Lesson 1 – Top-Down Approach to Offender Profiling Flashcards
What is offender profiling?
Offender profiling- tool employed by 🚨 👮♀️ to narrow down list of likely suspects- based on 💡 that characteristics of offender deduced from details of offence and crime scene
Profiling methods involve careful scrutiny of crime scene and analysis of evidence, including witness 👀 reports, to generate hypothesis about probable characteristics of offender e.g. age, background, occupation etc
What is the top down approach?
Templates of organised offender and disorganised offender pre-existing in mind of profiler … evidence from crime scene and other details of crime/victim/context used to fit offender into either of pre-existing categories and determine offender as one type or other
Where is the top down approach mainly used?
🇺🇸
What is an organised offender?
Organised Offenders- show evidence of having planned crime in advance- victim deliberately targeted and will often reveal that the killer or rapist has preference for certain type of victim- maintain high level of control during crime and operate with surgical precision- little evidence left behind at crime scene
What is unique about the characteristics of organised offenders?
Tend to be above average intelligence, in a skilled, professional occupation AND are socially and sexually competent- often married and have 👶
State an example of an organised offender
Ted Bundy
What is a disorganised offenders?
Disorganised Offenders- show little evidence of planning, suggesting offence spontaneous- crime scene tends to reflect impulsive nature of attack- body usually left at scene and appears to be very little control on part of offender
What is unique about the characteristics of disorganised offenders?
Offender tends to be of ⬇️ average intelligence, in unskilled work or unemployed AND often has history of sexual dysfunction or failed relationships- tend to live alone and often relatively close to where offence took place
State an example of a disorganised offender
Charles Manson
What are the evaluation points of the top down approach?
👎- only applies to certain crimes e.g. rape, arson, murders etc that involve macabre practices e.g. sadistic torture, dissection etc
Common offences e.g. burglary ✖️ allow top-down profiling to be used because crime scene reveals very little about offender
👎- organised or disorganised distinction developed based on interviews with 36 serial killers in 🇺🇸- critics pointed this sample too small and unrepresentative upon which to base typology system
👎- organised or disorganised distinction overly simplistic- Holmes (1989) suggests 4 types of serial killer:
1) Visionary serial killer- kill because God or Devil 👿 directing them to
2) Mission serial killer- kill to eradicate group of people they consider to be undesirable
3) Hedonistic serial killer- kill for thrill
4) Power serial killer- kill to have complete control over the victims
👎- Canter et al. (2004)- analysed data from 100 murders in 🇺🇸 with reference to characteristics thought to be typical of organised and disorganised killers- findings suggested evidence of distinct organised type BUT ✖️ the case for disorganised type … undermines entire classification system
