Criminal Profiling: Principles and Practices
Perfis Criminais: Princípios e Práticas
Course code:9219316
Cristina Branca Bento de Matos Soeiro
Learning outcomes of the curricular unit:
The criminal profiling is a forensic tool that is intended to help police investigators to accurately predict and profile the characteristics of criminal subjects or offenders of a violent crime. The aim of this curricular unit is to allow: Know the basics of criminal profiling and its origins; understand the concept and those contributions recognize criminal behavior patterns and motive; outline and construct a criminal profile based on scientific assessments and assumptions. The students must be able to define a criminal profiler, describe the criminal profiling process, describe profiling decision process models, recognize the most important studies about validity and accuracy of a criminal profile and identify the profile of different violent criminal contexts.
Syllabus:
- The concept of forensic criminal profile.
- Historical evolution of the concept of forensic profile.
- The building process of forensic criminal profile.
- Technical approaches to criminal forensics profile.
- Validity of forensic criminal profile.
- Studies of validity and accuracy of criminal forensics profile.
- Criminal profiles associated with violent crime: sex crimes, homicide, arson, robbery with firearm.
Suggested Bibliography:
- Brookman F, Maguire M, Pierpoint H & Bennet T (2010) Handbook on Crime. Devon: Willan Publishing.
- Canter D (2006) Psychology of offender profiling. In Keppel R, Offender profiling (pp. 49-58). Mason: Thomson.
- Chifflet P (2015) Questioning the validity of criminal profiling: An evidence-based approach. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, Vol. 48(2) 238–255. DOI: 10.1177/0004865814530732
- Kocsis RN (2006) Criminal profiling: Principles and practice. Totowa: Humana Press.
- Kocsis R & Palermo G (2016). Criminal profiling as expert witness evidence: The implications of the profiler validity research. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. November. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijlp