Forensic Psychology Flashcards
(39 cards)
Key definition
What is crime?
An act committed in violation of the laws of a particular society and has set punishments written into the law (aka offending)
Key definition
What is deviance?
Anything that breaks or causes offence to societal norms and values
Offender Profiling
What is offender profiling?
It is an investigative tool used to identify the most likely suspects
Offender Profiling
What does OP help with and analyse?
- It helps investigators predict and profile the characteristics of potential offenders
- It analyses patterns that may be able to predict future offences and/or victims
Offender Profiling
Who identified 3 main aims of OP and when?
Holmes and Holmes (1996, 2002)
Offender Profiling
What are the 3 main aims of OP Holmes and Holmes identify?
- Narrow the field of enquiry and the list of likely suspects
- Assist in investigative practices and provide advice to the police in their lines of enquiry
- Help solve and identify offenders by conducting:
- Social and Psychological assessments - basic demographic info about the offender (gender, race etc)
- Psychological Evaluation of Belongings - identify any possible possessiobs that the offender may have that link them to the crime or the victim (photos, belongings of the vicims, souvenirs)
- Interviewing suggestions and stratergies - using different methods of interviewing to gain more info from an offender without an offender realising it
Offender Profiling
What are the 2 theories/types of OP and where in the world do they come from?
- Top-down approach (USA)
- Bottom-up approach (UK)
Offender Profiling - Top-down OP
What does top-down offender profiling involve?
- Using knowledge and information from previous crimes and offenders, still at large
- AKA the typology approach – examining post-unsolved crimes first to match what is known about the current crime and potential offender to a pre-existing template
Offender Profling - Top-down
Who was the top-down OP approach devised by?
- Developed by the FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit in the 1970s
Offender Profling - Top-down
What is the Top-Down Approach based on?
Based on interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers, it was hypothesised that all murderers and rapists had similar characteristics and a template was born
Offender Profiling - Top Down
What were the 2 groups THE fbi distinguished that these types of offenders could be classified into?
- Organised offender
- Disorganised offender
Offender Profiling - Top Down
What are the characteristics of an organised offender?
- Said to lead an ordered life
- Kill after a critical life event
- Actions are predetermined and planned
- Likely to bring weapons and restraints to the scene
- Likely to be of average to high intelligence
- Employed
Offender Profiling - Top Down
What are the characteristics of a disorganised offender?
- Crime committed in a moment of passion
- No evidence of premeditation
- More likely to leave evidence such as blood, semen, weapon etc behind
- Less socially competent
- More likely to be unemployed
Offender Profiling - Top Down
What are the 4 stages that OP is drawn up into?
- Data assimililation
- Crime scene classification
- Crime Reconstruction
- Profile generation
Offender Profiling - Top Down (4 stage process)
What is involved in data assimilation (stage 1)?
Profiler reviews evidence e.g police reports, crime scene photos
Offender Profiling - Top Down (4 stage process)
What is involved in crime scene classification (stage 2)?
Using the data collected in data assimilation, offender profiler decides whether the offender was organised or disorganised
Offender Profiling - Top Down (4 stage process)
What is involved in crime reconstruction (stage 3)?
Offender profiler predicts the sequence of events and how the crime might have taken place etc
Offender Profiling - Top Down (4 stage process)
What is involved in profile generation (stage 4)?
Prediction made related to the most likely characteristics of the offender, looking at behavioural characteristics
Offender Profiling - Top Down
Who late revised the TDOP and how may stages did they introduce?
- Douglas (2006)
- 6 stages
Offender Profiling - Top Down Process - Douglas
What were the 6 stages of Douglas’ Top-Down process?
- Profiling inputs
- Decision process models
- Crime Assessment
- Criminal Profile
- Crime Assessment
- Apprehension
Offender Profiling - Top Down Process - Douglas
What is involved within Profiling Inputs (stage 1)?
- Data collected at this stage includes a description of the crime scene, background information about the victim and details of the crime itself
- All information should be included
- Possible suspects shouldn’t be considered as this may bias the information collected
Offender Profiling - Top Down Process - Douglas
What is involved within Decision Process Models (stage 2)?
The profiler starts to make decisions about the data and organises it into meaningful patterns. Some of the following issues are considered:
o Murder type – mass, spree, or serial murders
o Time factors – Did the crime take place in a short or long time, and did it take place during the night or the day?
o Location factors – was the crime scene (where the person was abducted) the same as the murder scene?
Offender Profiling - Top Down Process - Douglas
What is involved within the crime assessment (stage 3)?
- Based on the data collected, the crime is classified as organised or disorganised
- This organised-disorganised distinction presumes that there is a correspondence between the offences and the offender.
Offender Profiling - Top Down Process - Douglas
What is involved within Criminal Profile (stage 4)?
- A profile is now constructed of the offender, which includes hypotheses about the likely background, habits, and beliefs of the offender
- This description is used to work out a strategy for the investigation to help catch the offender
- It’s important to anticipate how this person will respond to various investigative efforts, including how the offender might be interviewed if he is caught.
