Offender
Profiling Series: Vol 2
Profiling
in Policy and Practice
Edited by David Canter & Laurence Alison (1999)
back to Profiling
in Policy and Practice
Profiling in Policy and Practice
David Canter & Laurence Alison
Professional, Legal and Ethical Issues in
Offender Profiling
This chapter addresses a neglected area of offender
profiling, namely ethical and professional issues. Through a consideration
of the general standards of practice deemed appropriate by the British
Psychological Society we outline how many profiling standards fall short
of these recommendations. In doing so we highlight the importance of
processes over outcome and note how endemic unprofessional and unethical
practices are maintained by the failing to consider appropriate procedures.
We do not promote this as the definitive set of regulations but rather
wish to open up debate about standards where, previously, such discussion
has been entirely absent.
Laurence John Alison is currently employed as a lecturer at the Centre
for Investigative Psychology at the University of Liverpool. Dr Alison
is developing models to explain the processes of manipulation, influence
and deception that are features of criminal investigations. His research
interests focus upon developing rhetorical perspectives in relation
to the investigative process and he has presented many lectures both
nationally and internationally to a range of academics and police officers
on the problems associated with offender profiling. He is currently
working on false allegations of sexual assault and false memory. He
is affiliated with The Psychologists at Law Group - a forensic service
specialising in providing advice to the courts, legal professions, police
service, charities and public bodies.
University of Liverpool. He has published widely in Environmental and Investigative Psychology as well as many areas of Applied Social Psychology. His most recent books since his award winning "Criminal Shadows" have been "Psychology in Action" and with Laurence Alison "Criminal Detection and the Psychology of Crime".
