[justinreeves]

>Criminal profilers might qualify as experts in court, saying someone "fits the profile", helping the state make a case, while their profiling could be totally wrong, as it was in the famous sniper case, where they went with the classic "middle aged caucasian" and the killer was black and with his son(?) as an accomplice.

What case is this? Also, is "middle ages caucasian" some kind of trope in police investigations? I wasn't aware it was…

[whtrbt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltway_sniper_attacks

"It was widely speculated that a single sniper, initially identified as a white man with assumed military experience, was using the Interstate 495 Capital Beltway for travel, possibly in a white van or truck. It was later learned that the rampage was perpetrated by John Allen Muhammad, and a minor, Lee Boyd Malvo, then aged 17 and originally from Jamaica, driving a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan."

[conanbatt]

It is for serial killers. They probably assume that because of statistics(most serial killers are white), and not a psychological profile.