Canter Et Al - Bottom Up Approach Flashcards
What was the aim of Canters study?
To identify a behaviour pattern of sexual offenders from similarities between offences
Who did Canter carry out a content analysis of?
66 sexual offences from various police forces committed by 27 different offenders
What was the content analysis conducted to find out?
Which of 33 offence variables were clearly linked to a potential behaviour characteristic
How many offence variables were found to be central to the 66 sexual offence cases?
Five
What were the 5 offence variables that were central to the 66 sexual offence cases?
Rape, no reaction to the victim, impersonal language, surprise attack and the victims clothing being disturbed
What pattern of behaviour does the five offence variables suggest?
The attack is impersonal and sudden and the victims response is irrelevant to the offender
What was found about all five aspects?
They were all shown to contribute to all sexual offences, but in different patterns for different individuals
What do Canters results support?
The bottom up approach
What did Canter conclude from his results?
There are no specific types of rapists but there are certain behaviours which are common to all sexual offenders, however, if a profile is generated for a case then they need to develop an individual profile
How does the bottom up approach differ from the top down approach?
It focuses on developing a profile from the details of the crime scene rather than the application of generalised typology
What is the bottom up approach regarded to be?
Idiosyncratic
What does idiosyncratic mean?
It focuses on the nature of each individual case
Why did Canter want to develop e bottom up approach?
He wanted to explore how crimes were carried out and whether or not there were categories of criminals which would help profile a criminal
