Criminal Profiling

Goal: I plan to create a website that includes

information about behavioural profiling and a
few case studies.

Lisa Mirte Mannien

Chelsea Mouritz
Stamford American International School
Word Count: 3297
Table of Content
Criterion A: Investigating
Goal and Global Context
Prior Learning
Research
Criterion B: Planning
Criteria For Success
Plan
Self-Management Skills
Criterion C: Taking Action
Product/Outcome
Thinking Skills
Communication and Social Skills
Criterion D: Reflection
Evaluation of Product
Extended Knowledge of Topic and Global Context
Development as IB Student
Appendix 1:
1. A, OPVL
2. B, Prior Learning
3. C, Reflection on ATL Skills
4. D, Goal Making
5. E, Subject Skills
Appendix 2:
1. A, Planning
2. B, Criteria For Success
Appendix 3:
1. A, Product, Website
2. B, Survey Results
Bibliography
Criterion A: Investigating

Goal and Global Context

My goal was to create a website about the different psychological profiles on criminals. It will be

challenging as there are many different background stories to each criminal and it requires

research and website design. I want to achieve my goal because I have always been very

interested in crime. I want to be a detective and recently became very interested in psychology. I

want people to walk away with new knowledge about psychology and criminals so people can

see that a lot of criminals have the same kind of childhood. I want people to understand that

society and a person’s mental health have an impact on how they act. I want to have an impact

on people by showing them a whole profile on multiple different criminals which will show

people how a lot of them have similar childhoods which will help people realise that people with

those kinds of backgrounds need extra help. I’m trying to change the behaviour in which people

assume things about criminals. I also want to change the behaviour in which people judge others

for the way they act without knowing the possible reasons why a person acts a certain way.

This project challenged me as I needed to do a lot of research and had to create a website from

scratch. I also had to make the profiles on my own which is a challenge as a lot of research was

required and I also had to structure it properly.

My global context was Identities and Relationships. I selected this global context because one’s

psyche is part of one’s personality as the way you think reflects onto the way you speak and act.

A person’s mental health can be affected by their past and the way they were raised. If a person’s

mental health is bad it can cause them to break laws and do unethical things which basically

means they can act very irresponsibly.

I selected this strand of the global context to help drive my project because it completely relates

to what my project is. My project was to make a website with information about what criminal

profiling is and also create a few case studies on criminals and include their profiles which

include their entire life history.

I chose this project because I am extremely passionate and interested in criminal psychology. It

is personal to me in this way as I want to be a detective in the future which will require me to

have an understanding of one’s psychology.

My goal changed during the project because, at first, I was going to make a research report but

ended up making a website as I realised a website would be more interesting and people would
rather read a website than an essay. Another reason why I decided on a website is ​that a website

could be used as a resource, rather than just an informative paper.

The inspiration for my topic came from my interest in crime and psychology which are things

I’ve always been interested in. I got interested in crime and psychology because I watched a lot

of shows about crime and psychology. I also got interested in it after watching a documentary

series about psychology and it’s link to crime.

Prior Learning

For several years I have been interested in psychology and crime mainly after watching a lot of

crime and psychology shows and also going to a police academy in the Netherlands where I

learnt even more about crime and the police perspective on it.

Prior to starting this project, I already knew this information because I watched a lot of shows

and documentaries about criminal profiling, crimes, and psychology. I also went to a police

academy in which I learnt about crimes and how they are dealt with.

During one of my classes, we explored the bad apple vs bad barrel theme which is where one bad

person can ruin an entire society vs how a bad society can cause a lot of bad people, which made

me interested in psychology as I wanted to know more about what makes people bad or what

similarities there are with “bad” people.

Research

The types of sources I consulted included psychology websites as they had the information I

needed. I also consulted research papers from colleges and looked at an FBI and Interpol

website. I chose to interview a therapist since she has a degree in psychology and knows a lot

about the topic. I used psychology websites because they were more reliable to use when

researching about criminal profiling as a lot of criminal profiling is based on one’s psychological

health. I thought these websites were more useful because they were more reliable and better to

use when looking at criminal profiling. I organized my information in this way because it is

easier to figure out what criminal profiling is by defining it then creating a second-page showing

criminal profiling. While investigating my topic I found that criminal profiling isn’t always

accurate and it takes a lot of time to create a profile as it is hard to get into another person’s head

and try to understand why they might do what they do.

Criterion B: Planning

Criteria For Success

In order to fully evaluate my product, I developed the following criteria as it is the most

important and effective way of making sure my product is exactly what I need to make. During

the project, I had to change my criteria by being more specific about what kind of photos to use
and what kind of text to use because I ended up with a lot of information and needed to cut it

down and also ended up with a lot of image choices.

The budget was not an important factor as I made a website which doesn’t require any costs.

The audience was an important factor, so I set people from the age of 16 to 50 as my audience

because people in this age group would most benefit from my product as a lot of them are

interested in crime and would like to understand why criminals might have done the things they

did. My audience is reflected in my website due to the fact that I used language that adults would

in my sentences but wrote short and concise sentences as younger people wouldn’t like to read

much more than they have to. My audience is also reflected in my website by my use of pictures

and bright colours which is what teens like while using simple fonts and simple text colours.

Plan

Step one for the creation of my product was to collect information and evidence of what criminal

profiling is and also start creating my website. The first part of my plan was to meet with my

mentor and set up a day and time to meet weekly, and to set up deadlines and goals for my

product and process journal. Within my process journal, (see Appendix 2A), I showed how I

planned my entire project from the beginning to the end.

To effectively manage my time, I planned backwards from the exhibition date by identifying

which things would take the most time to do and start on those first, then, doing the easier things
or things that would be easier to do. I decided to use certain headings for my action plan in order

(see Appendix 2A) to make sure I knew exactly what I needed to do and when to be certain I had

it done on time.

Before creating my product I created a criteria for success (see appendix 2B). As I was creating

my product I started by collecting my information, then went on to filter through what was

important to keep or what information could be discarded. Furthermore, I categorised my

information, then went on to create my website including categories and different pages, then

went on to select images and created my bibliography and added it to the bottom of the first page

on my website.

Self-Management Skills

I became quite frustrated when doing my research and making my website so I decided to

alternate between both of them so I wouldn’t get too frustrated doing either. I got frustrated

during my research as it was hard to find certain pieces of information which was a roadblock

but I managed to get past each roadblock. I got frustrated making my website as sometimes my

work wouldn’t save or I couldn’t fit text into a section.

One of my contacts/primary sources was very hard to reach which caused some stress. I

overcame this by finding shortcuts to finding my contact and also speaking to my contact to

make it easier to reach her. When under pressure I made sure to plan things and set deadlines to

make it easier to do things that might be easier to do then come back to the things that put me

under pressure. I also dealt with the pressure by taking a break from doing the work then coming

back to it at a later time.

I knew that I was a procrastinator, so I planned for this by setting clear deadlines and

communicating to my mentor that I was a procrastinator so she could help me by pushing me to

finish my work by the deadline. I did miss a few deadlines but managed to catch up quite

quickly. When I encountered a problem, I made a plan for the best course of action because

making a plan helped me with figuring out the easiest, fastest, and best way to deal with it

without causing more problems. For example, I struggled with creating a criminal profile for one

of my criminals which is why I decided to leave it as the last thing to do and did a bit more

research about him while making the other profiles.

Criterion C: Taking Action

Product/Outcome

My product is a result of hours of research, writing, and hard work. I spent a lot of time

researching to find as much information as I possibly could so I could have enough and also so I

could have a selection of to choose from in case at some point a piece of information wouldn’t be

as useful to me. I spent a lot of time writing as I had to write a lot of information and categorise

it appropriately. I put in a lot of hard work as I spent a lot of time on creating my product and

writing in my process journal.

When I researched my Global Context, I decided to focus more on the relationships criminals

had and their childhood identities and their psychological health than talking mainly about the

crimes they committed. I was more focusing on their personalities and psychological health than

their crimes as that would be more relevant to the “identities” part of my global context which is

“identities and relationships”. My product reflects my new understanding of the Global Context

because I learnt a lot about how the way one is brought up and the society around them can form

one’s identity and inspire the relationships they have.

My goal changed from making a research report to a website and a short documentary about

criminal profiling including a few case studies or profiles to creating a website about criminal

profiling including five criminal profiles. The goal changed as I struggled with finding enough
information to create a research report and didn’t have enough time to make a documentary, so I

decided on making a website as that would be a more entertaining thing for people and would

require less information to be written as people usually don’t like to read a lot. An example of

my product can be seen in Appendix 3A.

As the project progressed I learnt a lot of new skills, mainly website building skills, research

skills, and writing skills due to the fact that my product required a lot of website building,

research, and writing. I also improved on my ATL skills especially my self-management skills

and literacy skills.

Thinking Skills

Based on this research, my project took a new direction as it showed how difficult criminal

profiling is and how much effort is put into creating a profile on a criminal. After learning that I

realised I’d have to spend more time on the website than I thought I’d need to and ended up

having to change my plan a bit. This source helped me decide which criminal I was going to

create a profile for by providing examples of their original profiles which I then attempted to

recreate using the information I was given. I was almost completely accurate but missed a few

things such as underlying mental diseases in the families of the criminals and also found new

things that weren’t on the original profile.

By combining the information from these three sources I was able to create a profile for five

different criminals and also managed to create an entire website with my own definition of

criminal profiling along with other information about criminal profiling and profiles of five

criminals including almost their entire life history.

After my interview with a therapist, I had a new understanding of criminal profiling because she

explained to me in great detail what it is and how it is used by law enforcement agencies. She

also explained to me if criminal profiling is always accurate or not which really helped because I

then really gained more understanding of the effort put in by law enforcement agents.

Some problems I encountered were not being able to find sufficient information or evidence and

I solved them by continuing to research using different keywords and phrases until I was able to

find the sources I needed. Some of the decisions that I made while doing the project include

getting rid of a lot of information and evidence because a lot of it ended up not being completely

relevant to what I was writing about and some of the information looked relevant or sounded

interesting when it wasn’t relevant or interesting.

Communication and Social Skills

My mentor meetings allowed me to practice my social skills since I was forced to share my ideas

and information with someone I’d never met before. I also had to practice my social skills by
presenting my ideas during the exhibition and talk to people about my own opinions about the

topic. Throughout the project, I communicated in a variety of ways, including sharing my ideas

with my mentor and people viewing my exhibition. I also communicated by asking people for

their feedback and also presenting my product to people viewing my exhibition. During the

exhibition, I was able to gather feedback by creating a survey that consisted of 8 questions which

were all related to my criteria of success. I also gathered feedback by talking to my peers who

viewed my exhibition. During the exhibition, I was able to communicate my ideas easily and

also present my whole project to multiple people and have them leave interested in psychology

and crime.

Criterion D: Reflecting

Evaluation of product

In consultation with my mentor, we thought that my final product met most of my criteria in

these ways, the text was relevant, accurate, and legible, my website wasn’t too chaotic or too

simple it also looked quite professional, and the information was labelled and categorized

properly. My mentor and I agreed that the product fell short of none of these criteria as shown in

Appendix 2A in these ways as the survey responses (Appendix 3A) confirmed my product fell

short of none of the criteria. Based upon feedback from the exhibition, my product was excellent

because as shown in Appendix 3A which shows my survey results from my peers my product did

not fall short of any of the criteria.

Extended knowledge of topic and global context

My knowledge of criminal profiling has been extended as a result of this project by the fact that I

can define what it is, the attempt to derive a hypothesis about the personality characteristics of

individuals committing criminal acts, based on the analysis of a crime scene, victim information,

and other relevant sources of information, and that I have a complete understanding of what it is

because I was able to create a profile for five different criminals.

My understanding of my global context has developed by being able to define it, Who we are: a

study in what self is, beliefs and values are, personal, physical, mental, social, and spiritual

health, and human relationships which include friends, family, communities, cultures, rights and

responsibilities, and basically what it means to be human, and having full understanding of it

because I was able to really tie it into what my product is which is an insight to a criminal’s past

and present relationships and their past and present mental health.

I learned these things, criminal profiling and identities and relationships, during the creation of

my product when I read multiple articles and websites about criminal profiling and when I went

onto the IB website and a few other websites to look at the definition of my global context to get

a full understanding of it to be able to create a product that would really tie into my global

context.The things that I would like to explore further are criminal psychology and what it is to

be a detective because I have wanted to be a detective for a very long time and am still extremely
interested criminal profiling as I wasn’t able to fully research it as it is such a broad subject and I

only focused on serial killers.

Development as IB learner

I developed as an IB learner in these areas, approaches to learning skills and being an inquirer

because I improved in self-management as I got better at managing my time, I improved as a

thinker as I had to think a lot about what to write and the best ways to plan things, I also

improved as a communicator as I had to talk to a lot of people about my ideas, I improved my

researching skills as I had to research for multiple different things and had to find ways to find

things even if it seems impossible to find them, I improved my social skills as I had to accept a

lot of responsibility for my own work and how I planned it, and I improved as an inquirer as I

had to inquire a lot about my topic and global context.

My most challenging experiences included creating my product and researching my topic as it

was hard to find the specific information I needed and it was hard to create my product as at

times I would lose a lot of the work I did and also would hit roadblocks with my research. I am

proud of the improvement in my time management skills as I stopped procrastinating a lot which

paid off especially towards the exhibition. I am also proud of my product as I put a lot of effort

and time into it and it paid off as it is an excellent product and people actually enjoyed looking at

it.
If I were to attempt a similar project in the future I would plan my research better and maybe

even make more time to create my product so I could possibly add more pages and facts about

criminal profiling. I surprised myself by finishing my product on time and also just managing my

time well in general as I thought I would miss most of my deadlines due to my horrible

procrastination.
APPENDIX 1A, OPVL:
Inquiry Question: What is behavioural profiling

Name of source: University Of Pretoria

Location / URL: Date accessed: 20/11/19

https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/25159
/02chapter3.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

Summary Notes:
- “The attempt to derive a hypothesis about the personality characteristics of individuals committing
criminal acts, based on the analysis of a crime scene, victim information, and other relevant sources of
information”

Currency: Relevancy: Accuracy: Purpose:

Around the early 2000s as This is about what Seems to be quite Educate others on what
all the evidence was from behavioural profiling is, accurate. criminal behavioural
before 2010 it’s origin, etc. profiling is.

How will you use the information (transfer of learning):

I will use this information as I’m making a website that explains what criminal behavioural profiling is.

Inquiry Question: What is criminal profiling

Name of source: (person, book, website, etc.) Psychology Today

Location / URL: Date accessed: Dec 6, 2019

https://www.psychologytoday.com/sg/blog/wicked-dee
ds/201712/criminal-profiling-the-original-mind-hunters

Summary Notes:
- Criminal profiling has been used by the FBI since the 70s.
- Analyze evidence to come up with a description of the unknown offender.
- Figure out personality/character traits, behavioural patterns, age, ethnicity, geographic location.
- Criminal profiling helps narrow down a list of suspects and eliminates those who don’t match the
description/profile given of the unknown offender.

Currency: Relevancy: Accuracy: Purpose:

Dec 4, 2017,
Quite relevant as the article
was written 2 years ago.
Relevant as I need to gain a
deeper and better
understanding of criminal
profiling.
Quite accurate as the article
was written by a
criminologist with a PhD
and says the same as what
previous other websites
have said.
The purpose of the article is
to educate others and give
others a better
understanding of what
criminal profiling is.

How will you use the information (transfer of learning):

I will use my learning on my website and use this information in the case study I’m making.
 APPENDIX 1B, PRIOR LEARNING

What I already know about my Where I learned about it…. Questions I have...
topic...

I already kind of know what
behavioural profiling is, it is when
you look at the crimes the
“unknown subject” has committed
and using that information build a
profile of who they are like their
approximate age, race, mental
health status, the way they look, etc.
I’ve also watched many case
documentaries so I know what
information I need to put into it and
somewhat know how to
layout/organise the information. I
also know how to make a website
using Wix, I have never made one
using google though so I’ll have to
play around with it before I have a
full understanding on how to make
the website.
I learned about it from case
documentaries and prior research
that I did for fun because I have
always been interested in this
subject.
- What exactly is
behavioural profiling?
- How do you behaviourally
profile someone?
- How do you make a
profile as accurate as
possible?
- What are the best ways to
make a case study?
- What is the best way to
make a case documentary?
- How to make a website
using google?

Prior Learning Explain how this prior What additional learning do you need to achieve your
learning will help you achieve personal project goal?
your personal project goal
(For e.g., clubs, training, (Explain in detail the specific prior (Explain what additional learning you need to acquire in order to
online courses, learning that you can transfer to the achieve your personal project goal.)
extra-curricular programs, creation of your personal project
etc.) product/outcome as well as
contribute to the process of creating
this product/outcome.)

I have prior learning from
this because I have done a
bit of research before on
behavioral profiling
because I have always
found it interesting. I also
have watched many case
documentaries as they are
quite interesting.
I can use my prior learning about Additional learning I need is knowing exactly what behavioural
behavioral profiling to work on a profiling is and how to profile someone’s behaviour. I also need to
few case studies and finish a part of learn how to make a website using google instead of Wix.
my website and end up having to do
less research. It will also help me as
it makes it easier for me to
understand what the information
means and also helps me understand
what I’m doing a lot better.
APPENDIX 1C, REFLECTION ON ATL SKILLS

What skills do I already have
that I can use to achieve my
personal project goal?
What skills do I need to develop
in order to achieve my personal
project goal?
How can I find information on
how to develop these skills?
Where can I find support and
coaching? Where can I find
experts who can teach me the
skills I need to acquire?

1. Self-management ATL ● Regularly checking in

1. Knowledge and a. Organisation with Ms. Chelsea to
Understanding of the 2. Literacy ATL make sure I am meeting
content. a. Organisation deadlines
2. Research literacy - written ● Making calendar and
gathering information communication sticking to my goals
3. Website design b. Transitioning ● Transition word
from one vocabulary building
paragraph to ● Paraphrasing or
another summarising ideas - Ms
c. Selecting Chelsea support, Ms
relevant Smith (Lang & Lit
information and teacher)
writing
cohesively
APPENDIX 1D, GOAL MAKING
Basic
Describe what you plan to create
for your product/outcome.
I plan to create a website that
includes information about
behavioural profiling and a few
case studies.
Challenging
Describe what you plan to create
for your product/outcome and
for what purpose.
I plan to create a website that
provides information about
behavioural profiling, a few case
studies where behavioural
profiling was used, and possibly
a case documentary that I make
about a case that used
behavioural profiling to teach
people about what behavioural
profiling is and how psychology
is useful in cases.
Highly Challenging
Describe what you plan to create
for your product/outcome and
for what purpose and how this
goal will require deep thinking.
I plan to create a website that
provides information about
behavioural profiling, a few case
studies where behavioural
profiling was used, and possibly
a case documentary that I make
about a case that used
behavioural profiling to teach
people about what behavioural
profiling is and how psychology
is useful in cases. This will
require deep thinking because I
need to learn what behavioural
profiling is and what it entails,
how I’m going to do the case
studies and case documentary
and how I’m going to make my
website in a way that it would
work and look aesthetically
pleasing.
APPENDIX 1E, SUBJECT SKILLS

MYP Subject Skills and How will these skills and knowledge and understanding
Knowledge help you achieve your personal project goal?
(For e.g., Language and Literature: Explain in detail how these skills and knowledge and understanding can be transferred
Features of a visual text for a film to the creation of your personal project product/outcome.)
creation; Design - Engineering and
Robotics: Programming and Robotics
for building a household robot, etc.)

Language and Literature will help me because in Language and Literature most
of the essays I write are analysing texts and I will have to write a lot of analysis
Language and Literature paragraphs throughout this project. Design will help me because I will be
designing my own website and I don’t really know how to design one so design
Design will help because in design I will be designing a lot of things and that will help
me throughout this project.
 APPENDIX 2A, PLANNING

Date Goal/questions to address Specific actions needed

8/10/19 Meet with mentor. Start thinking about a goal.

12/10/19 Finalize goal. Finalize goal and think of what else to

do.

29/10/19 Start Crit A. Start research, do prior knowledge, and

ATL skill table.

5/11/19 Finish crit A. Finish research, do prior knowledge,

and ATL skill table.

16/11/19 Start plan and crit for success. Start plan and crit for success.

20/11/20 Finish plan and crit for success. Finish plan and crit for success.

27/12/19 Start making website. vGo to wix.com and fill in all the info needed.

27/12/19 Try to finish more than half of the website. vGo to wix.com and fill in all the info needed.

12/01/20 Finish website. Using wix.com make final changes and add
in images.

12/01/20 Publish website. Publish the website and create a name for it.

12/01/20 Finish process journal. Type in all final info.

APPENDIX 2B, CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS

Design Specification Description

The information must be legible. Information should be written in a colour that isn’t
the same shade/colour as the background and must
be a size/font that anyone can read.

Background images must be entertaining and Images can be the colours red or black as those are
relevant to the topic. the colours most often associated with crime.
Images can also be crime scenes or fingerprints as
those are often associated with crime.

Information should be accurate and relevant. Information should only be about criminal
psychology or studies of cases where criminal
psychology was used.

The website shouldn’t be too chaotic or too There should be sufficient amounts of information
simple. and there should be a sufficient amount of images
related to criminal profiling. However, the images
and text shouldn’t be too bright.

The website should look professional. There should be sufficient information and should
look somewhat minimalistic. There should be
titles and headings/subheadings if needed.

Information should be categorized and labelled The information should be categorized properly so
properly. that it makes sense and should be labelled so that
people can know that they’re going to read before
they read it.
APPENDIX 3A, PRODUCT
APPENDIX 3B, SURVEY RESULTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bonn, Scott A. “Criminal Profiling: The Original Mind Hunters.” Psychology Today, Sussex

Publishers, 4 Dec. 2017,

www.psychologytoday.com/sg/blog/wicked-deeds/201712/criminal-profiling-the-original-mind-

hunters.

Degrees, Online Psychology. “Five Serial Killers Caught Using Criminal Profiling.” Online

Psychology Degrees, 31 July 2017,

www.online-psychology-degrees.org/list-articles/five-serial-killers-caught-using-criminal-profili

ng/.​​

Pretoria, University Of. “Chapter 3 Behavioural Profiling.” University of Pretoria, University of

Pretoria, 2010,

repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/25159/02chapter3.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y.

Ward, Jane Tyler. “What Is Forensic Psychology?” American Psychological Association,

American Psychological Association, Sept. 2013,

www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psn/2013/09/forensic-psychology.