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Criminal ProfilingA career in Criminal Profiling has rose in popularity, due to frequent media portrayals. Most agree that this specialization within the criminal justice career has developed within the law enforcement community, particularly the FBI. Specifically, the Behavioral Science Unit, within the Federal Bureau of Investigation. What is Criminal Profiling? Profiling involves investigating the crime scene and using finding from this investigation to determine the identity of the criminal. This procedure is used to help law enforcement officers narrow down suspects and lead the crime investigation closer to finding the responsible party. From a crime scene, trained profilers can pinpoint a number of offender attributes such as sex, ethnicity, age, as well as physical features such as height and weight. More importantly, they can ascertain the offender’s personality. This is done by examining, in detail, the way the crime was committed, weapons used and degree of hostility observed. Can Profiling be a Career? This is not actually a job title, as you can see by visiting the FBI website.
You can not be solely a profiler of criminals but can conduct profiling in addition to a range of job responsibilities. Think of profiling as a task you will get to do within a broader career, such as forensic psychology
or law enforcement.
This is not an entry-level field and you must demonstrate extensive experience before being considered. As a profiler you must have excellent analytical skills, street smarts, great witness interviewing skills and the ability to see beneath the surface. If this seems like the job for you, explore criminal justice or psychology degree programs and start preparing ground for moving into criminal profiling.
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