You searched for: “profiling”
profile (verb), profiles; profiled; profiling
To provide a brief description that gives information about a person, a place, or an organization in an article, or on a television or during a radio program.
This entry is located in the following unit: filo-, fil-, filari- + (page 2)
profile, profile, profiling
profile (PROH fighl") (noun)
1. The shape of a head or face that is seen or drawn from the side: The woman's profile, or silhouette, is very unusual.
2. A brief written description that provides information about something or someone: The article provided a profile of the shooter's background and attitudes regarding the family that he killed.
3. The amount of attention that someone or something is given or desires: Lenora tries to maintain a low profile around the university while her friend, Rena, does everything she can to get a high profile.

Deloris tries to keep a low profile so people won't notice her.

profile (PROH fighl") (verb)
1. To give a brief description that provides facts about someone or something: The newspaper wants to profile the organization that is donating so much time to helping the poor people in their community.
2. To provide information about potential terrorists or other criminals: The security organizations’ efforts to profile the man who tried to blow up the passenger aircraft were not very efficientt.
profiling (PROH fighl" ing) (noun)
1. The recording of a person's behavior and the analysis of his or her psychological characteristics in order to predict or to assess his or her ability in a certain sphere or to identify a particular group of people: The store wanted to do some consumer profiling so its management could determine the best procedures for increasing a profitable year.
2. The act or practice of regarding particular people as more likely to commit crimes because of their appearance, race, etc.: Some people accuse certain law enforcement officials of using racial profiling which disproportionately targets people of color for investigation and enforcement.

Criminal profiling is used mostly by behavioral scientists and the police to narrow down an investigation to those suspects who possess certain behavioral and personality features that are revealed by the way a crime was committed.

Justin saw an article that stated that profiling serial killers is supposed to be an art, but it's not. It's certainly not a science. The entire profiling system; such as, those profiles produced by the Behavioral Sciences Unit of the FBI, is based on interviews with an insufficient number of criminal subjects.

These days, to profile people for potential criminal acts is an important factor in protecting the people. A profile must be sufficiently composed so profiles and profiling can be properly utilized.

This entry is located in the following unit: Confusing Words Clarified: Group P; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. + (page 9)