Pros And Cons Criminal Profiling In Criminal Cases Criminology Essay

Pros And Cons Criminal Profiling In Criminal Cases Criminology Essay Many people who hear someone say they are a criminal profiler they are inclined to think of T.V. depicted shows such as Profilers, Criminal Minds and movies like Silence of the Lambs. Unfortunately, these examples portray a glamorous classification of capturing criminals (Fulero and Wrightsman, pg.79). Criminal profiling is considered to be the process of analyzing a crime scene and using the information found to determine the identity or features of a perpetrator. Although this does not give you the perpetrators name, it can be helpful in narrowing down suspects. For example, a profiling based on a crime scene provides information that may include personality, sex, age, ethnic background, and possible physical features such as scars, tattoos, birthmarks, or height and weight of the perpetrator. This type of information can be used to identify possible suspects, but it also depends on who fits the profile (www.mtholyoke.edu). The process of psychological profiling was first used as a method in America during the 1950s. Investigators found fascinating patterns and similarities between serial killers behaviors. Selected patterns found consist of the killers having suffered from abuse at a young age. Whether it was sexual or physical this kind of abuse led to abnormal behaviors later on. During a range of young ages through teenage years, they would start fires and they were cruel to animals or other children. Then in the late teenage years to early twenties, were engaging in petty crime and defying authority (www.library.thinkquest.org). According to some, committing serious criminal acts usually starts at about or around the persons mid to late 20s. Particularly at this older age range being able to manipulate victims and show a significance of power or domination is a main motivation for criminals, as well sexual intentions. Murdering someone gives the perpetrator sense of control in which they have never had before. Some criminals feel that they need to relive the events that occurred during the murder or crime, so they take something of personal value from the victim. Such as, jewelry, clothing and they go as far as body parts (www.library.thinkquest.org). Â   Personality is considered by many to be one of the most important parts of criminal profiling. The personality profiles of criminals are the way in which a crime is committed, also known as the method of operations or M.O. The M.O. includes the identity of the victim, what the victim or victims have in common, the weapons that were used, the lack of sympathy, and the sign of any torture and/or sexual molestation. Analyzing these aspects of the crime scene, an investigator can determine the motives of the perpetrator. This can lead to the description of the perpetrators personality, or a personality profile (www.mtholyoke.edu). Appropriately, criminal profilers have methods in which they operate by. According to www.criminalprofiling .ch, there are seven profiling methods and six scientific approaches to profiling of criminal suspects. In the profiling methods, the first is the evaluation of the criminal act itself. Included in the act would be the M.O. and the signature. The signature is in disregards to why he does the acts he does, or the thing that fulfills him emotionally. Then an evaluation of the precision of the crime scene or scenes would be taken. An analysis of the victim or victims is conduced, this is also known as victimology. Victimology is the thorough study and analysis of victim characteristics. The characteristics of an individual offenders victim population of choice, in a single offense or over time, can lend themselves to deductive inferences about offender motive, modus operandi, and the determination of crime scene signature. Subsequently, an evaluation of the preliminary police reports is seized, as well as the medical examiners autopsy protocol. As a result, the set up of a profile with critical offender characteristics is constructed. Lastly, an investigative suggestion to a prediction on the construct of the profile is constructed. The next level is to check with local investigators and propose practical strategies to get the unidentified subject or UNSUB to make a move. Then there are the scientific approaches to profiling criminal suspects. Initially there is profiling inputs. Inside this first stage an accumulation of all information about the crime is pulled together. Information that includes physical evidence from the crime scene, photographs of the crime scene, any autopsy reports and photos, witness testimonies, background information about the victim or victims and police reports. At this stage the criminal profiler does not want to know about suspects because it could cause a prejudice direction to their profile. Second are the decision process models. Within the decision processing model the profiler organizes all information into questions and patterns through many dimensions of criminal activities. Questions such as, what type of homicide has been committed, what is the primary motive of the crime and so on. Third is the crime assessment. Based on the findings of the other stages, the profiler tries to recreate the behavior of the offend er and the victim. For example, as general profiling rules say: vile facial injuries are directed to killers who know their victims, murders committed with any weapon that happens to be available display greater impulsivity than murders committed with a gun and may reveal a killer who lives rather closely to the victim and murders performed early in the morning rarely involve alcohol or drug use (www.criminalprofiling.ch). Fourth is the initial criminal profile. This is where the profiler formulates the scetch of the most likely suspects. The majority of usual profiles include such items as the perpetrators race, marital status, sex, age, where they live, employment history, past criminal records, psychological characteristics and beliefs and values. Fifth is the investigation stage. The investigation stage involves a written report that is given to the investigators that concentrate on suspects matching the profile. Most likely the police have already talked to the suspected but ha d no reason to doubt the suspects testimony. Still, if evidence is introduced at this stage the profile would need to be revised. Preceding the investigation stage is the apprehension stage. Ultimately, the main objective of the stages was to capture the right suspect which in turn leads to the interview technique. With the purpose of getting the perpetrator to confess or talk about the crimes he has committed, this technique can lead to helping in assessing he influences of background and psychological variables (www.criminalprofiling.ch). Investigators putting together a profile use another two approaches inductive and deductive. Inductive profiling imply believing that when a criminal commits a crime they have relate motive or experience of someone who has committed the same type of crime . An example of this is re-offending rapists whose target is white women, more often than not are most likely not to be black. Based on the fact that crimes in the past that have been similar have rarely crossed racial lines. However, these statements have been inquired and have encountered a lot of publicized negative aspects. Deductive profiling involves a process that avoids generalizations and averages. This method involves carefully studying suspects in great detail and changing findings in when new evidence emerges. A deductive profile is established on the offenders actions prior to, in the course of and after committing the crime. For example, if the murderer used a provisional weapon, the investigators are then able to assume that the crime was most likely random. Another example entails serial murderers. At this juncture, investigators are able to find out if the murder was organized. Which means that the killer carried out a planned attack on the victim, or if the attack was disorganized the murder was unplanned and the killer conducted themselves in an inexact way. Organized killers tend to carry a tool kit that has a mask, gloves, duct tape and rope. With these tools they can bind their victims while hiding their identity and not leave finger prints. The Inductive profiling model, due to the lack of training and education of those who use it, has been proven to be an unreliable investigative tool. No standard terminology exists to describe offender behavior, and no classifications that have been developed have been absolutely validated. Still, those classifications have been developed using the same structure and philosophy as the DSM, short for The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, despite the intention that the DSM be used for the purposes of treatment, and not being designed for the purposes of criminal investigation. The adoption of this clinical model, then, serves no other real purpose than to lend pseudo-clinical credibility to the classification. The model arguably does not serve the purpose that it was designed for. Additionally, initial statistical analysis based on unproven classifications and non-uniform terminologies are no replacement for a thorough forensic reconstruction, crime scene analysis, and victimological assessment in either a criminal investigation or in a court of law. Given this fact, and given the extensive liability of police departments in high profile cases involving overly enthusiastic investigators armed with Inductive Profile evidence, and the generally unacceptability of Inductive Profile evidence in a court of law, the practice of teaching investigators purely Inductive Profiling methods should end. The Deductive Profiling method, although more time devoted to investigators, will prove to be more valuable because of its beneficial use as a guide, its ability to link together crimes, and because of its extremely high providing of proof value in terms of thoroughly establishing signature and motivation. Briefly, the Deductive Profiling method promotes refection, capability, carefulness, and requires an elevated degree of intra- and extra-departmental unification and communication. The Inductive Profiling method supports selfishness, short-cuts, and has been used before to substitute an experienced investigation into fact. Criminal profiling is used not only to find possible offenders, but it also helps narrow down a list of offenders that the police have already compiled. Although it doesnt work in every case, criminal profiling has helped investigators to catch many criminals. Through assessing the patterns and motives of previous criminals, criminal profiling allows investigators to accurately predict the characteristics of future and current offenders, which allows killers and other perpetrators to be caught before they can continue on to other crimes (www.wisegeek.com). Predictable, criminal profiling does have disadvantages, or cons. Some cons to criminal profiling involve not being able to identify a specific suspect nor reveal a certain individual, let alone an address or phone number. There are even instances when perpetrators purposely staging crime scenes to throw police and investigators off the right track. In many instances, the profiler will not know that area making more room for erroneous conclusions. Furthermore, profilers tend to have more background knowledge in psychopathology than the little background they have in forensic or criminal knowledge. Hence if the investigators and profilers do not work together it can cause the investigation to go unsolved because the information collected from both parties has not been collaborated. While there are cons or disadvantages to criminal profiling not surprisingly there are the pros to criminal profiling. A few advantages comprise of being able to help police with an investigation by making judgment from the crime scene that will give the authorities an idea of how to catch the criminal. There are two types of offender profiling which are the Top-down approach and the Bottom-up approach. The Top-down approach looks at the evidence and data of previous crimes and how they have been solved. The Bottom-up theory seems to profile a criminal in the opposite way. It takes the evidence with the data and builds it up until a reasonable conclusion is reached. Although many people in todays society watch television and see shows that involve criminal profiling, it is a huge misunderstanding of what profiling can truly accomplish. Criminal profilers operating in the sensitive area of criminal investigations receive greater public attention and therefore, will have to display caution in the conclusions they draw in a case. It is always important to recognize that the results of the profiling process are only as proficient as the original investigative efforts and processes which provide or fail to provide the physical evidence from which criminal behavior is reconstructed.

Essay Comparing the Runes and Magic in Beowulf and The Saga of the Volsungs :: comparison compare contrast essays

Runes and Magic in Beowulf and The Saga of the Volsungs      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Old English poem Beowulf and in the Icelandic The Saga of the Volsungs, a saga representing oral traditions dating back to the fourth and fifth centuries, we see the mention of runes, which were used with connotations of magic or charms.    An unknown author wrote the The Saga of the Volsungs in the thirteenth century, basing his story on far older Norse poetry. Iceland was settled by the Vikings about 870-930, who took there the famous lay of Sigurd and the Volsungs. Native Icelandic poets loved the story of Sigurd and the Huns, Goths, Burgundians, with whom he interacted. This prose story is based on traditional Norse verse called Eddic poetry, a form of mythic or heroic lay which developed before 1000 in the oral folk culture of Old Scandinavia. In The Saga of the Volsungs the hero Sigurd is the one who corresponds best with the hero Beowulf in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. George Clark in â€Å"The Hero and the Theme† mentions: â€Å"The form of Beowulf taken as a whole suggests both the ‘Bear’s Son’ folktale type (especially as we find it in Scandinavia) and the ‘combat myth’. . . .† (286). The â€Å"combat myth† is what this saga is. When Sigurd was born, he was t he grandson of King Eylimi; when Beowulf was born, he was the grandson of King Hrethel. The king said of Sigurd that â€Å"none would be his like or equal† (55), and this proved true; Beowulf as a young man was so strong that â€Å"he was the strongest of all living men† (196). The similarities between Sigurd and Beowulf continue through both works.    The Icelandic skald is the equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon scop. He was a storyteller. Icelandic material builds on a long oral tradition just like Anglo-saxon, going back in their stories to the fourth and fifth centuries (Byock 2). Skalds stayed in the royal courts of Scandinavia like their counterparts to the south.    Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon narrative poem whose oral traditions date back to the sixth century. We see the first mention of runes in this poem in connection with the magic sword. When the hero is in deadly combat with Grendel’s mother in the mere, he is at the point of   being killed by the monster when suddenly God shows to him the presence of a special sword nearby on the wall.

What Happens When There Is a Surplus of Imports Brought Into the US

What happens when there is a surplus of imports into the U S: A surplus of imports is good for consumers but bad for local business. We have to produce and manufacture in order to export. As our export trade shrinks, so does our workforce and economy. The surplus of imported cars for 2012 has exceeded the exportation by $152 billion. Also the shelf life of cars is 1 year. Every year at the end of the cycle the existing models are sold off at huge discounts to make room for the new models, which is good for the consumer. What are the effects of international trade to GDP, domestic markets and university students. International trade comprises exports and imports, the net result of which affects our GDP. Since our imports exceed our exports our GDP would be impacted by our net exports or deficits. The rippling effect of financing deficits is an increase in interest rates from selling bonds that reduces investments and growth. This further reduces GDP. Domestic markets flourish when there is a demand for local products overseas. If the domestic markets have to compete with imported products it could be a struggle. However jobs can be created for the advertising, sales, and distribution of foreign imports. The effect of international trade on university students has recently brought about an awareness of a vibrant industry in the education services. Of the $35billion worldwide market for international students, the U S was able to capture a market share of 45%, showing a healthy surplus of $12. 6Billion in higher education. A foreign exchange rate is the rate at which one currency would be exchanged for another. It is essentially the value of a currency when compared to another and is determined by two fundamental forces of economics, supply and demand. When the supply of a currency exceeds the demand, the value of the currency falls. However when the demand for a currency exceeds the supply the value rises. When the value of a currency is low the exchange rate is low and vice versa. Exchange rates of currencies are influenced and determined as a result of a country’s income, changes in interest rates, price of goods and changes in trade policies. When income is high, imports are high and exchange rate is low. When interest rates are high there is a demand for U S currency to invest in U S assets and exchange rate is high. When the prices of local goods are high there is low demand for the local currency in favor of high demand for foreign goods and foreign currency. This results in a low exchange rate. Trade with a foreign country could be adversely affected by hiking trade restrictions like tariff. This increases the cost of imports and lowers the exchange rate. How do government choices in regards to tariffs and quotas affect international relations and trade Tariffs and quotas are just two of the direct methods used in trade restrictions. There are also indirect methods of trade restrictions like protecting the health and safety of residents seen in the importation of consumables, time consuming inspections on general goods, special codes for packaging. Some of these restrictions are imposed for legitimate reasons but most of them are designed to protect the domestic producers from international competition. The most legitimate form of trade restrictions used are tariffs, which are taxes governments impose on internationally traded goods and quotas, which are quantity limits placed on goods imported. Trade is good for all countries because they all have comparative advantages they try to implement amicably with the use of tariffs and quotas. However these restrictions occasionally are used politically to influence relationships with foreign countries. Why doesn’t the U. S. simply restrict all goods coming in from China? Why can’t the U. S. just minimize the amount of imports coming in from other countries: The first reason why the U. S doesn’t restrict all goods coming in from China is because this action would belie the main purpose of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which is to ensure that trade flows freely between nations. The U. S is the largest importer of Chinese goods. If the U. S stops the importation of Chinese goods, it is unimaginable what they would do with all these unused products. There would be no production or manufacturing of goods. Unemployment would be high, there would be no source of income and the country’s economy would be ruined. As the largest importer of Chinese goods most of the local U. S companies rely on these imports for doing business. They import spare parts, automibles, manufacturing goods, appliances, electronics and building materials just to name a few. If Chinese imports are stopped the economy of both countries would be ruined as well as the world’s economy. In order to minimize the amount of imports coming in from all other countries the U. S government would have to change the regulatory trade restrictions that are resently in place by increasing taxes and quotas. This would not be in the best interest of the U. S economy. We rely heavily on imports. If we do this, the other companies would retaliate. The Smoot-Hawley tariff was tried in 1930 when tariff on imported goods was raised to an average of 60% . As a result, trade wars ensued and the international trade plummeted f rom $60 billion in 1928 to $25billion in 1938. In 2002 President George Bush imposed a 30% tariff on imported steel, the EU countries, Japan, and China retaliated with threats of $335million worth of tariffs on U. S imports (Colander, 2010). No country has all the resources it needs. There might be lots of oil in the desert but there is lack of food, water and trees. Countries have to rely on their neighbors to fulfill their wants and needs. Even though China might want to impose unfair trade practices yet we cannot shut off their imports, because they are our lifeline just as we are theirs. The world satisfies its wants and needs through Trade. Without it lots of countries would not survive. References Colander, D. (2010). Macroeconomics (8th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw_Hill/Irwin. http://useconomy.about.com/od/tradepolicy/p/Trade_Deficit.htm http://trade.gov/press/publications/newsletters/ita_0909/higher_0909.asp

“The Changing Reality of the American Family- Same Sex...

â€Å"The Changing Reality of the American Family- Same Sex Parenting â€Å" An estimated two million children are being raised in a single or same sex parent in the United States. The exact number of children raised in this type home cannot be determined due to the secrecy resulting from the stigma associated with homosexuality (Perrin, Siegel 3). Families of same sex parents often resemble step families formed after heterosexual couples divorce. Due to social acceptance of diversity in sexual orientation (Perrin 2), same sex parenting is forever changing the traditional make-up of the American Family (working biological father, biological mother and children.) There are conflicting researches on the impact of a child being raised in a same sex†¦show more content†¦The results of this study concluded that adolescents who were raised in lesbian-mother families since birth demonstrated healthy psychological adjustment. The children of lesbian parents were rated significantl y higher is social, school/academic, and total competence and significantly lower in social problems, rule breaking, aggressive and externalizing problem behavior than their aged match counterparts (Perrin, Siegel 7). The American Academy of Pediatrics (APA) states, â€Å"Empirical evidence reveals that gay fathers have substantial evidence of nurturance and investment in their paternal role and no differences from heterosexual fathers in providing for or dealing with general problems of parenting.† Gay fathers tend to be more involved with their children’s activities, have stricter disciplinary rules, and place emphasis on guidance and cognitive skills (Perrin 3). As the children come of age in same sex families there is no evidence to support the claim that children’s masculine or feminine tendencies were affected by having gay or lesbian parents, nor were the quality of their family relationships different (Pawelski et. al 18). According to the APA report there was no significant difference in sexuality between intact parents children and those who were raised by same sex parents. The study concluded that theShow MoreRelatedEssay about Todays Adolescents: A Look at Sexual Development4190 Words   |  17 PagesToday’s Adolescent: a look at Sexual Development Puberty What role does early puberty play in sex? As childhood slowly fades away and the signs of puberty becomes apparent on the young adolescent body. During puberty the body undergoes many physical changes that seemingly just appear. For girls in the early years of adolescence may not see any secondary changes in their appearance however their ovaries began to grow. 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