Bottom Up - Offender Profling Flashcards
Who came up with bottom up approach
Canter
What does bottom up approach look for
Looks for consistencies in offenders behaviours during the crime
Process of bottom up approach
No initial assumption is made about the individual until statistical analysis has been carried out using correlational techniques
Why is bottom up approach more objective
Because it’s heavily based on computer databases being accurate
Canter aim
To test reliability of top-down typology by applying them to 100 cases
Canter procedure
Content analysis of 100 serial killers from USA
Findings canter
Twice as many disorganised crimes identified suggesting disorganised offenders are easier to identify
Conclusion canter
It would be better to look at differences between offenders because all crimes have both an organised and disorganised element to them
3 types of investigative psychology
- interpersonal coherence
- forensic awareness
- smallest space analysis
Def interpersonal coherence
Belief that people’s behaviour is consistent, therefore link between criminal behaviour and daily behaviour
Def forensic awareness
Individuals who may have knowledge of forensic measures to help avoid exposure
Def smallest space analysis
Statistical procedure that will look for patterns and consistencies in the new crime compared to previous crime already in the data base
2 aspects of statistical analysis
Investigative psychology
Geographic profiling
3 aspects of geographic profiling
Centre of gravity and jeopardy surface
Circle theory
Marauders and commuters
Centre of gravity and jeopardy surface meaning
Plotting previous crimes can help locate the base of operations and where next
Circle theory def
Plot the points in which the crimes take place, crimes will fit into the circle giving them insight into future attacks
Marauders vs commuters def
Predicting style of movement adopted by criminals
Marauders - same area
Commuters - change areas
3 evaluation of bottom up
Strength - supporting evidence from danger and haritage
Strength - used for wider variety of cases
Weakness - flaws in circle theory
Elaboration strength - supportive evidence
- talk about evidence from canter
- heritage conducted content analyses of 66 assault cases using smallest space analysis
- found several characteristics which we common across all crimes
- support investigative psychology as shows statistics are useful
Elaboration strength - used for wider variety of cases
Eg burglary murder and race
- allows for geographical profiling of offenders that aren’t able to be classified based on typologies
- application - can be used in many good ways
Elaboration weakness - flaws in circle theory
- suggest base of operations is in middle of circle
- this isn’t always the case
- time wasting suggesting data produced in geographic profiling is too simplistic
