Behavioural Analysis Flashcards
When was the FBI behavioural science uni established?
1972
NCAVC
National centre for the analysis of violent crime
VICAP
The violent crime apprehension programme
VICLAS
Violent crime linkage analysis system
What is offender profiling?
Inferring characteristics of an offender based on their crime scene actions
London (1986)
- series of 24 sexual assaults on females committed over a 4 year period
- was close to railway stations
Canter
- carried out a systematic analysis of the victim rape statements and locations where the offences had occurred
What was included in the preliminary profile? (Residence)
- lived in the area
- possibly lives with wife or girlfriend
Age?
- mid to late 20’s
- light hair
- about 5 ft 9
- right handed
- a secretor
Occupation
- probably semi-skilled or skilled job
- job not in contact with public
Character?
- keeps to himself but has one or two close male friends
- little contact with women
- has knowledge of railway system
Sexual activity
- considerable sexual experience
Criminal record
- probably under arrest for some time
- possibly for aggressive attack under influence of alcohol
How accurate was professor cantors profile?
13/17 points made in the profile were correct
Investigative psychology
- the scientific psychological study of offender actions and detection processes
- aims to advance the psychological understanding of offending activity, offenders and the investigative process
Weaknesses of early offender profiles?
- no base rates
- multiple outs
- included information that could not be falsified
- provision of vague statements
- bamum effect
- reliance on personal judgement rather than actuarial assessment
Barnum effect
The Tendency to accept general or vague characteristics and take them to be accurate
Evidence for the effect?
- ppt’s constructed meaning from ambiguity
Evidence of confirmation bias?
- ppts selected only parts of the profile that were correct
Evidence of demand characteristics?
Ppts did what they thought the researcher wanted them to
Alison, Smith, Eastman and rainbow (2003)
- Analysed 21 UK and American profiles
- half of the profiles included advice that was unfalsifiable
- one fifth of statements were vague or open to interpretation
- in 80% of cases profiler had not given any evidence or justification for their opinion
Toulmins framework
- breaks the profile down into component parts to enable the strengths and weaknesses of the claims to be analysed
- aids the construction of profiles
5 parts?
- Claim
- Modality (strength of the claim)
- Grounds (support for the claim)
- Warrant
- Backing (formal support for warrant)
BIA
- used to develop advice for the investigators, based on the study of behaviour exhibited in the commission of crime
Services?
- interview
- media advice
- case linkage analysis
- predictive profiling
- investigative suggestions
- familial DNA prioritisation
- nominal prioritisation
What should their input be viewed as?
- intelligence not evidence
- decision support not decision making
Investigative Psychology
- aims to advance the psychological understanding of offending activity, offenders and the investigative process
Areas?
- Understanding and modelling criminal behaviour
- Improving the investigative process and detection rates
- Improving investigative interviewing
- Psychological evaluation of evidential material
- Risk/threat assessment and reduction
The investigative cycle
- Action - decision making
- information - types of information, retrieval, evaluation
- inference: A-C equation, crime linking, geographical profiling
Two key questions IP seek to answer
1) do offenders show consistency in their behaviour
2) how can we distinguish between offenders ?
A-C equation is a question of both offender consistency and differentiation
Offender consistency hypothesis (canter, 1995)
Behaviours at a crime scene are more typical of an offender committing a crime than other offenders committing similar crimes
Why did IP emerge?
- as a scientific discipline in the early 1990’s following canters psychological input to operation Hart
When was offender profiling evaluated?
Following the failed investigation into the murder of Rachel nickel
Differentiating Offender styles
- role offender assigns to victim
- Action systems
- Narrative perspectives
Role offender assigns to victim
- victim as object
- v as person
- v as vehicle
Action systems
Source of action in relation to agent
Locus or effect in relation to agent
Mode
Narrative perspective
Romantic quest
Tragedy
Adventure
Irony
Narrative theory of criminal action
- going beyond informed speculation
- developing theories and models of criminal actions and experiences
- no assumptions made about unconscious motivations
- how offender interacts with others
- role offender assigns to their own life
- role offender assigns to the victim
- crime as an interpersonal transaction
IP methodology
- focuses on examining offenders actions rather than what they say about them
- use of police recorded data
- quantitative modelling of qualitative material
- co-occurrences of behaviours across crime scenes
- uses multi dimensional scaling
Canter and Heritage (1990)
- Smallest Space Analysis (SSA)
