offender profiling: the top down approach

Question 1

what is offender profiling?

Answer 1

a behavioural and analytical tool intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown offenders

Question 2

what is the main aim of offender profiling?

Answer 2

to narrow the list of likely suspects

Question 3

methods of offender profiling

Answer 3

• careful scrutiny of the crime scene
• analysis of other evidence eg. witness reports
• generate hypotheses about probable characteristics of offender (eg. age, background, occupation)

Question 4

where and when was the top-down approach developed?

Answer 4

• FBI behavioural science unit in USA
• 1970s

Question 5

how was the top-down approach developed?

Answer 5

in-depth interviews with 36 sexually-motivated murderers including ted bundy and charles manson

Question 6

what were the conclusions from the interviews with the FBI?

Answer 6

• concluded that the data could be categorised into organised or disorganised crimes / murders
• each category has certain characteristics of one category
• if data from a crime scene matched some of the characteristics of one category, we can predict other characteristics that would be likely
• this could be used to find the offender

Question 7

what are the 2 types of offender?

Answer 7

• organised
• disorganised

Question 8

what idea is the organised disorganised distinction based on?

Answer 8

• principle of behavioural consistency
• serious offenders have a modus operandi
• these generally correlate with a particular set of social and psychological characteristics that relate to the individual

Question 9

characteristic: crime scene

Answer 9

• O: planned, methodical, and controlled
• D: chaotic, impulsive, often unplanned

Question 10

characteristic: evidence

Answer 10

• O: minimal evidence left, covers tracks
• D: leaves evidence, may act on impulse

Question 11

characteristic: victim selection

Answer 11

• O: targeted, usually with a specific type in mind
• D: opportunistic, often random

Question 12

characteristic: crime location

Answer 12

• O: often isolated, selected to avoid detection
• D: close to offender’s home or familiar locations

Question 13

characteristic: personality traits

Answer 13

• O: confident, socially adept, in control
• D: socially awkward, loner, emotionally unstable

Question 14

characteristic: intelligence level

Answer 14

• O: generally above average
• D: often below average or average

Question 15

characteristic: employment

Answer 15

• O: usually stable job, organised lifestyle
• D: unstable employment or unemployed

Question 16

characteristic: appearance

Answer 16

• O: neat and well-groomed
• D: often unkempt or neglected appearance

Question 17

characteristic: relationship history

Answer 17

• O: able to maintain relationships, though may be controlling
• D: few or dysfunctional relationships

Question 18

characteristic: response to police

Answer 18

• O: may follow investigation closely / insert themselves into it
• D: avoid police, lacks understanding of investigative techniques

Question 19

characteristic: transport

Answer 19

• O: often has access to transport, travels to crime scene
• D: likely lacks transport, commits crimes locally

Question 20

characteristic: use of restraints

Answer 20

• O: more likely to bring and use restraints or weapons
• D: uses items found at the scene, if any

Question 21

characteristic: post-crime

Answer 21

• O: may take souvenirs, shows interest in media coverage
• D: shows signs of anxiety, may confess or make mistakes

Question 22

what are the 4 main stages in the construction of an FBI profile?

Answer 22

1. data assimilation
2. crime scene classification
3. crime reconstruction
4. profile generation

Question 23

what happens in stage 1 of constructing an FBI profile?

Answer 23

profiler reviews evidence:

• crime scene photographs
• pathology reports
• witness reports

Question 24

what happens in stage 2 of constructing an FBI profile?

Answer 24

offender is classified as either organised or disorganised

Question 25

what happens in stage 3 of constructing an FBI profile?

Answer 25

generate hypothese in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of victim etc.

Question 26

what happens in stage 4 of constructing an FBI profile?

Answer 26

hypotheses related to likely offender - demographic background - physical characteristics - behaviour

Question 27

evaluation: research support (canter et al. 2004)

Answer 27

- analysed 100 US murders, each committed by a different serial killer using a technique called smallest space analysis - analysed was used to assess co-occurence of 39 aspects of serial killings eg. whether there was torture or restraint - analysis revealed that there does seem to be a subset of features of many serial killings which matched the FBI's typology for organised offenders - key component of FBI typology approach has some validity

Question 28

what is smallest space analysis?

Answer 28

statistical technique that identifies correlations across different samples of behaviour

Question 29

evaluation: organised and disorganised types are not mutually exclusive (godwin 2002)

Answer 29

- variety of combinations occur at any given murder scene - G (2002) in reality, it is difficult to classify killers as one or the other type - a killer may have multiple contrasting characteristics eg. high intelligence and sexual competence but unemployed and commits crime locally - therefore, organised-disorganised typology is probably more of a continuum

Question 30

evaluation: top-down profiling can be adapted to other kinds of crime eg. burglary (meketa 2017)

Answer 30

- top-down profiling has recently been applied to burglary, leading to an 85% rise in solved cases in three US states - detection method retains organised-disorganised distinction but also adds 2 new categories - top-down profiling has a wider application than was originally assumed, critics have claimed that the technique only applies to a limited number of crimes eg. sexually-motivated murder

Question 31

what are the 2 new categories that were added after top-down profiling was adapted to burglary?

Answer 31

- **interpersonal** - offender usually knows their victim and steals something of significance - **opportunistic** - generally inexperienced young offender

Question 32

evaluation: based on flawed evidence

Answer 32

- FBI profiling was developed using interviews with 36 murderers in the US - 25 serial killers, 11 single or double murderers - at the end, 24 of these individuals were classified as organised, 12 disorganised - canter et al. argued the sample was poor - FBI agents did not select a random or large sample and sample didn't include different kinds of offender - no standard set of questions so each intrview was different so incomparable - therefore, top-down profiling does not have a sound, scientific bases

Question 33

evaluation: personality (mischel 1986)

Answer 33

- people's behaviour is more driven by the situation they are in than personality - behavioural patterns seen at a crime scene may tell us little about how that individual behaves in everyday life