offender profiling

Question 1

offender profiling

Answer 1

a key investigative tool used by the police to help catch criminals. it is a method of working out the characteristics of an offender by examining the characteristics of the crime and the crime scene

Question 2

the top-down approach

Answer 2

profilers start with a pre-established typology and work down in order to assign offenders to one of two categories based on witness accounts and evidence from the crime scene

Question 3

behavioural evidence

Answer 3

things that tell us how an offender went about committing a crime

Question 4

criminal consistency

Answer 4

the idea that a person’s behaviour at a crime scene is consistent with their behaviour in other contexts

Question 5

‘the american approach’

Answer 5

• also known as typology approach
• draws on data from lengthy unstructured interviews with participants from 1979-1983.
• sample was of 36 convicted serial killers and sex murderers in american prisons whose crimes had a sexual orientation e.g charles manson, ted bundy. 25 were serial killers

Question 6

organised offender

Answer 6

an offender who shows evidence of planning, targets the victim and tends to be socially and sexually competent with higher than average IQ

Question 7

disorganised offender

Answer 7

an offender who shows little evidence of planning, leaves clues and tends to be socially and sexually incompetent with lower levels of IQ

Question 8

four stages of generating a profile

Answer 8

data assimilation
crime classification
crime reconstruction
profile generation

Question 9

data assimiliation

Answer 9

collection of all available information from the crime scene, type of victim and the crime

Question 10

crime classification

Answer 10

profiler organises data into meaningful patterns e.g murder type - mass, spree or serial murders, time of day and locations.
attempts to classify the crime (organised or disorganised)

Question 11

crime reconstruction

Answer 11

attempts to reconstruct the crime and generate hypotheses about the behaviours involved

Question 12

profile generation

Answer 12

a criminal profile is constructed of the offender which includes hypotheses about their likely habits, beliefs and backgrounds.
this description is used to work out a strategy to help catch the offender.
police given the report, persons matching the profile are evaluated

Question 13

bottom-up approach

Answer 13

profilers work up from evidence collected from the crime scene to develop hypotheses about the likely characteristics, motivations and social background of the offender

Question 14

investigative psychology

Answer 14

a form of bottom-up profiling that matches details from the crime scene with statistical analysis of typical offender behaviour patterns based on psychological theory

Question 15

interpersonal coherence

Answer 15

assumes that people are consistent in their behaviour, so their will be correlations between their everyday life and the crime . how they interact with the victim may indicate how they act in everyday life
- targeting
- implied relationship
- criminal characteristics
- criminal career

Question 16

forensic awareness

Answer 16

this focuses on those who have been the focus of police attention before. their behaviour may denote how mindful they are of covering their tracks. e.g davis et al - rapists who conceal fingerprints often had a previous conviction of burglary

Question 17

geographic profiling

Answer 17

looking at spatial patterns of crime. this may indicate where the offender is living if the crimes take place within the same forensic ‘centre of gravity’
- includes circle theory.
- includes marauders and commuters

Question 18

smallest space analysis

Answer 18

a statistical technique which explores correlations between crime scene details (from database of recorded crimes) and offender characteristics from large numbers of similar cases.
- this can identify themes or categories of offending

Question 19

rossmo (1997)

Answer 19

states that an offenders operational base of possible future offences are revealed by the geographical location of their previous crimes

Question 20

how does the case of john duffy illustrate bottom-up approach

Answer 20

• Systematic analysis of the crime scene – detail of the offences – where took place etc, what had been said - the way in which he interacted with the victim the nature of the sexual activity ( tied- victims up), knowledge of police procedures. Details fed into computer/ data base – use of statistical analysis.
• Geographical profiling :- Marauder – knows the railway system, knew when areas empty and no witnesses. Knot uses typical of railway workers. He was a carpenter on the railway. Also crimes happened at all times of the day - not an office worker. Type of knot used by carpenters.
• Interpersonal coherence:- - treatment of women during the crime mirrors that of his treatment in every day life – abusive and controlling towards his wife.
• Forensic awareness:- assaults changed over time, learnt from experience, he combed the pubic hair of his victim in order to remove his own hairs.
• Disorganised offender:- left semen traces and small footprint – foot size.
  Statistical analysis:- Operation hart database – computer match to his profile. On the data base for rape of his wife

Question 21

weakness - danger in focusing on one profile

Answer 21

P – there are potential ethical issues of relying too much on one profile.
E. In 1992forensic psychologist Paul Britten helped police create a profile of Rachel Nickel’s murderer. The profile led to the identification of Colin Stagg. After a considerable amoutn of time and money was wasted trying to convict stagg, it turned out the actual murder was Robert Napper, who had orgianlly been ruled out of the investigation for being taller than the profile suggested.
C. We should also be aware of the danger of the self-fulfilling prophecy with respect to profiling. The fact that a suspect happens to fit the profile does not ‘prove’ that they committed the offence. The danger is that once a person has been labelled as a suspect and brought in for questioning, the police will make a presumption of guilt and see their role as merely to elicit a confession

Question 22

strength - scientific basis

Answer 22

P – a strength of the b-u approach is that it is more scientific but less reductionist than the top-down approach.
E. It uses statistical techniques and computer analysis and is based on psychological research. Investigator’s use geographical, biological and psychological data to assist in the investigation. Investigative psychology has also been used for interviewing suspects and examining evidence in court.
C. This means that the B-U approach may be more useful in the investigation and judicial process.
C/a However, the technique relies on data gathered from offenders who have been caught so tell us little about behaviour in unsolved crimes. Also Rosmo’s formula ( geographical profiling) has been criticised for ignoreing personality factors

Question 23

strength - evidence supports geographical profiling

Answer 23

P – a strength of the b-u approach is that there is evidence to support geographical profiling.
E. Lundrigan and Canter (2001) collated in formation from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the US. Smallest space analysis revealed spatial consistency in the behaviour of the killers which .
C This means that investigative psychology may be helpful in supporting the investigation and support’s Canter’s claim that spatial information can be a key factor in determining the base of an offender. It can prioritise house to house searches or identify an area where DNA could be collected.
C/a However, it cannot distinguish between multiple offenders in the same area . Also, the use of circles may also be too simplistic as in cities patterns may form another shape.