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Advances in Offender Profiling: A Systematic Review of the Profiling Literature Published Over the Past Three Decades

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Abstract

Despite the immense popularity of offender profiling as both a topic of fascination for the general public as well as an academic field of study, concerns have been raised about the development of this area of scientific inquiry. The present study provides a preliminary step towards moving the field forward as it reviews the type and quality of studies dealing with offender profiling over the past 31 years. Based on a content analysis of 132 published articles, the review indicates that researchers investigating this phenomenon rarely publish multiple articles, and they are generally reported across many different journals, thereby making knowledge synthesis and knowledge transfer problematic. In addition, the majority of papers published in the area are discussion pieces (e.g., discussing what profiling is, how profiles are constructed, and when profiling is useful), despite the fact that the processes underlying offender profiling are still not well understood. Finally, although peer-reviewed articles exploring this topic have steadily increased, the statistical sophistication of these studies is sorely lacking, with most including no statistics or formal analyses of data. Suggestions for future research and recommendations to streamline efforts in this field are provided based on the results of this review.

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Notes

  1. In contrast to quantitative summaries of experimental effects, where it is important to include unpublished documents to minimize any potential publication biases (e.g., a tendency for journals to accept manuscripts that report statistically significant findings), omitting unpublished documents from quantitative reviews of the current type is less of a problem.

  2. The problem here was one of distinguishing between cases where a specific crime type was simply mentioned on numerous occasions in an article and cases where that specific crime type was really the focus of the article.

  3. Note that the last column in this graph only covers a two-year period (2006 and 2007).

  4. In the event of a tie, the journals were arranged alphabetically.

  5. In the event of a tie, the authors were arranged alphabetically by their last name.

  6. This is also true of course for many of the other researchers included in the sample (e.g., David Canter).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1S 5B6

    Craig Dowden, Craig Bennell & Sarah Bloomfield

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  1. Craig Dowden
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  2. Craig Bennell
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  3. Sarah Bloomfield
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Correspondence to Craig Bennell.

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Appendix

Appendix

Coding guide

  1. 1.

    Authors: Name of study authors

  2. 2.

    Affiliation: Discipline of study authors

    1. 1.

      Psychologists (>75%)

    2. 2.

      FBI agents (>75%)

    3. 3.

      Sociologists (>75%)

    4. 4.

      Criminologists (>75%)

    5. 5.

      Forensic Psychiatrists (>75%)

    6. 6.

      Police (>75%)

    7. 7.

      Multidisciplinary

    8. 8.

      Other (please specify) (>75%)

  3. 3.

    Year: Date of publication

  4. 4.

    Journal: Name of journal

  5. 5.

    Crime Type:

    1. 1.

      Serial homicide

    2. 2.

      Rape

    3. 3.

      Arson

    4. 4.

      Homicide

    5. 5.

      Burglary

    6. 6.

      Child crimes

    7. 7.

      Unspecified

    8. 8.

      Mixed

    9. 9.

      Other

  6. 6.

    Emphasis: Main emphasis of the article

    1. 1.

      Case study: An article that reviews one or several case studies

    2. 2.

      Comparison study: An article that compares various groups in terms of their performance on a profiling task

    3. 3.

      Theoretical piece: An article that presents theories about new directions in the field

    4. 4.

      Evaluation study: An article that evaluates specific profiling methods/techniques

    5. 5.

      Experimental study: An article that presents an experiment related to profiling (i.e., controlled conditions used to test specified hypotheses)

    6. 6.

      Basic assumption study: An article that tests any of the basic assumptions inherent in profiling (i.e., temporal stability, cross-situational consistency, structure in crime scene behaviours and/or background characteristics, etc.)

    7. 7.

      Descriptive study: An article that describes in detail the process of profiling

    8. 8.

      Literature review: An article whose sole purpose is to review, in detail, past studies done on profiling

    9. 9.

      Discussion piece: An article with no real academic basis, but rather a brief discussion of past ideas, cases, techniques, or theories (there may be a fine line between this category and some literature reviews, but literature reviews are more focused)

    10. 10.

      Legal implications: An article dealing with any of the legal implications associated with profiling

  7. 7.

    Statistical sophistication: Level of statistics employed in the study

    1. 0.

      Zero statistics used

    2. 1.

      Descriptive statistics used

    3. 2.

      Inferential statistics used

  8. 8.

    Peer Reviewed: Is the article from a peer-reviewed journal

    1. 0.

      No

    2. 1.

      Yes

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Dowden, C., Bennell, C. & Bloomfield, S. Advances in Offender Profiling: A Systematic Review of the Profiling Literature Published Over the Past Three Decades. J Police Crim Psych 22, 44–56 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-007-9000-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-007-9000-9

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