Abstract

Profiling is recognized as a representative application area of ​​domestic criminal psychology, and the National Police Agency profiler is firmly established as a profession. However, compared to the social awareness, the recognition and utilization within the police is not high. In this study, we tried to identify factors affecting the intention to use profiling by identifying the perception of investigators who request and use profiling from a profiler when a violent incident occurs. To this end, the relationship between the perception of the importance of factors considered by investigators in the criminal investigation process and the attitude toward profiling on the intention to use profiling was verified through the path model. As a result of a survey of 340 police investigators, the investigator's perception of the importance of investigation elements was divided into two factors: the importance of normative investigative elements (evidence collection and legal judgment, etc.) and factual investigative elements (criminal analysis, criminal information system analysis, etc.). Among them, the importance of factual investigative elements were found to have a positive effect on the intention to use it by mediating the attitude toward profiling. On the other hand, in the case of the importance of normative investigative elements, it was found to have a negative effect on the attitude toward profiling. These results suggest that the perception that investigators have about investigation, which is their main work area, plays a role in determining whether to request profiling as well as attitude towards profiling. Based on the research results, strategies necessary to activate the use of profiling were discussed.