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Trayvon1996
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John Galindo
Discussion week three Attachment
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Chapter five this week spent time discussing both the topics of profiling and the process of profiling. Over the last few years it seem that profiling has become a hot topic of public conversation. Many of the conversations have attached a negative connotation to the idea of profiling within the law enforcement community. In basic terms profiling it obtaining data points about an individual and building a record of that set of population or individual. However, according to the reading, “Profiling is the process of drawing inferences about a criminal’s personality, behavior, motivation, and demographic characteristics based on crime scenes and other evidence” (Costanzo, 2004). The next part of this discussion should then address how these profiles are conducted. An review of some other material disclosed some other relevant information for this discussion. According to this study “a relationship probably existed between the type of case materials available and the way such materials are assessed for the purpose of constructing a criminal profile” (Kocsis, 2006). This is meaning that for each type of crime and its associated case will more items within the case that can be correlated or have items with vary similar points of data. For example, say you have several murder victim, and one major fact that all the cases share is the victim has had their clothing tied around their neck and the manner of death was affixation. This two facts could link the cases and then help a profiler exam the reason behind the person committing the crimes.
On important item to discuss about profiling is that it should be used in concert with other tools. Law enforcement agency should be cautious is using this type of investigative activity as the sole means to locate a subject or as the only evidence to bring charges upon a person. An internet search of over turned cases produced a file with a subject named Abdal. “On May 18, 1982, Leslie A. Werner, a 23-year-old white woman, was raped and robbed in an Erie County, New York, nature preserve where she had been bird-watching with her husband. She described her attacker as black man between five feet eight and five feet ten with a space between his upper front teeth and a “tenor-type” voice. Warith Habib Abdal, a 43-year-old African American then known as Vincent H. Jenkins, did not fit this description. He was six feet two inches tall, there was no gap between his teeth, and he had a deep voice. Nonetheless, he was picked up for questioning about the crime four and a half months after it occurred. Werner viewed a photo line up and identified him as her attacker. Based on Werner’s identification, an Erie County grand jury indicted Abdal for first-degree rape, sodomy, and second-degree robbery” ( law.umich.edu, 2018). Part of the profiling in this case was race related even though the original case data did not match Abdal’s physical attributes. The most egregious part of this case was that there was no other corroborating evidence, however he was still sentenced to life. Fortunately, DNA evidence cleared Abdal of the charges.
The bible’s Philippians 4: 6 - 7 seemed to depict a message for this week’s topic. It reads, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”. This verse means to not be hasty in decision making, have faith because answers take time.
References
Costanzo, M. (2004). Psychology applied to law (pp. 1-30). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Kocsis, R. N., & NetLibrary, I. (2006). Criminal profiling: Principles and practice. Totowa, N.J: Humana Press.
