Introduction
In law enforcement, profiling is a technique used to develop a profile of unknown criminal offenders using available information from crimes committed. Criminal profiling seeks to identify an offender through analysis of the offense committed, the manner it was committed and physical evidence from the scene of offense. Through the use of information collected, psychological characteristics of offenders may also be developed. Profiling is mainly employed in offender profiling. However, since profiling involves the analysis of several aspects of an individual including behavior, it is used in other ways other than criminal profiling. Profiling is used in the American judicial process, especially in the selection of jurors, in organizational talent recruitment and talent retention, in consumer science and in identification of security threat by customs. A discussion of these uses of profiling is carried out in this paper.
Profiling in Talent Recruitment
Behavioral profiling is increasing used by organizations in the identification and selection of talent to fill their human capital needs. By profiling the behavior of applicants to job positions, employers are able to develop profiles of the candidates available for hiring. This involves using data and information from a variety of sources, including but not limited to performance in past jobs, demeanor during actual interviews and their answers provided to questionnaires. Information gathered is used by the hiring organization to develop profiles for all the candidates under consideration. The organization develops a profile of an ideal candidate for the position, and this is used as a benchmark against which the profiles of the candidates are evaluated against. This method involves the use of behavioral analysis experts who are able to observe and determine the best candidate for the job. Behavioral profiling has become an important aspect of recruitment, and this represents one of the ways in which profiling is used outside of criminal investigation (Winerman, 2004).
Organizations are also increasingly using profiling as a method of improving productivity in the workplace. In current market dynamics, organizations look to deliver the highest quality products and services for their clients, and thus record growth in revenues and earnings. This means that organizations will strive to get the best from their employees. To this end, behavioral profiling is a handy tool that can be employed periodically in an organization to evaluate employees and develop policies geared to increase productivity (Holloway, 2003). Through behavioral profiling, the organization will observe employees at work in an effort to determine what motivates them, their strengths and weaknesses, their communication styles and interactions with colleagues and other parties, behavior under pressure and among other factors. Through such evaluations, and organization is able to develop the best work policies that are most suited to individual members of the workforce. In this way, the organization deals effectively with human capital issues like compensation, motivation and benefits and realizes higher productivity from employees. The firm also identifies the employees that it needs to retain and those it needs to let go. The same method is employed by organizations to develop a job profile for each position. This profile is based on the job description and deliverables expected on the position. The profile of an ideal employee to fill that position is developed. This is done routinely on all jobs, and this helps management of any organization identify staffing needs and training and development needs for existing employees. This reduces the risks associated with redundancy of employees because their skills will be periodically upgraded.
Though profiling has become widespread in recruitment, the process cannot be said to be foolproof. Profiling for recruitment is highly dependent on the judgment of individuals who may have personal bias in the selection. This will lead to recruitment of candidates who are not the best, and this may affect performance of such an organization in the future.
Profiling in American Judicial System
In the American legal system, profiling is used in the selection of juries before the start of trials. There is actually a growing industry in jury consultancy. Profiling of jurors starts with an analysis of case and evidence. Both defense and plaintiff attorneys employ jury profiling in attempts to prevail at trial. Based on evidence and facts of a case, an ideal juror is developed. An ideal juror will have the best characteristics that are needed to make a decision in favor of the respective attorney. Characteristics like racial background, income class, political orientation, education levels among others are considered when developing the profile of the ideal juror. This profile is used by attorneys during jury selection for the trial (Lieberman & Sales, 2006). The attorney will choose from the potential pool of jurors individuals who are closest to the profile already developed. Though this may seem unethical, it works for either side that employs it and assists in avoiding adverse verdicts for clients. An example of the application of this was during the O.J. Simpson trial for murder. A criminologist was employed by the defense to profile the potential jurors by evaluating their demographic background and their answers during the questioning by lawyers. All this was in effort to select a jury that would be friendly to the defense’s case. In the same case, there were also reports that the prosecution had also engaged the services of a jury consultant (Jonakait, 2003).
Profiling of juries has been determined to have only modest results on the objectives of trials. The practice is also viewed as being unethical because profiling of potential juries requires the use of jury consultants, who in most cases are behavioral scientists. Jury consultants charge high fees, and clients and prosecutors who do not have the financial resources to hire them are usually at a disadvantage in a trial. This results in a distortion of justice and can be perceived as meddling with an established judicial system. However, the practice is not illegal and profiling of juries has not been legislated on (Profiling Ethical Issues, 2005).
Behavioral profiling is also used in the judicial process to determine the direction that a trial is taking for either the defense or the plaintiff. Jury consultants are hired to observe members of a jury during a trial with the intention of profiling their behaviors and determine on whether or not they agree with the arguments presented by either the defense or prosecution. Behavioral profiling is used by consultants hired specifically to observe the body language and other aspects of jurors and come to a conclusion on the direction that the case in question is taking. Based on the conclusions arrived at by such consultants, attorneys, especially liability trials will determine on whether to carry on with such cases or attempt to arrive at a settlement with the opposite side (Plutchik & Schwartz, 1965, Jeffrey, 1994). The motivation of this kind of profiling is purely monetary. The consultant makes a conclusion for a fee, and if the case, according to such a conclusion is likely going to result in a judgment for the opposite side, the attorney tries to reach a settlement that will lower the cost to a client. There is an element of risk involved in this kind of profiling since it is difficult to profile individuals who are in a setting that is different from their usual comfort zones. Wrong decisions may be reached to the detriment of either party involved in a trial. This process, though legal, can also be perceived as an attempt to thwart the natural course of justice as promised under the constitution (Bugliosi, 1997).
Profiling in Consumer Science
Organizations also employ profiling in marketing of products. A profile of an ideal customer for a product is developed, and the potential product is developed with this ideal customer in mind (Laric & Lynagh, 2010). The result of this is that a product will have all the characteristics that a customer will need. With such a product, marketing becomes quite easy. It also becomes easy to market the product since profiling assists in determining the easiest and most effective method of promotion that will be used to reach customers. Consumer profiling has one downside. Since it is highly dependent on the human opinions, wrong profiles may be developed. The resulting product will be very difficult to market, and the marketing organization may suffer very high losses financially as a result of wrong consumer profiling (Fulero & Wrightsman, 2009, Shimp, 2003).
Profiling in Customs
Profiling in customs is popularly known as predictive profiling. This is used primarily in environments where there are high risks of crimes such as terrorism, theft, drug smuggling and illegal trade. This kind of profiling is used mainly in points of entry into countries such as airports and border point. Profiling in customs uses predictive profiling to identify the profile of a potential aggressor using immediately available characteristics. In most cases, the profile of an aggressor or a terrorist is not established, and profiling rules are more often ad hoc. This type of profiling enables security experts operating in airports and other points of entry identify potential threats by observing the behaviors of individuals within a given protected environment (Fulero & Wrightsman, 2009, Terrettaz-Zufferey, et al, 2007). An example of such a profiling would be an individual in an airport walking with an empty bag. Several signs may show that the bag is empty, for example if it appears light or the individual under observation makes a pretense of it being heavy while it is apparently light. For a profiler, this may imply that such an individual is a terrorist or criminal who intends to use the empty bag to fill it with the merchandise that will be stolen, a terrorist that has planted an explosive in the area and is departing from the area or an individual with criminal intents who wants to fit into the environment (Perri & Lichtenwald, 2009).
Profiling in customs may use other methods of profiling to identify potential threats. A very good example is the use of closed circuit cameras to observe the behavior of individuals within a given environment. The feed from such cameras provides a security experts team an opportunity to identify potential threats if they are showing abnormal behavior such as being nervous and fidgety. Cameras can also be used to identify past threats who are already profiled into a database in a system. Whenever such threats are caught in camera, an alarm is raised so that such a threat is neutralized (Fulero & Wrightsman, 2009).
Profiling in customs has a very big disadvantage in that it used ad hoc information in the formulation of threatening profiles. This means that it is not an exact science and is highly dependent on the observations made by actual people who carry out the profiling. Thus, such a process is subject to personal bias of the individuals who carry it out, and may also suffer from the effects of fatigue and demoralization on the part of those vested with the responsibility of profiling. The process is also difficult because it intends to profile a large number of people within a short time and in environments that are very dynamic such as airports (Wortley & Mazerolle, 2008).
Conclusion
Profiling is not an exact science, but through the analysis of behaviors, it provides an avenue where decisions can be made to a particular degree of accuracy. Profiling has registered considerable success in its use in the judicial system through jury profiling both in selection and during trial, though this may be considered a distortion of a well established justice system. Profiling has also been successfully used by organizations in the selection and recruitment of talent. Profiling is also used to develop existing talent in organizations. In customs, profiling has been successfully used profile potential threats in points of entry. As illustrated, profiling is still an area under development, but indications are that it will play a greater role in the development of the society.
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