Criminal Profiling: Developing an Effective Science and Practice (Law and Public Policy: Psychology and the Social Sciences)

"Criminal Profiling: Developing an Effective Science and Practice" aims to transform criminal profiling into a credible science and practice that will reliably aid law enforcement investigation. Authors Scotia J. Hicks and Bruce D. Sales painstakingly critique the state of criminal profiling today and find the practice of criminal profiling to be an art more than an established science, lacking clear links among crime scene evidence and offender motives, personality, and behavior. With no firm scientific basis for their judgments, profilers differ in their conclusions and recommendations, rendering profiling problematic as a law enforcement tool. This book tackles this problem squarely, exploring in detail how a science of profiling may be constructed and tested. The comprehensive new approach offered here builds on existing practice and research and calls for empirical information that can lead to a sound new science of criminal profiling.