Top down approach (offender profiling) Flashcards
Top down approach
start and how it advanced
application
starts with big picture then fills in detail
American- FBI
Predetermined categories of organised or disorganised and then fit in to these
Ressler, Burgess and Douglas interviewed 36 sexually motivated murderers with questions related to factors like early warning signs or possible triggers.
From data gathered from crime scene, interviews and details of crime they created a typology/category of criminal
Hazelwood and Douglas then advanced this and created ‘lust murderer’ theory, suggesting lust murderers can be categories as organised or disorganised
from data gathered from crime scene, can then identify characteristics of offender to decide who to look for
more useful for extreme crimes like murder and rape where more personal details are left than property based crime
organised offender crime scene
crime scene:
planned,
element of control (restraints brought etc),
aggression before death,
person moved before/after death,
no DNA evidence
organised offender personality
Personality:
Married with family, controlled emotion, skilled employment (possibly travel), socially + sexually competent, inconsistent discipline from parent/father as a child, use of alcohol, no change of behaviour afterwards, return to crime + offer information
disorganised offender crime scene
crime scene:
Spontanious, victim known in some capacity, little control, sexual/sadistic acts before death, facial destruction, body not hidden, some evidence i.e DNA present
disorganised offender personality
personality:
Live alone, unskilled work closer to home/unemployed, low iq, uncontrolled emotional response, live + work near crime scene, lonely, socially + sexually incompetent,
harsh discipline as a child, no alcohol during crime, major behavioural change afterwards, keep souvenir or reminder of crime
FBI Profiling needs
needs: PNMMIB
colour photos of scene, data of neighbourhood, medical report, map of victims travel on day, complete investigatory report, background details of victim
FBI stages of Profiling
- data assimilation- gather all sources and info together
- Classify crime scene- organised or disorganised
- crime reconstruction- hypothesis about crime eg what happened
- profile generation- sketch, physical, behavioural
Strength top down approach (evidence)
canter- looked at 100 US serial killers using smallest space analysis and found subset of features matching FBI typology for organised offenders
evidence supporting idea of offender profile
strength top down approach (application)
Meketa- top-down profiling has recently been applied to burglary leading to an 85% rise in solved cases in three US states
further adds 2 categories- opportunistic and interpersonal
Limitation top down approach (difficulty)
Godwin- argues that, in reality, it is difficult to classify killers as one or the other type. A killer may have multiple contrasting characteristics, such as high intelligence, and sexual competence, but commits a spontaneous murder leaving the body at the crime scene
limitation top down approach (limited)
critics claim TDA can only be used for certain crimes like sexually motivated murder
however Meketa
other limit- doesnt account for starting as D and becoming O