forensics : offender profiling- top down approach Flashcards
define crime
an act committed in violation if the law where the individual receives some form of punishment from the state. It is an act which is harmful for the individual, group or state as a whole.
what are some of the problems defining crime?
we are using the legalistic definition of crime but laws are subject to change. So it doesn’t mean the laws are the morally correct way to view things.
E.g. Homosexuality only became partially legalised for the first time under the sexual offences act 1967.
how would you define offender profiling?
a behavioural and analytical tool to help investigators profile characteristics of unknown criminals.
Main aim is to narrow down the list of likely suspects.
how would you define the top-down approach?
focuses on the big picture ( large wide ranging factors) and use that to make predictions using a pre-existing template.
Focuses on the general sweeping statements to make conclusions on the individual - general principles about similarities between humans.
Also known as typology.
when and where did the top-down approach originate?
developed in the 1970’s by the FBI.
how many interviews was it developed from and who was interviewed?
FBI behavioural science unit gathered data from in-depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers e.g. ted bundy and charles manson.
Concluded that serious crimes could be categorised into organised/disorganised.
what are the key characteristics of an organised offender?
-planned and controlled
-weapons brought to the scene
-evidence is destroyed or removed
-has a type and is a deliberate target
offender is unknown to the victim
-normal/high intelligence
-usually married and got children
highly skilled job
what does modus operandi mean?
a signature or specific way of working.
Knowing an offenders type allows us to predict ither things about them - certain MO’s correlate with psychological and social characteristics.
what are the key characteristics of an unorganised offender?
-unplanned and chaotic
-weapons are improvised
-body often left at scene
-lots of evidence e.g. blood and weapon
-no type
-possibly known to the victim
-socially and sexually inept
-low intelligence
-anxious
-unskilled work
-live alone
Describe the 4 stages involved in FBI profile construction
- data Assimilation- Reviewing evidence from the crime scene e.g. crime scene photographs, pathology reports, witness reports.
- crime scene classification - Organised and disorganised
- crime reconstruction- Generating a hypothesis in terms of the sequence of events and the behaviour of victim and suspect.
- profile generation- Likely offender e.g. demographic background, physical /psychological characteristics.
what crimes is the top-down approach limited to and why is this an issue?
-only useful for serious crimes with unique characteristics ( rape, arson, murders etc).
Cannot help for most common crimes.
-not generalisable for most crimes.
the top down approach is based on the idea that personalities don’t change over time so why is this an issue?
Alison et al 2002 approach is based on outdated models of personality that see behaviour as a result of stable dispositions. Has poor validity at identifying and predicting next move.
who found evidence that only supported that there is an organised offender and why is this an issue?
Cantar et al 2004- smallest space analysis technique to analyse 100 USA murders in ref to 39 organised/disorganised characteristics. Only found evidence of a distinct organised type of offender and so lacks validity.
how is the 2 dimensional classification too simplistic and why is this a problem?
Holmes suggested 4 types of serial killer - visionary, mission, hedonistic and power/control.
how can you criticise the research methods that went into the development of the top down approach
36 interviews of killers is very small and unrepresentative control group meaning it is not generalisable
