Bottom up approach to offender profiling Flashcards
What is the bottom up approach
Generating offender profile through systematic analysis of evidence available e.g. crime scene, social background, routine behaviour
More scientific/objective approach
Made in the UK/associated with David Canter
What are the 2 techniques used in the bottom up approach
Investigative psychology and geographical profiling
What is investigative psychology
Establishing behaviour patterns that are likely to occur across crime scenes
Crimes are uploaded to database and then referred to once crimes that match the info in the database occur
Database info can create links in terms of location and even types of offenders
More scientific/statistical analysis
What are the core elements of investigative psychology
Interpersonal coherence - How the offender behaves at crime scene/everyday life and how they interact with victim
Importance of time and place - Where offender lives/feels comfortable doing crimes. May indicate centre of gravity(if offender commits crimes close or far from base)
Forensic awareness - If offender has been the focus of police attention before. Offender’ behaviour may show how skilled they are in crimes/shows knowledge of police processes.
What is geographical profiling
Inferring where the offender’s operational base is by analysing where previous crimes/that specific crime occurred
Crime mapping - Patterns of criminal behaviour in different areas established which leads to a centre of gravity being established which includes crime areas and offenders base
Jeopardy surface - Using geographical profiling(crime mapping), profilers can predict where the next crime will occur using centre of gravity
What is canters circle theory
Offenders have a spatial mindset and commit crimes in an imagined circle
Helps investigators gain insight to crime e.g. if it was planned or not
2 models:
Marauder - Offenders home is within geographical area0 where crimes occurred
Commuter - Offender travels to another area(most likely familiar) and commits crimes away from operational area
Evaluate the bottom up approach
Evidence to support geographical profiling - 120 murder cases supports idea of centre of gravity(counter - city shape may not fit circle theory)
May only help narrow down, rather than identify offenders - 75% reported as useful, 3% said they’d use it again
May use characteristics/evidence incorrectly - profile may be too heavily reliant on one characteristic e.g. height causing them to miss the offender