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  • Essay / Criminal profiling: the characteristics of criminals...

    By doing so, it could potentially alert serial criminals, giving them the opportunity to manage their criminal behavior to avoid being criminally profiled (Devery, 2010) . This lack of transparency makes it very difficult to compare the benefits of the ICIAF approach with the approach and range of services offered by a forensic psychologist. Devery (2010) states, in recent years: The scientific legitimacy of criminal profiling has come under scrutiny, due to the lack of theoretical or empirical support that documents its effectiveness. Additionally, regarding the lack of research supporting criminal profiling, there is a notable lack of evidence demonstrating that profiling has ever had a significant impact on the resolution of cold cases (Devery, 2010). Occasionally a profile turns out to be accurate, but only to a certain extent, once the case is solved. Statistically, Muller (2000) reports that out of 192 requests for criminal profiles, only 17% of these profiles were used to help identify an offender, but 77% reported that the profiles helped them in their investigation. On the negative side, and in most cases, a criminal profile may have diverted investigators, or even contributed to the arrest of a person convicted and therefore found not guilty..