3 - Behavioral Consistency, the Homology Assumption, and the Problems of Induction

Abstract

This chapter takes some of the problems of inductive logic and transposes them directly onto the area of profiling. For example, inductive profiling approaches rely on both consistency—that an offender will behave the same way across offenses—and homology—that two different offenders who do similar things will have similar background characteristics. Yet research has failed to show that either of these two propositions are valid, or in the best case, that they may be valid, but only in certain crime types. This would, at the very best, limit their generalizability.