Rachel Corbett

But he left out all the predictions he got wrong and he massively exaggerated the ones he got right.

So it really didn't turn out to be that useful.

It was actually just a Con Ed employee who turned the guy in.

But that all got covered up in the mythos.

So I feel like, I mean, I hate, I wish I had a better answer to this question, but I keep finding time and again that it just hasn't proven that useful.

I think that they would say it's evolved.

I mean, they would they now call it like behavioral analysis or and they they were, you know, kind of like I was saying, they may use it more for geographical profiling, victimology or things like linguistic profiling.

looking at the way, say, if someone writes ransom letters or writes letters into newspapers, they may analyze that and try to figure out similar questions, like where might they be from, you know, what gender is this person, you know, those kinds of things, but through different means, means that have a little bit more data behind them.

Well, it's more honest, perhaps.

The FBI famously changed the behavioral science unit to the behavioral analysis unit.

And John Douglas, who's the very famous profiler, whose show Mindhunter is based on his book.

said that the reason was because they wanted to take the BS out of the unit.

So it became the BAU instead of the BSU.

So I think it's pretending less that it's a science, accepting more that it's an art, and also accepting that maybe there are more limited specific focuses where it can be applied.

And this also goes to advances in AI and predictive policing and all these other tools that have come up since the sort of heyday of criminal profiling.

I spent time with a family in Florida where there was a sheriff's department that was implementing a new kind of, they called it intelligence-led policing.

And similar motives, they said, you know, we've looked at the data, we find that

Children who come from homes where there is physical abuse or there's an incarcerated parent or there's drug use, all these different things in the house are more likely to become criminals than those who don't have any of those risk factors.

But the problem is instead of just understanding that and maybe reaching out to those kids with

resources, support, therapists, I don't know.