10.2: Offender profiling

Question 1

One method of offender profiling involves categorising offenders as either organised or disorganised offenders. Briefly explain four limitations of this method of offender
profiling (4 marks)

Answer 1

1 mark for a brief explanation of a limitation (must be explained rather than stated).
Plus
1 mark for elaboration.
Possible limitations:
• Based on a restricted sample of 36 serial sex offenders (therefore cannot be generalised
to a wide population).
• Based on the self-reports from this sample (which cannot therefore be relied on for validity).
• Distinction is an oversimplification (difficult to categorise some offenders as one type
or another so is of questionable validity/usefulness).
• Research (Canter 2004) shows evidence for the organised type only (suggesting
that organisation is a characteristic typical of most serial killers)