Theoretical problems of criminal profiling: criminal procedural, tactical criminalistic and psychological aspects

The article reveals a set of theoretical problems existing in the field of criminal profiling - modeling of the behavior of the offender in the wake of the crime. The range of problems affects procedural, methodological, tactical and forensic, criminal technique and psychological aspects. The result of the study was a motivated list of circumstances whose solution is to allow countering serial crimes with the help of forensic methods. In the conducted research, the general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, as well as a system-structural method, were used. The private-science methods of biographical analysis, statistical analysis, as well as comparative-historical and expert evaluation methods, were also used in the study. Any applied methodology, and that of criminal profiling is not an exception, has a number of theoretical problems. The article presents the ranking of problems by their importance and complexity, which leads to the formation of the following list of problems: the problem of delimitation of the subject of research from similar studies; the problem of methodological support; the problem of the evidentiary value of profiling results; the problem of adaptation of psychological knowledge for criminalistics; the problem of representativeness of data on serial criminals. The authors draw attention to the fact that the identified problems of criminal profiling are ignored, often for subjective reasons, by the scientific community or are considered from a dogmatic standpoint. Criminal profiling deals not only with a complex of common forensic problems, but also with specific ones. Two of the specific problems include the problem of the probationary status of the conclusion of the profiler and the problem of the doubtfulness of statistical data on the activities of serial criminals. The complex of the described problems requires structural comprehension. In the list of theoretical problems of criminal profiling, the problem of delimiting the subject of research from similar studies is the most urgent, and requires an urgent solution. The authors warn against the recently emerging unscientific perception of the phenomenon of serial crimes as something peculiar to the predominantly domestic (Soviet, Russian) culture.

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