IndexIntroductionTopic AnalysisConclusionReferencesIntroduction“Criminal profiling is the process of using behavioral evidence left at crime scenes to make inferences about the offender, including inferences about personality characteristics and on psychopathology” (Torres, Boccaccini, Miller, 2006). Law enforcement, psychologists, academics and consultants use criminal profiling as an investigative tool to help identify key personality and behavioral characteristics. “Psychiatrists and psychologists contributed significantly to the early development of criminal profiling.” This essay will discuss how criminal profiling began, how it became popular, and the misconception that it helps solve cases. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Topic AnalysisOne of the first profiles developed was by psychiatrist William Langer on Adolf Hilter in 1943 and was not published until 1972. Psychiatrist, profile by David Brussel, in 1956 New Yorker's “Mad Bomber” is the example more cited than criminal profiling. In both profiles, the psychiatrists were able to provide accurate details. The first article on criminal profiling was by Colin Campbell published in Psychology Today, 1976. Campbell asked researchers to demonstrate that they were better than bartenders at predicting a criminal's traits and characteristics (Fox & Farrington 2018). Psychologists made significant contributions to the early development of criminal profiling, most of which today is conducted by trained law enforcement officers.” In the 1990s, profiling became part of pop culture thanks in part to the Oscar-winning film, The Silence of the Lambs, and many other films that followed, along with popular television series and criminal profiles featured on programs that focused on criminal investigations. The term “profiling” is used by the general public, but the FBI calls it “criminal investigative analysis”; others call it “investigative psychology or “crime action profiling” (Winerman, 2004). There are several reasons why criminal profiling has become a popular misconception, one of which is the media's perception of it as effective; they report successful raids and ignore unsuccessful ones. The second is the "expertise heuristic", i.e. when we trust someone because he claims to be an expert in a subject (Lilienfeld, Lynn and Ruscio, 2009) and finally the PT Barnum effect, when a person tends to find the description vague and overall credible personality. Due to limitations in participant research, not much is known about the evolution, current status, or achievements in the field of criminal profiling. 152 police psychologists reported that only 3% of their time is spent profiling offenders, of which 70% questioned whether the profiling work was valid. “Pinizzotto and Finkel (1990) examined profiles generated by four current or former FBI profilers, six police investigators with profiling training, six police investigators without profiling training, six clinical psychologists without profiling training, and six students university students without training on profiling". No differences were observed between the groups, all performed better than chance, with an average accuracy of 35% to 47%. A study was conducted over a forty-year period identifying all available publications from 1976 to 2016, resulting in 426 publications. The results showed that there was an improvement in