Forensic Psychology - 2. Offender Profiling: The Bottom-Up Approach Flashcards
(23 cards)
What does the bottom-up approach start with? What follows?
Starts with evidence from the crime scene (including forensics, DNA, fingerprints etc).
Followed by scientific and statistical predictions which are made based on evidence from the crime scene and other scenes
Why is the bottom-up approach objective?
Because it’s not up to the profiler’s opinion about the crime scene as only concrete evidence is acquired
Where does the bottom-up approach originate from? When?
Britain in 1990
Who developed the bottom-up approach?
Canter
What does the bottom-up approach help to show?
Helps to show how and why variations in criminal behaviour occur
Assumption made by the bottom-up approach
Assumes that offenders will behave consistently across a series of crimes
Two key elements of the bottom-up approach
Geographical profiling
Investigative psychology
Geographical profiling
Looks at patterns in the location and timing of offences to make judgements about links between crimes and suggestions about where offenders live and work
Why is Geographical profiling concerned with where offenders live?
Because offenders are more likely to commit a crime near to where they live according to research
Why are locations of connected crimes analysed under Geographical profiling?
To see where the crimes are committed and the links between crime scenes
Two key psychologists of Geographical profiling
Canter and Larkin (C and L)
What theory did C and L develop in 1993 and what does it suggest? (Geographical profiling)
Developed the circle theory which suggested that offenders commit crimes within an imagined geographical circle
Two types of offenders developed by C and L (Geographical profiling)
Marauder (offender who commits crime near where they live)
Commuter (offender who travels to another area to commit crime)
What is Dragnet?
Canter developed a computerised system called Dragnet, which uses information about the location of offences to predict where an offender is likely to live
Investigative psychology
Uses established psychological theories to predict offender characteristics from offending behaviour
What is every crime recorded onto? (Investigative psychology)
A database
How is the database used in Investigative psychology?
Details of each new crime are matched with the database in order to develop hypotheses about the likely characteristics of offender
How does behaviour of offending link to behaviour of everyday life?
People are consistent in their behaviour and therefore there will be links between how someone behaves when offending and behaviour in everyday life
Positive evaluation of bottom-up approach: Copson
Copson stated that 75% of police found the approach useful in narrowing down offenders
Positive evaluation of bottom-up approach: holistic
More holistic than top-down approach as it draws on a variety of psychological methods
Positive evaluation of bottom-up approach: validity
Can be used for a wider range of crimes, giving it high validity
Negative evaluation of bottom-up approach: generic
C and L found in 45% of sexual assaults, 91% of offenders were marauders which may suggest this is too generic and may apply to to many people
Negative evaluation of bottom-up approach: circle theory
Simplifying an imaginary circle is problematic and may not be as scientific as suggested
