Bottom-Up Approach Offender Profiling

Question 1

what is the bottom-up approach

Answer 1

• The bottom-up approach aims to generate a picture of the profiler, including their likely characteristics, routine behaviour etc. which is achieved through systematic analysis of evidence left behind at the crime scene
• The profile is data-derived (unlike top-down) and emerges as the profiler engages in rigorous scrutiny of the details of the offence.
• Bottom-up profiling is far more grounded in evidence and psychological theory than the top-down approach

Question 2

What is investigative psychology

Answer 2

• Investigative psychology aims to establish a statistical database of behaviours which occur at a crime scene and the characteristics of offenders who carry out these behaviours
• Specific details of an offence can be matched against a database in order to reveal statistically probable details about the offender
• The central concept of investigative psychology is the concept of interpersonal coherence. Interpersonal coherence believes that the way an offender behaves at a crime scene is similar to how they behave in their everyday life

Question 3

what is forensic awareness

Answer 3

Individuals who made an attempt to ‘cover their tracks’. This behaviour may indicate they may have been subject to police interrogation in the past, or the police already have their fingerprints or DNA

Question 4

what is geographical profiling

Answer 4

• Uses the location of the crime as a clue to where the offender lives, works and socialises.
• The assumption is that a serious offender will restrict their criminal activities to an area they are familiar with, and the offenders base will therefore likely be in the middle of the spatial patterns of their crimes
• as an offender becomes more confident, they will often travel further from their comfort zone
• As more crimes are committed, a more prominent spatial pattern will form around the offenders home

Question 5

Two models of offender behaviour (geographical)

Answer 5

marauder - operates close to home

commuter - likely to have travelled a distance away from their home

Question 6

Bottom-up positive evaluation

Answer 6

• Canter argues that the bottom-up approach is more scientific than the top-down approach because it is more grounded is evidence and psychological theory meaning it is less based on speculation increasing its reliability
• Bottom-up approach can be applied to a wider range of offences such as burglary and theft which the top-down approach cannot, arguing it is more effective

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Question 7

bottom-up negative evaluation

Answer 7

• There have been some significant failures when using bottom-up approach. In 1992, Rachel Nickell was stabbed 47 times and sexually assaulted on Wimbledon Common. In 2008, following examination of forensic evidence, Robert Napper was convicted for the murder whom had been ruled out early in the initial investigation as he was several inches taller than the profile claimed the offender would be
• Copson surveyed 48 police forces and found that the advice provided by a profiler was judged to be useful in 83% of cases, but it only led to 3% accurate identification of offenders
• Kocsis found that chemistry students produced a more accurate offender profiler than expert senior detectives. This implies that the bottom-up approach is not much more than common sense and guess work