Offender profiling Flashcards
top-down and bottom-up approaches (14 cards)
The top-down theory: offender profiling
Narrow the list of suspects and generate hypotheses about the likely offender
Top-down theory: the American approach
FBI interviews with 36 murderers. Data from crime scene matched to category and then predicts other characteristics.
Top-down approach: organised and disorganised offenders
Organised = targets victim, high IQ, skilled job, high control, married.
Disorganised = little planning, impulsive, low IQ, unskilled job, unsuccessful relationships.
Top-down approach: constructing a FBI profile
- Data assimilation
- Crime scene classification
- Crime reconstruction
- Profile generation
Top-down approach: research support
100 serial killings (smallest space analysis) supported organised category (Canter et al.)
COUNTERPOINT
most killers have multiple contrasting characteristics, don’t fit into one type (Godwin).
Top-down approach: wider application
Applied in burglary, 85% rise in solved cases (Meketa).
Top-down approach: flawed evidence
Small interview sample, not random, similar kinds of offenders, non-standard questions (Canter et al).
Top-down approach: evaluation extra - personality
top-down profiling is based on behavioural consistency, however situational factors may matter more (Mischel).
The bottom-up approach: the theory
profile emerges from the analysis of the crime scene
Bottom-up approach: investigative psychology
Interpersonal coherence - crime scene behaviour reflects everyday behaviour.
Time and place - dwelling place.
Forensic awareness - previous crimes,
Bottom-up approach: geographical profiling
crime mapping based on spatial consistency, may reveal offender’s centre of gravity and marauder or commuter.
Bottom-up approach: evidence for investigative psychology
66 sexual assaults, smallest space analysis, consistent pattern of behaviour = case linkage (Canter and Heritage)
COUNTERPOINT
database of solved crimes using case linkage which may have been easy to link.
Bottom-up approach: evidence for geographical profiling
120 US serial killer cases, place where bodies left created a circle of gravity pointing to home base (Lundrigan and Canter)
Bottom-up approach: geographical evidence insufficient
Recording of crime inaccurate (75% of crimes not reported), age and experience matter (Ainsworth)
