bottom up approach

Question 1

what does canter beleive about an alternative form of profiling ?

Answer 1

• he believes that you should use a form of profiling which is based on piecing together a profile from the details of the crime scene rather than the application of a generalised typology of serious offenders

Question 2

what do profilers do in the bottom up approach ?

Answer 2

• profilers work from evidence collected from the crime scene
• develop a hypothesis about the likely characteristics, motivations and social background of the offender

Question 3

what is the main difference between bottom up approach and top down approach ?

Answer 3

bottom up
- the profile is data given

top-down
- uses intuition of police officers

bottom up
- grounded in psychological theory

top-down
- uses 36 qualitative case studies - typologies

Question 4

What are the 2 branches of the bottom up approach ?

Answer 4

• investigative psychology
• geographical profiling

Question 5

what is investigative psychology ?

Answer 5

• patterns that occur or co-exist across scenes are used to generate data about the offender

Question 6

what is investigative psychology based upon ?

Answer 6

• based on psychological theory of matching behavioural patterns to generate data on the offender

Question 7

what are the 4 categories of investigative psychology ?

Answer 7

• interpersonal coherence
• significance of time + space
• forensic awareness
• criminal characteristics + criminal career

Question 8

interpersonal coherence

Answer 8

• the way in which an offender behaves at the scene +how they interact with the victim can indicate how they act in everyday life

Question 9

significance of time + space

Answer 9

• this may indicate where the offender is living if the crimes take place within the same forensic centre of gravity

Question 10

forensic awareness

Answer 10

• focusses on those who have been the focus of police attention before.
• their behaviour may show how mindful they are of covering their traces

Question 11

By who was geographical profiling described by ?

Answer 11

• Rossmo

Question 12

what principle is geographical profiling based upon ?

Answer 12

• principle of spatial consistency

Question 13

what is meant by spatial consistency ?

Answer 13

• an offenders operational base and possible future offences are revealed by the geographical location of their previous crimes ( crime mapping )

Question 14

what does geographical profiling assume ?

Answer 14

• assumes that serial offenders will restrict their work to geographical areas they are familiar with

Question 15

what does understanding the spatial pattern of offenders provide ?
and what does it help with ?

Answer 15

a centre of gravity including the offenders base
- helps to identify where the offender may strike next

Question 16

what are the 2 models within geographical profiling ?

Answer 16

• commuter model
• marauder model

Question 17

commuter model

Answer 17

• the offender is likely to have travelled a distance away from their usual residence

Question 18

marauder model

Answer 18

• operates in close proximity to their home base

Question 19

what is canter’s circle theory ?

Answer 19

• people operate within a limited spatial mind set that creates imagined boundaries in which crimes are likely to be committed

Question 20

AO3
Case study of John Duffy
supporting the effectiveness of the bottom-up approach

Answer 20

• 24 sexual attacks in the 1980’s and 3 murders in railway stations across london
• duffy was originally 1505th on a list of 2000 suspects but canters profile enabled a prompt police response

Question 21

what did Canter do in the case of John Duffy ?

Answer 21

• canter analysed geographical info from similar crime scenes and details of similar attacks to draw up a suprisingly accurate profile of Duffy using bottom-up profiling techinique’s
• lived in Kilburn and highly violent

Question 22

AO3 from notes