ABSTRACT
Media stereotypes of the criminological psychologist using insight and brilliant reasoning to ‘get inside the head’ of the criminal are more fiction than science. However, it can be very difficult to develop a clear understanding of offender profiling for a number of reasons (Ainsworth 2001). Profilers are often reluctant to publish their methods out of fear that they will be criticised or their methods plagiarised and there is considerable difference in practice between different profilers. In general, there is little common basis in the way that profiling is carried out, but all profiling generally has a common aim.
