Forensic Profiling: Top-Down Approach

Question 1

Offender profiling

Answer 1

Aims to narrow the list of subjects

Professional profilers are employed to work alongside the police especially in high-profile murder cases

The scene and other evidence are analysed to generate hypotheses about the probable characteristics of the offender (e.g. age, background, occupation, etc.)

Question 2

Top-down approach: FBI data

Answer 2

The FBI interviewed 36 sexually-motivated murderers and used this data, together with characteristics of their crimes, to create two categories (organised and disorganised)

If the data from a crime scene matched some of the characteristics of one category we could then predict other characteristics that would be likely

Question 3

Offender types based on ‘ways of working’

Answer 3

The organised and disorganised distinction is based on the idea that offenders have certain signature ‘ways of working’

These generally correlate with a particular set of social and psychological characteristics that relate to the individual

Question 4

Organised offender

Answer 4

Organised offenders are characterised by:

Evidence of planning the crime - victim is deliberately targeted and the killer/rapist may have a type of victim

High degree of control during the crime and little evidence left behind at the scene

Above-average IQ - in a skilled/professional job

Usually married and may even have children

Question 5

Disorganised offenders

Answer 5

Disorganised offenders are characterised by:

Little evidence of planning, suggesting the offence may have been spontaneous

The crime scene reflects the impulsive nature of the act, e.g. body still at the scene and the crime scene shows little control on the part of the offender

Below-average IQ - may be in unskilled work or unemployed

A history of failed relationships and living alone, possible history of sexual dysfunction

Question 6

FBI profile construction

Answer 6

1. Data assimilation - review of the evidence (photographs, pathology reports, etc.)
2. Crime scene classification - organised or disorganised
3. Crime scene reconstruction - generation of hypotheses about the behaviour and events
4. Profile generation - generation of hypotheses about the offender (e.g. background, physical characteristics, etc.)