In crime investigations, the identification of the culprit is key to the success of the investigations. This quest, however, can be elusive in the absence of glaring incriminating evidence. Psychological profiling attempts to bridge this gap. Psychological profiling is concerned with availing specific information to investigators in relation to the culprits who committed certain crimes (Bull, Bilby, & Cook, 2006) . Psychological profiling involves the psychological assessment of crime scenes with the ultimate objective of providing a criminal profile to aid in the creation of a template that is descriptive of a likely offender. It combines physical characteristics of the crime scene with the offenders’ psychological and sociological traits through an assessment of their behavior while in a crime engagement (Mittal & Singh, 2016) .
By comprehending an offender’s development and change through time while identifying available consistencies, it is possible to create links between their conduct at a crime scene with their behavior in different previous contexts. Psychological profiling involves a focus on individual differentiation to analyze observable aspects of crime (Mittal & Singh, 2016) . It also involves behavioral consistency focusing on differences among crime scenes in factors such as the characteristics of victims, nature of violence and the offenders’ interactions with victims. Also included in psychological profiling is an inference about offender characteristics such as gender, criminal history, travel patterns, age and the relationship between the victim and the offender (Bull, Bilby, & Cook, 2006) .
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The focus of crime scene profiling is to supply investigators and law enforcement with investigative assistance especially in serial crimes such as homicide and rape. Crime scene profiling involves the application of scientific methods in reconstructing crime scene with the aim of providing assistance to law enforcement, juries and judges to understand physical evidence in criminal cases to aid in the identification and conviction of offenders (National Forensic Science Technology Center, 2012) . Based on the criminal evidence found in crime scene, profilers may perform physical and chemical analysis. Crime scene profilers may also employ logical and mathematical methods and microscopic examinations to analyze evidence. In crime scene profiling, any evidence linking a person to a scene for instance hair, blood and fingerprints is called associative evidence. In comparison to associative evidence, reconstructive evidence generated from crime scene profiling brings a deeper understanding of the events and actions that occurred in a crime scene (Turvey, 2012) .
Both psychological profiling and crime scene profiling serve to provide evidence to law enforcement, investigators and judicial personnel such as judges in the determination of criminal cases. They both also use deductive means to create evidence associated with criminal cases. Various differences are underlying between these two profiling methods. Psychological profiling places emphasis on dynamics concerning the offender (Bull, Bilby, & Cook, 2006) while crime scene profiling has its primary focus on the dynamic concerning the crime itself in form of physical evidence. The primary principle in crime scene profiling is Locard’s Exchange Principle which states that every contact leaves a trace. In psychological profiling on the other hand, the primary premise is based on the assumption that there exists consistency in an offender’s conduct at the crime scene and who they are. Additional assumptions in psychological profiling are that crime scenes reflect offenders’ personalities, the offenders’ personalities are static and that their crime signature will remain undeterred (Mittal & Singh, 2016) .
Rather than circumstantial evidence as in psychological profiling, evidence and data produced by crime scene profiling is based on scientific investigation. Owing to its reliance on scientific methods, a crime scene profiling may be conducted in a crime situation in which the collection of physical evidence is available and most crucial in the recreation of a crime scene for the establishment of events’ sequences leading to the apprehension of offenders (Turvey, 2012) . Psychological profiling, on the other hand, may be used in situations where crimes appear connected in various details such as the victim choice and a pattern is identifiable. This profiling may be used in such cases when physical evidence is scanty to lead to the direct linkage of possible offenders to the crime in question.
References
Bull, R., Bilby, C., & Cook, C. (2006). Criminal Psychology: A Beginner's Guide. Oxford: Oneworld Publications.
Mittal, S., & Singh, T. (2016). Psychological Profiling in Criminal Investigation: An Overview. Journal of Human Behaviour and Development Issues. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312159180_Psychological_Profiling_in_Criminal_Investigation_An_Overview
National Forensic Science Technology Center. (2012). A Simplified Guide To Crime Scene Investigation. NFSTC Science Serving Justice .
Turvey, B. E. (2012). Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis (4th ed.). Oxford: Academic Press.
