Offender Profiling (The Top-Down Approach)

Question 1

What is an offender profile?

Answer 1

A description of the likely offender based on crime scene evidence, outlining traits such as age, background, and occupation

Question 2

When is an offender profile used?

Answer 2

When police have little evidence and need help narrowing down suspects using crime scene information and prior knowledge.

Question 3

Who typically creates an offender profile?

Answer 3

A forensic psychologist.

Question 4

What are offender profiles based on?

Answer 4

Prior experience, databases, and crime scene evidence.

Question 5

What does the Top-Down Approach involve?

Answer 5

Starting with an existing typology and fitting the crime details into one of the predefined categories (organised or disorganised).

Question 6

What is the Top-Down Approach based on?

Answer 6

FBI experience, interviews, and case studies—not psychological theory.

Question 7

When was the Top-Down Approach developed and by whom?

Answer 7

In the 1970s by the FBI Behavioural Science Unit, based on interviews with 36 serial killers.

Question 8

What kinds of crimes is the Top-Down Approach best suited for?

Answer 8

Extreme or unusual crimes such as rape, murder, and ritualistic crimes.

Question 9

What TV series or media are associated with the FBI profiling approach?

Answer 9

Mindhunter, Criminal Minds, Cracker, and Silence of the Lambs.

Question 10

What is the key idea behind classifying offenders as organised or disorganised?

Answer 10

Serious offenders have a “signature” or modus operandi that links to social and psychological characteristics.

Question 11

Name traits of an organised offender.

Answer 11

Premeditated crime

Average to high intelligence

Married or employed

Hides the body and brings weapons

control including restraints

skilled professional (occupation)

victim - deliberately targeted

detached surgical precision

has a ‘type’

maintain high degree of control

socially and sexually competent

Question 12

Name traits of a disorganised offender.

Answer 12

Spontaneous, impulsive crime

Lower IQ

Unemployed or unskilled

Leaves evidence and body at the scene

little evidence of planning

appears to have taken very little control

failed relationship

live alone

live relatively close to the crime scene

history of sexual dysfunction

Question 13

How do organised offenders typically choose victims?

Answer 13

Victims are targeted deliberately and often reflect a specific ‘type’.

Question 14

What kind of life does a disorganised offender often lead?

Answer 14

Isolated, lives alone, close to crime scene, with a history of failed relationships.

Question 15

What are the four stages in constructing an FBI profile?

Answer 15

Data assimilation

Crime scene classification

Crime reconstruction

Profile generation

Question 16

What happens during data assimilation?

Answer 16

The profiler reviews evidence like crime scene photos and pathology reports.

Question 17

What is done in crime scene classification?

Answer 17

The scene is classified as organised or disorganised.

Question 18

What does crime reconstruction involve?

Answer 18

Hypothesizing the sequence of events and the victim’s behaviour.

Question 19

What does profile generation entail?

Answer 19

Developing hypotheses about the offender’s characteristics (age, job, personality, etc.)

Question 20

offender profiling - top-down flow chart

Answer 20

stage 1: profiling inputs
- data collected on the crime scene, background info on the victim and details of the crime itself

Question 21

AO3 (1) top down approach

Answer 21

• One limitation of top-down profiling is it only applies to particular crimes
• Top down approach is best suited for crimes such as rape, arson and cult killing as well as crimes involving chilling practices such as sadistic torture, dissections and acting our fantasies
• This means that more common offences such as burglary and destruction of property (even if the murder or assault occurs) do not lend themselves to this type of profiling as the resulting crime scene leaves very little information about the offender
• However, it can be argued that top down profiling only applies to particular cases because it is more suited for catching particular offenders like serial killers so it works better for those types of specific cases
• Despite this, it can be a very limited approach to identifying criminals, making it unreliable
• Thus reducing the … validity of the top down approach

Question 22

AO3 (2) top down approach

Answer 22

• Another limitation is this approach is based on outdated models of personality
• For example, Alison et al. suggested that it is too old-fashioned and naïve because it is driven by stable dispositional traits rather than constant external factors that may be constantly changing
• This means that typology classification system is based on an assumption that offenders have patterns of behaviour and motivations that remain consistent across situations which is not always the case
• However, it can be argued that even if their behaviour changes their poor personality/dispositional traits stays the same
• Despite this, it is based on static models of personality and is likely to have poor validity when it comes to identifying possible suspects and/or trying to predict their next move
• Thus reducing the temporal validity of the top down approach

Question 23

AO3 (3) top down approach

Answer 23

• A further limitation is little support for the idea of the ‘disorganised offender’
• For example, Canter et al (2004) used a technique called smallest space analysis of 100 murders in the US. They used 39 characteristics typical of an organised or disorganised killer
• This led to their findings which showed evidence of a distinct organised type but not a disorganised type – therefore undermining the whole classification system
• However, killers can still fit into both categories as they are not specifically a disorganised or organised but on a scale between both.
• Despite this, the organised/disorganised distinction is still used as a model for professional profilers in the US and has widespread support
• Thus reducing the … validity for the top down approach

Question 24

AO3 (4) top down approach

Answer 24

• An additional limitation is that the classification system is too simplistic
• For example Godwin (2000) asked how would police investigators classify a killer with high IQ and sexual competence murdering spontaneously as behaviours in both O and D types are not mutually exclusive and a variety of combinations could occur in any given crime scene.
• This led to further research, hence further typology models. Holmes (1989) suggests there are four types of serial killers visionary, mission, hedonistic and power/control.
• However, we need organised and disorganised types to helps us to apprehend them so that we can think about their motivation to put them under one of these categories
• Despite this, this conflicting typology version suggest that classification systems for criminals may be too simplistic
• Thus reducing the … validity of the top down approach

Question 25

AO3 (5) top down approach

Answer 25

- A final limitation is the way the typology approach was developed - For example, interviews were used with 36 killers in the US (25 serial killers, 11 single or double murderers) – a small, unrepresentataive sample on which to base a typology system that may have a significant influence on the nature of the police investigation - This means that it is not sensible to rely on self-report data with convicted killers when constructing a classification system - However, it can be argued that although it may not have been sensible to rely on self-report, they worked well with what they had, still helped to form the approach so effective - Despite this, this methodological criticism of the way the approach was developed questions the valididty of the top-down approach as a whole - Thus reducing the … valididty of the top down approach