FORENSIC, AO3 bottom up

Question 1

strength

Answer 1

evidence for investigative psychology

• Canter uses smallest space analysis and from this, a pattern can be found such as certain behaviours were identified (like interpersonal lang and lack of reaction to the victim)
• supports it as it supports the basic principles of it, the way people are in a crime scene are like that in real life
• limitation however is that it tells us little about crimes that aren’t solved, limitation as if this worked, you’d expect all crimes to be solved so there’s limitations with validity

Question 2

another strength

Answer 2

evidence for geographical profiling

• can be used to reveal location of offender, using smallest space analysis it can be found that the location of each body disposal site creates a ‘centre of gravity’ so every time they dispose of a body, it creates a circular effect around their home base
• research support as psychologists collated info from 120 murder cases of killers in USA and used smallest space analysis which revealed spatial inconsistency
• strength as it provides direct support for this and can be used to identify where offender lives

Question 3

limitation

Answer 3

geographical info is insufficient

• success of geographical profiling relies of the quality of the data that the police can provide and sometimes this is not always accurate as it is estimated 75% of crimes are not reported to the police
• limitation on its own, it can not lead to the successful catch of the offender or development of the profile, therefore we need to include other factors such as timing of offence and age and experience