A2 FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY - OFFENDER PROFILING

Question 1

Give a general definition of offender profiling

Answer 1

OP is used to narrow down the field of enquiry when there’s little forensic evidence left at the crime scene. There’s 2 types: FBI “top-down” profiling, or UK “bottom-up” profiling.

Question 2

Describe FBI profiling

Answer 2

• A top-down approach; working from the crime scene down to the profiling
• Introduced in the 1970s and dev.ed by the FBI beh.al science unit
• 36 high profile serial killers and rapists were interviewed, such as Ted Bundy (who killed over 30 people and kept the heads of his victims and was executed in 1989 by electric chair) and Charles Manson (who received 9 life sentences for 9 murders and organised a cult-like system which he made into “a family” in which he recruited people and blackmailed them into killing others)
• There are two typologies of offender…
  1) Organised offenders; normally higher than average IQ, planned crimes, married and more socially adept
  2) Disorganised offenders; unplanned crimes, lower than average IQ, often socially inadequate, single/never married
  There are 4 steps in FBI profiling:
  (1) data assimilation; gathering as much data as possible e.g. photos, phone calls, interviews etc
  (2) crime scene classification: identify whether the criminal is organised or disorganised
  (3) crime reconstruction: aims to reconstruct events in terms of timings, sequence and location
  (4) profile generation: puts together likely type of offender, e.g. gender, age, where they live, potential jobs, relationship status, skills and educational background

Question 3

Evaluate FBI profiling

Answer 3

(-) Info from the 36 serial killers/rapists may be unreliable/ invalid because they are manipulative, so may give false info to help other criminals get away with their crimes, and also it’s based on self report of unsuccessful criminals (i.e. ones that have been caught), so it may not be that useful in catching successful ones
(-) Canter says that the disorganised typology does not exist and believed that most serial killers/ rapists had to have planned their crimes in some way
(-) Criticised for being too simplistic in only having 2 typologies; doesn’t always fit into “black and white” categories
(-) Doesn’t work for all crimes as some crimes don’t imply much info about the criminal at all; limited way of identifying potential criminals.

Question 4

Give a brief description of the bottom up UK approach

Answer 4

Bottom up profiling is data driven from crime stats, scenes and psychological research. It doesn’t start with fixed typologies but still aims to put together a picture of the offender (age, social background, employment etc). It uses investigative psychology and geographical profiling.

Question 5

Describe investigative psychology

Answer 5

Developed by David Canter. Aims to establish likely beh.s that happen across diff crime scenes and build up a database to act as a baseline comparison for specific details of a new crime. There are 3 important parts:
1) Interpersonal coherence: Canter says humans are beh.ally consistent, and that how an offender behaves when committing a crime may link to how they behave when they’re not committing a crime. Beh may also change over time.
2) Forensic awareness: Certain beh.s may show awareness of particular police techniques, which may indicate previous offences, e.g. ppl who conceal fingerprints may have previously been burglars.
3) Smallest space analysis: Looking for common traits and connections bet crime scenes and offender characteristics
Time and place are also key variables and may lead to where the offender lives

Question 6

Describe geographical profiling

Answer 6

GP is concerned with where the crime has been committed, rather than by who.

Says that the offender is likely to offend somewhere they know well enough to escape quickly, but not so close that they’d be recognised. When the crime was committed is also important

Canter and Larkin’s circle theory proposes 2 types: marauder (who offends close to home) and commuter (who travels a long way from home). Either way, the crime locations should form a circle around their home base.

Question 7

Evaluate bottom up profiling

Answer 7

(+) More scientific than top down as it uses database comparison.
(-) Incomplete database as not all crimes are reported/recorded.
(-) Uses data from unsuccessful criminals to catch successful ones so may not be that effective.
(+) Unlike top down, smallest space analysis can be used for all types of crime, even burglary, corporate crime etc, so more useful than top down
(-) Kocsis (2000) found professional profilers were only marginally more accurate than students, police and even local psychics, so effectiveness is questioned