1. top-down approach Flashcards
what is offender profiling
An investigative tool employed by the police when solving crimes.
It usually involves scrutiny of the crime scene and analysis of other evidence to generate hypotheses about the probable characteristics of the offender.
what is the aim of offender profiling
The main aim is to narrow the list of likely suspects
where did the top down approach come from
The top-down approach originated from the FBI’s behavioural sciences unit who gathered data from in depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated murderers including Ted Bundy.
what did the FBI conclude?
They concluded that the data could be categorised into organised or disorganised crimes. If the data from a crime scene matched the characteristics of one category, other characteristics can be predicted to find the offender.
the idea of organised and disorganised offenders is based on
the idea that serious offenders have signature ways of working (modus operandi), and these generally correlate with a particular set of social and psychological characteristics that relate to the individual.
give characteristics of an organised offender
- Plans the crime in advance
- Victim is deliberately targeted
- High degree of control
- Little evidence/clues left behind at the scene
- Above average intelligence
- Skilled, professional occupation
- Sexually and socially competent
- Usually married with children
give characteristics of disorganised offender
- Little evidence of planning
- Spontaneous act
- Very little control
- Body left at the scene
- Lower than average IQ
- Unskilled work or unemployed
- History of sexual dysfunction/ failed relationships
- Live alone and close to the crime
describe the 4 steps of constructing an FBI profile.
- DATA ASSIMILATION: the profiler reviews the evidence.
- CRIME SCENE CLASSIFICATION: as organised or disorganised.
- CRIME RECONSTRUCTION: hypotheses in terms of sequences of events, behaviour of the victim etc.
- PROFILE GENERATION: hypotheses related to the likely offender e.g. physical characteristics, behaviour etc.
AO3: give one strength of the top down approach
(RESEARCH SUPPORT, Canter)
There is support for a distinct organised category of offender.
Canter et al. concluded an analysis of 100 US murders each committed by a different serial killer. Smallest space analysis technique (identifies correlations across different samples of behaviour) was used to assess the co-occurrence of 39 aspects of serial killings. This included things such as form of weapon used and the cause of death. It revealed that there was. Subset of features that matched the FBI’s typology for organised offenders.
This suggests that a key component of the top-down approach has some validity.
AO3: give a strength of the top down approach
(WIDER APPLICATION, Meketa)
It can be adapted to other kinds of crime such as burglary.
Critics have claimed the technique only applies to a limited number of crimes such as sexually motivated murder.
However, Meketa reports that top-down profiling has recently been applied to burglary, leading to an 85% rise in solved cases in 3 US states. The detection method retains the organised-disorganised categories but also adds two new categories: interpersonal and opportunistic.
This suggests that the top-down approach has wider applications than originally assumed.
AO3: give a limitation of the top-down approach
(flawed evidence, Canter)
The evidence the top-down approach is based on is flawed.
The top-down approach was developed using interviews with 36 murderers in the US- 25 of them were serial killers. At the end of the process, 24 of these were classified organised and 12 were disorganised offenders. Canter et al. have argued that the sample was poor as the FBI agents did not select a random or even a large sample, and it only included murderers. Furthermore, there was no standard set of questions, so each interview was different and not really comparable.
This suggests that top-down approach does not have a sound scientific basis.
