Offender profiling has been developing slowly as a possible investigative tool since 1841 and the publication of Edgar Allen Poe's The Murder in the Rue Morgue. In this book, detective C. Auguste Dupin demonstrates the ability to follow the thought patterns of a companion while they stroll through Paris for 15 minutes without speaking a word. Today profiling is an important investigative tool. Nevertheless, it often represents a less than educated attempt to provide law enforcement agencies with detailed information about the behavior of an unknown individual who has committed a crime.
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