigation by agencies that are unwilling to or seek help or share information with outside entities (p.xxvii-xxviii). Turvey makes a valid point that this is due to either policy or political intimidation. There are no laws that actually prevent the sharing of information with the public or outside experts but egos, a militaristic police culture, habit, and misguided good intentions and misunderstanding of serial homicide also add to this problem. Turvey also points out that big egos, unethical behavior and lack of accountability has given profiling a bad name (p.xxix). He is definitely right about this and he even proves as much by his own behavior that has caused a great deal of animosity in the profession. Turvey also speak to profilers not selling out to a particular agency and biasing their profiles in accordance to their wishes (p.xxx) but in this Turvey has been most egregious himself in breaking this rule by attempting to jumpstart his profiling career by accepting profiling work for the defense in high profile cases and tailoring his profiles to their purposes.
An Overview of Criminal Profiling
Turvey follows the development of criminal profiling in history. Certainly, Dr. Brussels helped develop interest in criminal profiling methods in the middle 1900s but Turvey correctly points out that misunderstanding of Brussel's abilities has led even present-day thinkers to believe that a profile can pinpoint characteristics of an offender in such detail as to practically draw a portrait of the individual. Turvey notes that only one of Brussel's profiles was ever validated as being 'correct' and even that one was not written down (p.8). Turvey expresses legitimate concern that closure of a case not be based on a profile alone thereby possibly causing a miscarriage of justice. It is interesting that Turvey has testified in a court of law himself for the defense, attempting to set free a criminal by basing conclusions on his profile and not on the overwhelming physical and circumstantial evidence presented.
Inductive Criminal Profiling
In this chapter and the next, Turvey attempts to explain the difference between inductive and deductive criminal profiling. Unfortunately, he does not understand the methods himself and draws spurious conclusions that cloud the subject all the more. Turvey states that inductive reasoning involves broad generalizations or statistical reasoning that draws erroneous conclusions about a specific situation from probabilities for the larger population. He says that while this may be true in general, it may not be true in this particular case. Turvey then defines deductive profiling as drawing logical conclusion from only the case at hand (p.16). Turvey goes on to claim that the inductive profiler assumes the validity of the premises he bases his conclusions on but does not actually validate them. What Turvey fails to appreciate is that his definition of deductive reasoning does not necessarily prevent equally erroneous conclusions to be arrived at through equally faulty premises. For example, Turvey might view the use of inductive profiling's arrival at a conclusion that the multiple stab wounds in a victim were caused by the offender's serious anger because research states very angry offenders stab multiple times. He would argue that the data might be faulty and even if it were true that most angry offenders stab multiple times, in this case maybe a nonangry person stabbed the victim many times. Then Turvey would argue that we must start with the forensic evidence. We have a victim with many stab wounds. He would than use logic to conclude the reason the offender stabbed the victim so many times is because he was angry. Turvey's logic is even LESS logical than the inductive reasoning. At least the inductive reasoning had some empirical studies to back it while Turvey simply would have made his own conclusions based on his own opinion which he claims is logical. In reality, inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning work together. Inductive reasoning gives us the parameters in which to conduct deductive reasoning. In the example, we would have to have some examples of stabbing behavior in a larger sample to even begin to deductively decide that such wounds on a body could have been enacted due to a specific behavior. I would agree, however, with Turvey's statement that premises are rarely validated. This is true for a great many of the premises in criminal profiling. For this reason, Criminal Investigative Psychology is conducting research into crime scene behaviors that will provide a stronger factual base than what we have access to today. I would also agree with Turvey that the proper language of any profile should use the appropriately qualitative words such as "likely" or "probably" as any inductive or DEDUCTIVE profile is still only a product of probability (p.17).
The
Sexual Homicide Exchange
1730 New Brighton Blvd #325
Minneapolis, MN 55413
651-653-4099
fax 443-342-1277
Email information@sheprofilers.com
