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Articles 1 - 15 of 15

Full-Text Articles in Criminology

Where To From Here?, Wayne Petherick Sep 2010

Where To From Here?, Wayne Petherick

Wayne Petherick

Extract:

The history of profiling is easy to trace - after all, it has already been recorded and is available for review (see Chapter 1; Petherick, 2003; Turvey, 2008). The future of profiling is another story entirely. Given the nature of the craft and the advances made in recent years, it stands to reason that only further improvements will be made. At least, this should be our hope.

An increase in use in the real world is matched by an increase in the number of scholarly works dedicated to the field. Most provide a general overview of profiling (Ainsworth, 2001; …


Criminal Profiling Methods, Wayne Petherick Sep 2010

Criminal Profiling Methods, Wayne Petherick

Wayne Petherick

Extract:As an investigative aid, criminal profiling has received a great deal of attention from academic audiences and popular culture (Petherick, 2003), and significant advances have been made in both practical and theoretical terms. Even though our collective knowledge about this area has grown, there is still much about the process that remains a mystery. For example, there is little acknowledgment or understanding of the logic or reasoning employed within the profiling process (see Chapter 2), or that there are indeed different methods employed within the profiling community. Of more concern is the fact that many practitioners continue to confuse these …


Criminal Profiling As Expert Evidence, Wayne Petherick, David Field, Andrew Lowe, Elizabeth Fry Sep 2010

Criminal Profiling As Expert Evidence, Wayne Petherick, David Field, Andrew Lowe, Elizabeth Fry

Wayne Petherick

Extract:
Profiling evidence has been accepted in courts in the United States in both trial and sentencing phases, but other jurisdictions have been more cautious in their acceptance. For example, courts in the United Kingdom and Australia have been reluctant to introduce profilers as experts, even though profiling has been given some exposure in courts operating at the lower end of the justice system. The reasons for this reluctance are varied but include a lack of uniformity processes and outcomes, fragmentation of methods, and conflict between profiling organizations and practitioners. In short, there are many methods of profiling, and not …


The Fallacy Of Accuracy In Criminal Profiling, Wayne Petherick Aug 2010

The Fallacy Of Accuracy In Criminal Profiling, Wayne Petherick

Wayne Petherick

Extract:
The defining criterion by which the utility of a particular tool is often judged is its accuracy or sensitivity of detection. We place little faith in that which is inaccurate or in those things that do not detect what they are meant to detect. Things are no different in the profiling community, and the most common measure by which a profiler claims utility is how close his or her approximations are to an offender, if one is caught. As will be shown in this chapter, with the craft being the way it is, this is probably the worst possible …


Metacognition In Criminal Profiling, Barry Woodhouse, Wayne Petherick Aug 2010

Metacognition In Criminal Profiling, Barry Woodhouse, Wayne Petherick

Wayne Petherick

Extract:
As with many professions, one of the more serious problems that confronts the profiling community is that of the inept examiner. Deliberately unethical behavior is one thing, but ongoing incompetence because of profiler ignorance is something else entirely. In some instances, ignorance is the result of a metacognitive deficit caused by a lack of study, a lack of training, or a general lack of mental dexterity. In such instances, the profiler will continually do the wrong thing, such as using flawed methods and erroneous logic, because he lacks the ability to recognize his own ineptitude; the profiler cannot perceive …


Victim Lifestyle Exposure, Joe Diaz, Wayne Petherick, Brent Turvey Aug 2010

Victim Lifestyle Exposure, Joe Diaz, Wayne Petherick, Brent Turvey

Wayne Petherick

Extract: It has been said that for every crime there is at least one victim. However, victimity may not be assumed or otherwise presupposed. First, the existence of crime must be established; if there is no crime, there can be no victim. Then it is necessary to establish which participant is the victim. This cannot be assumed either as explained by von Hentig (cited in Wolfgang 1959, 245): Here are two human beings. As soon as they draw near to one another, male or female, young or old, rich or poor, ugly or attractive - a wide range of interactions, …


School Shootings, Wayne Petherick, Brent Turvey Aug 2010

School Shootings, Wayne Petherick, Brent Turvey

Wayne Petherick

Extract:
As with any attack that occurs at an educational facility - to include grade schools, colleges, and universities - school shootings are a particular form of workplace violence. The relationships are fairly straightforward in this regard. Instructors, administrators, and support staff are employed and work on site, and students are the "clients". Violent attacks may occur between or within any of these groups or their relationships.


Workplace Violence, Wayne Petherick, Brent Turvey Aug 2010

Workplace Violence, Wayne Petherick, Brent Turvey

Wayne Petherick

Extract: Workplace violence is defined by one authority as "violence or the threat of violence against others" (OSHA 2002, 1). Because of sensational coverage by the popular media, the public perception of the frequency of different incarnations of workplace-related violence, such as homicide, is likely to be greatly distorted. Watching the evening news, it is not difficult to understand why. In our present culture, where sexuality, violence, and fear are valuable retail commodities, the workplace is routinely characterized with one or more of these when given airtime or column space. Stories without such marketable traits are seldom featured.


An Introduction To Crime And Deviance, Wayne Petherick, Claire Ferguson Aug 2010

An Introduction To Crime And Deviance, Wayne Petherick, Claire Ferguson

Wayne Petherick

Extract: Criminological knowledge as it relates to concepts of deviance have been stagnating. Historically, new texts contain very little new knowledge. They have tended towards the recycled rather than the original. Old theories are posited over and over again, with little consideration or regard to whether they even apply in the current universe of criminal behavior. New editions rarely contain little more than new case studies as if this somehow keeps them contemporary. At best, many works offer a different spin on old approaches or theories. It is for these reasons that we have endeavoured to make this book a …


Behavioral Consistency, The Homology Assumption And The Problems Of Induction, Wayne Petherick, Claire Ferguson Aug 2010

Behavioral Consistency, The Homology Assumption And The Problems Of Induction, Wayne Petherick, Claire Ferguson

Wayne Petherick

Extract: The ultimate goal of profiling is to identify the major behavioral and personality characteristics to narrow the suspect pool. Inferences about offender characteristics can be accomplished deductively, based on the analysis of discrete offender behaviors established within a particular case. They can also be accomplished inductively, involving prediction based on abstract offender averages from group data (these methods were detailed extensively in Chapter 2; see also Petherick & Turvey, 2008a). As discussed, these two approaches are by no means equal.


Alcohol, Drugs And Crime, Wayne Petherick, Nila Myers Aug 2010

Alcohol, Drugs And Crime, Wayne Petherick, Nila Myers

Wayne Petherick

Extract:
There are a great many factors that contribute to criminality. These include, but are not limited to poverty, mental disorder, personality disorder, sub-cultures (such as gangs), personality differences, and socialization. One of the more prevalent though would be the use of alcohol and other drugs. This applies to both the offender and the victim. That is, many offenders are under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol at the time of their offense, and so are victims. In fact, victim use of drugs parallels that of offenders in many offense types.


Cults, Wayne Petherick Aug 2010

Cults, Wayne Petherick

Wayne Petherick

Extract: Cults are a universal phenomenon, and can likely be found in some form in every country around the world. Haworth (1997) suggests that there are 500 cult groups operating in the UK and other parts of Europe, meaning that on a per capita basis, the problem is the same as in the USA. Langone (undated) suggests that cult educational organizations have compiled lists of more than 2,000 groups with perhaps 1,000 of these groups actually meeting the criteria of cults, Furthermore, as an indication of their global nature, he suggests that grassroots cult educational organizations exist in more than …


Stranger Violence, Wayne Petherick, Brent Turvey Aug 2010

Stranger Violence, Wayne Petherick, Brent Turvey

Wayne Petherick

Extract: A stranger is someone who is unknown or foreign. Stranger violence occurs when an offender attacks a victim whom he or she does not know; someone who is not part of the family, not a friend or coworker, and not an acquaintance of any kind. Though generally less common than violence suffered at the hands of friends, family, and acquaintances, stranger violence enjoys a great deal more of our attention.


Victims Of Stalking, Wayne Petherick Aug 2010

Victims Of Stalking, Wayne Petherick

Wayne Petherick

Extract: Stalking involves a repeated pattern of intrusion and harassment by (most typically) one person against another. It has serious physical and psychological implications for victims and presents problems to investigators, because it involves dynamics and behavior that are poorly understood (Petherick 2008). This includes, but is by no means limited to, motivations, effects on the victim, appropriate responses, and outcomes from intervention. The actual methods employed by stalkers are similarly many and varied, ranging from covert surveillance, letter writing, telephony, and in extreme forms, assault, sexual assault, and homicide.


School Shootings And Guns, Wayne Petherick, Brent Turvey, Jared Kreeger Aug 2010

School Shootings And Guns, Wayne Petherick, Brent Turvey, Jared Kreeger

Wayne Petherick

Extract: School shootings are a global phenomenon, as they occur in almost every country around the world. However, the United States ranks number one in terms of the total number of school shooters and total number of victims in a single incident. Despite the media attention such incidents receive, they are uncommon and as such are deviant both statistically and ideologically as an extreme form of anti-social (and homicidal) behavior.