Bottom-Up Approach

Question 1

Where was the bottom up approach developed

Answer 1

In the uk

Question 2

Aim of the bottom up approach

Answer 2

To generate a picture of the offender including their likely characteristics, routine behaviour & social background

Question 3

How does the bottom up approach achieve generating this image

Answer 3

Through systematic analysis of evidence left behind at the crime scene

Question 4

What’s diff about the top down and bottom down approach

Answer 4

Bottom down approach doesn’t begin with fixed typologies (like the top down one), instead the profile is data driven and emerges as the profiler engages in rigorous scrutiny of the details of the offence

Question 5

What theory is bottom up profiling grounded in

Answer 5

Psychological theory

Question 6

What’s the aim of investigative psychology

Answer 6

To establish behaviours that are likely to occur at certain crime schemes
This is done in order to create a statistical database which then acts as a baseline for comparison

Question 7

What goes in the investigative psychology database

Answer 7

Specific details of an offence which can then be matched against the database to reveal statistically probable details about the offender e.g. their personal history, family background
This helps determine whether multiple offences are linked and likely to have been committed by the same individual

Question 8

What is interpersonal coherency

Answer 8

The way in which an offender behaves at the crime scene, including how they interact with the victim, may reflect their behaviour in everyday situations
E.g. some rapists want to control and humiliate their victim, but others are apologetic (this shows how the offender relates to women generally)

Question 9

What does the time and the place of a crime indicate

Answer 9

Where the offender lives
If they have a regular job etc

Question 10

What’s forensic awareness

Answer 10

When individuals attempt to ‘cover their tracks’ & hide the body / clean the scene etc. this can indicate that they have been subject of police investigations before, or their dna is on file

Question 11

What’s geographical profiling

Answer 11

The study of spatial behaviour in relation to crime and offenders
It focuses on the location of the crime as a clue to where the offender lives / works / socialises

Question 12

What are the assumptions of geographical profiling

Answer 12

• a serious offender restricts their activities to an area they’re familiar with, so their base will be in the middle of the spatial pattern of the crime scenes (it’s like an O around their home)
  Earlier crimes committed closer than later crimes, as offender becomes more confident and travels further down

Question 13

What two models of offender behaviour did Canter and Larkin propose

Answer 13

The marauder (operates close to home)
The commuter (travels a distance away)
However both still have a circle around home as the spatial pattern (more apparent as more crimes committed)

Question 14

What else does the spatial pattern of a crime tell the police about

Answer 14

Offenders mode of transport, employment status, approx age etc

Question 15

+ of bottom up approach

Answer 15

• more scientific
• applied to more offences

Question 16

How is the bottom up approach more scientific than the top down profiling approach

Answer 16

More grounded in evidence and psychological theory and less driven by speculation and hunches than too-down profiling

Question 17

What else can bottom up profiling be applied to

Answer 17

A wider variety, including burglary and theft, not just murder and rape like the top down profiling approach

Question 18

Weaknesses of the bottom up approach

Answer 18

• only 3% cases it aided in accurate identification
• basically just common sense (chem students)
• some significant failures with the approach e.g. Rachel Nickell.

Question 19

Rachel Nickell bottom up approach fail details

Answer 19

• 21 year old Rachel Nickell stabbed 47 times & sexual assaulted in 1992 in Wimbledon common
• 2008, Robert Napier convicted after forensic evidence checked
  He had initially been ruled out because the profile said the person would be a few inches taller than Robert was

Question 20

What did kocsis et al find out about chemistry students vs detectives

Answer 20

Chem students produced a more accurate offender profile than experienced senior detectives
- this implies that the approach is little more than common sense & guess work

Question 21

What did Copson find out about the effectiveness of the approach

Answer 21

• surveyed 48 police forces
• advice provided by a profiler was useful in 83% of cases but
• only in 3% of the cases did it lead to accurate identification of the offender