The process of inferring the personality characteristics of individuals responsible for criminal acts is commonly referred to as criminal profiling. (Turvey) Criminal profiling can also be called behavioral profiling because when a profiler creates a profile, it refers to the behavior of the offender. The general term criminal profiling may also be referred to as crime scene profiling, criminal personality profiling, offender profiling, psychological profiling, and criminal investigation analysis. All terms listed above are used inconsistently and interchangeably. Modern criminal profiling has a diverse history based on the study of criminal behavior (criminology), the study of mental illness (psychology and psychiatry), and the examination of physical evidence (forensic science). (Turvey) There are four very important elements that contribute to the establishment of a criminal profile. These elements are victimology, analysis of injury types, crime scene characteristics and criminology. Victimology is the study of victims. Profilers ask questions like: “Why this person?” » and “Was the victim related to her killer or her attacker?” Injury pattern analysis is the study of how the victim's injuries were carried out. Crime scene characteristics help build a profile by showing profilers what exactly happened during the crime. Criminology is the study of crime, criminals and criminal behavior. Strupe 2 While these elements are extremely important, criminal profiling has other elements that help build the profile. Victimology requires the investigator to create a profile of the victim, which in turn can give clues to the identity of the criminal...... middle of paper ......ems that could be wrong in the criminal. Overall, these elements of criminal profiling helped it become what it is today. Works Cited Turvey, Brent. Criminal profiling: an introduction to behavioral evidence analysis. 2nd. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Academic Press, 2002. Print. Patterson, Randy. Personal interview. January 20, 2010. Black, Ken. “What is criminology.” Geek wise. Geekwise, 2010.Web. May 18, 2010. Douglas, John. “Criminal profiling from crime scene analysis.” Criminal profiling from crime scene analysis (1986): 22. Web. May 18, 2010. http://www.ravenndragon.net/montgomery/crimprofiling.pdfDegreeDirectory.org, . “What is criminology?.” DegreeDirectory.org.DegreeDirectory,org, 2010. Web. May 18 2010.