Criminal profiling

Criminal profiling uses behavioral patterns and crime-scene evidence to infer characteristics of an unknown offender. Its conclusions are investigative hypotheses, not proof of identity or guilt.

Behavioral evidence analysis: The systematic interpretation of actions and choices recorded in evidence to infer behavior or offender characteristics. This is the broader analytic process that turns observed conduct into profiling hypotheses.
Cesare Lombroso: An Italian physician who proposed that criminality could be identified through inherited physical traits. His theories were an early attempt to infer offender characteristics, though their biological claims were discredited.
Serial murder: The unlawful killing of multiple people in separate events by the same offender, with a period between killings. Repeated offenses can provide behavioral patterns that investigators examine for a profile.
Forensic identification: The use of physical or biological evidence to associate a person or object with a particular source. Unlike profiling, identification can directly associate evidence with a source rather than infer offender traits.
Confirmation bias: The tendency to favor information that supports existing beliefs while discounting conflicting information. A premature profile can steer investigators toward evidence that confirms their initial assumptions.
Crime scene analysis: The examination of a crime scene to reconstruct events and interpret physical and behavioral evidence. Scene reconstruction supplies the behavioral observations a profile attempts to interpret.
Hugh C. M. McDonald: A U.S. law-enforcement investigator associated with developing geographic methods for locating serial offenders. His work helped establish crime-location analysis as a profiling method.
Serial rape: A series of sexual assaults committed by the same offender in separate incidents. Repeated victim selection and offense behavior can support comparisons across linked cases.
DNA profiling: The analysis of genetic markers to distinguish individuals or assess biological relationships. Despite the shared word, DNA profiling identifies biological profiles rather than behavioral characteristics.
Anchoring bias: The tendency for an initial piece of information to influence later judgments disproportionately. An early offender description may distort how later evidence is interpreted.

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