Abstract Betweenness centrality of a vertex in a graph measures the fraction of shortest paths going through the vertex. This is a basic notion for determining the importance of a vertex in a network. The $k$-betweenness centrality of a vertex is defined similarly, but only considers shortest paths of length at most $k$. The sequence of $k$-betweenness centralities for all possible values of $k$ forms the betweenness centrality profile of a vertex. We study properties of betweenness centrality profiles in trees. We show that for scale-free random trees, for fixed $k$, the expectation of $k$-betweenness centrality strictly decreases as the index of the vertex increases. We also analyse worst-case properties of profiles in terms of the distance of profiles from being monotone, and the number of times pairs of profiles can cross. This is related to whether $k$-betweenness centrality, for small values of $k$, may be used instead of having to consider all shortest paths. Bounds are given that are optimal in order of magnitude. We also present some experimental results for scale-free random trees.