Bryanna Fox
Associate Professor, University Of South Florida
Key Findings
- There have been improvements to the rigor of research practices in offender profiling (OP) literature.
- Although there is less research on effectiveness of OP, the literature offers significant findings that range from moderate to strong in accuracy.
- Half of OP literature was created between 2006 and 2016.
- The number of studies that used advanced statistical analysis grew by 33% between 2006 and 2016.
- At first, FBI profilers and other law enforcement officers dominated the publishing OP articles, but over time, psychologists, criminologists, and graduate students increased publication in the field.
- Many of the studies (42%) did not focus on a single type of crime, but when broken down by offense, homicide was most studied followed by sexual assault and fraud, terrorism, and cybercrime.
- One third of studies did not focus on a geographical region, and 25% focused on the US – with western regions dominating OP publications.
Description
In the article, “What Have We Learned From Offender Profiling? A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of 40 Years Of Research,” Fox and her co-author conducted a comprehensive review of offender profiling (OP) to determine its effectiveness in law enforcement agencies. Little has been studied about the evolution, current state, or success of OP literature. To conduct their study, the researchers coded and reviewed 426 studies about OP from 1976 through 2016 using a variety of medical journal databases. The results found that there have been improvements to the rigor of research practices. Although there is less research on the effectiveness of OP, the literature offers significant findings that range from moderate to strong in accuracy. Half of OP literature was created between 2006 and 2016. The number of studies that used advanced statistical analysis grew by 33% between 2006 and 2016. At first, FBI profilers and other law enforcement officers dominated the publishing of OP articles, but over time, psychologists, criminologists, and graduate students increased publication in the field. Many of the studies (42%) did not focus on a single type of crime, but when broken down by offense, homicide was the most studied followed by sexual assault and fraud, terrorism, and cybercrime. One third of studies did not focus on a geographical region, and 25% focused on the US – with western regions dominating OP publications. The authors note that more work can be done to bolster scientific rigor as well as implementation of research.