1. What do you know?

I am still investigating what makes a successful profile (certain methods/approaches etc.) but what I know so far is that the accuracy of the profile is really important. One of the dangers of psychological profiling is that an inaccurate profile may lead to the incarceration of an innocent person, which I will study more about through the Michelle O’Keefe and the Rachel Nickell case. I think that by studying certain methods and approaches I can see which steps may be more effective and prevent negative outcomes (again like the incarceration of innocent people). Before starting this project, I took an introduction of psychological profiling course over the summer at Johns Hopkins. I brought the information that I’ve learned over the summer with me but I am still reviewing everything that I’ve learned.

2.  What don’t you know?

I think that it’s important to understand the dangers of psychological profiling because it’s important to try to prevent certain things (like the incarceration of an innocent person) and how possibly profilers can be held accountable. One of my smaller goals is to study the pathways and how people become criminals such as mass murders, serial and spree killers. I think that this is important to learn because larger crimes can be prevented if the person (potential criminal) is given help/some sort of intervention before they get to the point of murder. With that, I think that it’s important to study those pathways too.