Criminal Profiling and its role in reducing cases of unlawful entry and theft. A case of Zimbabwe Republic Police Gweru District
- Author
- Wisdom Mujoni
- Title
- Criminal Profiling and its role in reducing cases of unlawful entry and theft. A case of Zimbabwe Republic Police Gweru District
- Abstract
- Zimbabwe Republic Police, Gweru District is haunted by the crime of unlawful entry and theft that are committed within its policing area. The Z.R.P has since adopted the criminal profiling investigation strategy to try and combat the phenomenon. Criminal profiling refers to the practice of predicting the personality, behaviour and demographic characteristics of a criminal based on the evidence at the crime scene (Gallagher and Holmes (2008).The study aims to survey the effectiveness of criminal profiling in reducing cases of unlawful entry and theft in Z.R.P Gweru District. It covered the period between 01 January 2017 and 31 December 2018. Theoretical and empirical literature review was done in line with the research objectives. The study population size was hundred fiftyelements. A sample size of thirty participants was drawn using simple random sampling. The researcher used questionnaires and interviews to gather data from the respondents. The study findings were that criminal profiling plays a major role in the investigation of cases of unlawful entry and theft through narrowing down suspects list, indicating lead suspects as well as encouraging pro-active policing. The study also found out that the effectiveness of criminal profiling was impeded by the shortage of qualified profilers. From the findings it can be concluded that criminal profiling was effective in investigating cases of unlawful entry and theft. It is recommended that criminal profiling must continue to be used by the ZRP as it is still relevant in the investigation of cases of unlawful entry and theft. Resources must be allocated to the Criminal Intelligence Unit to enable it to handle effectively and efficiently all criminal profiling issues.
- Date
- June 2020
- Publisher
- BUSE
- Keywords
- Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP)
- Criminal Profiling
- Supervisor
- N/A
