Offender Profiling Flashcards
What is offender profiling?
The idea that one can make assumptions about an offender’s characteristics by analysing the committed offence.
When would offender profiling be used?
When police have little evidence to go on, they could enlist the help of a forensic psychologist.
The forensic psychologist will use prior knowledge, and evidence gathered from the scene to build an offender profile.
What cases are offender profiling used for?
Murder & rape.
What are the two types of offender profiling?
-Top-down approach.
-Bottom-up approach.
What is the top-down approach?
An approach where preconceived ideas about the type of offender who would commit a particular crime are made, before evidence is fitted to that profile.
AMERICAN APPROACH.
What sort of approach is the top-down approach?
Subjective.
How was the top-down approach constructed?
FBI investigators carried out structured interviews with 36 sex murderers, covering:
-Lead up to the offence.
-Early warning signs.
-What encouraged offences.
How did Hazelwood & Douglas (1980) study the top-down approach?
They separated criminals into two categories:
-Organised offender.
-Disorganised offender.
What are the characteristics of an organised offence?
-Planned.
-Shows self-control.
-Lack of evidence at the scene.
What are the characteristics of an organised offender?
-Above average IQ.
-Socially & sexually competent.
-Married with occupation.
What are the characteristics of a disorganised offence?
-Unplanned.
-Random victim.
-Evidence at the scene.
What are the characteristics of a disorganised offender?
-Below average IQ.
-Socially & sexually incompetent.
-Alone with no occupation.
What is the 4 step process to offender profiling?
- Data Assimilation: information is gathered from multiple sources (e.g. crime scene photos, police reports).
- Crime Scene Classification: profilers decide whether the crime scene represents an organised or disorganised offender.
- Crime Reconstruction: hypotheses are generated about the occurrence of the crime.
- Profile Generation: profilers construct a sketch of the offender (e.g. demographic, physical characteristics, behavioural habits).
Evaluation points for top-down approach:
-Adopted by law agencies worldwide.
-Copson (1995): 82% of police officers said it was useful, 90% said they would use it again.
-Clarke & Morely (1988) interviewed 41 rapists responsible for 800 offences: they were average men in normal family circumstances.
-Challenges stereotypes that investigators hold about offenders, resulting in mislead investigations.
What is the bottom-up approach?
An approach where evidence from the crime scene is collected, and scientific & statistical predictions are made based on this evidence (and evidence from previous crimes).
BRITISH APPROACH.
What sort of approach is the bottom-up approach?
Objective.
Who constructed the bottom-up approach?
Canter (1990).
How did Canter (1990) study the bottom-up approach?
Canter (1990) looked for consistencies in offenders’ behaviour during the crime.
Example: John Duffy carried out 24 sexual attacks and 3 murders of women near railway stations in North London in the 1980s.
Canter analysed the geographical details and the evidence and drew up a surprisingly accurate profile (e.g. worker for British Rail).
Did the geographical profile of Canter (1990) directly lead to John Duffy’s arrest?
No, but it narrowed the suspect list.
Features of the bottom-up approach:
-Starts with raw data about the crime, and makes it way up to a conclusion about the criminal.
-Assumes that offenders leave a “psychological fingerprint”/pattern of unique behaviour.
-Identifies consistencies within the behaviour of offenders and their identifiable differences.
What are the types of the bottom-up approach?
-Geographical profiling.
-Investigative psychology.
What is geographical profiling?
An approach that looks at location & timing patterns of offences to make judgements about where offenders live.
How does geographical profiling work?
The locations of connected crimes are analysed to see where the crimes were committed, and the relationships between the crime scenes.
How did Canter & Larkin (1993) study geographical profiling?
Canter & Larkin (1993) proposed the circle theory that claims that offenders commit crimes within an imagined circle.
