forensic Flashcards
Crime definition
Behaviour that is unlawful and gets punished by the state. This can be against an individual, group or society as a whole.
What is offender profiling
An investigative technique to identify the major personality and behaviour characteristics of an offender based on the crimes they have committed.
Ted Bundy case study
Intelligent, confessed to 30 murders of women but could’ve been around 100. Left little evidence at crime scenes.
Top Down approach definition
- Tool used by poilce when solving crime to little down the suspect pool
- Relies heavily on prior knowledge and intuition of the profiler.
- Classification of the crime scene and then the profiler uses the info to make judgements of who the offender is
Top down approach (6 stages)
- Profiling inputs = Background info on victim (work, relationships) Details of the crime + crime scene.
- Decision process models = Organise data into meaningful patterns, these being murder type, time factors, location factors etc.
- Crime assessment = Two categories
Organised - Average to intelligent, socially competent, planned, body is transported away, tries to conceal evidence
Disorganised - Below average intelligence, unskilled, victim is random, messy crime scene. - Criminal profile = Hypothesis about their background, work etc. This is to help find the offender and catch them.
- Investigative report = A written report is given to the police to see if they can make a strategy to catch the offender.
- Apprehension = Once arrested the process is reviewed to check if the stages were accurate.
Evaluation of Top-Down profiling
High ecological validity - created by the FBI and has been used and shaped from many different cases, has been used in practice and is highly generalisable.
Not scientific, based on intuition, rather than reasoning. Too simplistic.
The two categories of offenders is very simplistic too.
ISSUES AND DEBATES -
It’s seen as reductionist, only believing that criminals fit into two categories.
Socially sensitive.
Bottom-Up approach definition
British, makes past data on similar crimes committed in order to build a picture of the offender
Bottom up approach method
2 main ways -
Investigative =
1. Interpersonal coherence, actions displayed will be the norm for them
2. Significance of time and place, offender needs to feel in control so will choose a time and place of significance
3. Criminal characteristics, analysing crimes and offenders will help to identify categories and patterns of behaviour
4. Criminal career, number of crimes will grow as offender gains confidence.
5. Forensic awareness, offenders who had contact with the police will try to cover their tracks
Geographical = Generalising from the locations of linked crime scenes to the home/work of the offender. The assumption is that most offenders like to operate in areas they know well, many offenders have a crime range as small as 2 miles.
Four main principles Canter + Youngs Bottom up profiling
- Locatedness - locations say alot about the offender, where attack happened, where they met, where the body was disposed of etc
- Systematic crime location choice - familiarity is important
- Centrality - two types: commuters who travel for crime, marauders who do crime close to home
- Comparative case analysis - compare other crimes near, multiple crimes committed, easier to find offender
Circle theory, thought that offending will happen within the circle they are in geographically. Like hunting patterns.
Evaluation of Bottom up
Based on research, has a statistical likelihood.
Can be applied to many different crimes, not just sexual assaults and burglary
Useful, has aided in alot of people getting arrested for crime.
Bottom up, compared to top down can be applied to more crime
Not exactly as scientific as it makes out to be, relies on reports from public and police.
Holistic, also socially sensitive
Lombroso’s atavistic form theory (Bio)
Lombroso said that offenders possess similar characteristics to lower primates and this could explain their crimes.
21% at least had one atavistic trait and 43% had at least 5.
These characteristics in criminals are strong prominent jaws, high cheekbones, dark skin…
Murders… curly hair and long ears
Counter evidence for Lombroso (Bio)
No control group, he only looked at the criminals, not a normal person
Evaluation of Lombroso
Racial undertones, may have included people with learning disabilities.
Wrote about female criminals but didnt study any, just generalised his findings to women, saying they were less prone to crime.
No control group
Sheldon (1949) Somatype (Body type)
Determined if someone was a criminal based on their body type. There are 3 types and they had different personality traits but this was extremely rare as most people were a combination of a few of the body types.
Biologically reductionist, too focused on the role of nature it doesn’t address environmental factors.
Neural explanations (Bio) Raine
Most of the criminals in these studies have been diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD).
Raine has discovered that these individuals have reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.
Raine studied 41 violent offenders and compared the activity in their prefrontal cortex to 41 non-criminals (including six schizophrenics) using PET scans. The violent offenders showed significantly less activity in the prefrontal lobe than the other participants suggesting less control over impulsive behavior.
EVAL = Not every criminal has APD or abnormal brain structure
Used scientific method and equipment (PET Scans)
