There are, however, dangerous pitfalls. The desire to see pattern in events is so strong in us that it may lead to illogical actions, that is to say actions which, in the light of modern knowledge, appear to be unreasonable. Often desperate circumstances may lead to the identification of pattern to which more considered view would not give credence. The distraught mother searching for her lost child may begin to see him, at a distance, in other children. The desperate investigator, after weeks, months, or sometimes years, without success may fasten onto a suspect with greater tenacity than a sober consideration of the circumstances would warrant.
Man often clutches at straws.
While recognizing great value of intuition in crime investigation, we have to be fully aware of its limitations. One major limitation is that intuition is based on the inductive process. That is to say a general impression is formed from a combination of particular instances. As already mentioned, crime investigation is largely an inductive process in that a variety of pieces of evidence may lead the investigator to form the certain impression as regard to the guilt or innocence of a suspect. But there are flaws in the inductive process and these are illustrated not only by the human sacrifice and witchcraft examples, but also by faults in what might appear to be a rigid chain of reasoning.