Forensic Psychology - 1. Offender Profiling: The Top-Down Approach Flashcards
Profiling
The idea that you can make assumptions about characteristics of an offender by analysing the offence they commit
What Latin word do offender have? What does it mean?
Modus operandi - a distinctive way of committing crimes (particular mode of operating)
What assumptions to profilers make?
They assume the characteristics of the offender E.g. age, gender and occupation
Crimes that the top-down approach is used for
Only used for serious crimes such as serial murders and rapes
What does the top-down approach begin with?
Starts with theories about the type of offender (big picture)
What happens after the theories are made in the top-down approach?
The theories are applied to the crime scene
Evidence gained by the profilers
See the crime scene in person
Sees pictures of the scene
Pathologist report
When the top-down approach is used, what data is gained?
Qualitative
Once profilers have entered the crime scene, what will they do?
Determine the type of offender who has committed the crime
How to profilers figure out who the offender is when using the top-down approach?
They assign an offender to one of the typologies
Typologies
Categories of offender characteristics
What happens to the data in the top-down approach?
It is entered into the database and is compared to other cases to narrow down the suspects
Who developed the types of offenders? When?
Hazelwood and Douglas in 1980
Two types of offenders
Organised
Disorganised
Characteristics of offence: organised (5)
Planned
Show’s self control
Lack of evidence left at the scene
Weapon hidden
Victim controlled (E.g. tied up)
Characteristics of offender: organised (5)
Above average IQ
Socially and sexually competent
Married or cohabiting
Anger or depression at time of event
Skilled occupation
Post offence behaviour: organised (2)
Returns to crime scene
Volunteers information
Crime scene of an organised crime
Crime scene won’t be messy at all, almost indicating that no crime has been done
Characteristics of offence: disorganised (4)
Unplanned/spontaneous
Evidence left at the scene
Victim randomly selected
Disorganised behaviour
Characteristics of offender: disorganised (4)
Lives alone
Socially and sexually incompetent
Physically or sexually abused in childhood
Low intelligence/no occupation
Post offence behaviour: disorganised (3)
Return to crime scene to relive the offence
Keep diary
Keep news articles of the incident
4 stages of profiling (top-down)
- Gather information
- Organised or disorganised?
- Hypothesis generated
- Profilers create sketch of offender
Research for top-down approach
FBI investigators carried out structured interviews with 36 serial sex murderers.
From interview responses and an analysis of the details of their crimes, the offenders were categorised into organised and disorganised
Negative evaluation for top-down approach research
Small simple size of only males and only serial sex murderers. Results may not be able to be generalised
Positive evaluation of the top-down approach: Copson’s study
90% of police in study said they’ll use the approach again
Positive evaluation of the top-down approach: linking cases
Ainsworth suggests the offender typologies are helpful for police to limit down the potential offenders
Positive evaluation of the top-down approach: abolishing stereotypes
Has been important in challenging stereotypes that investigators may have (E.g, thinking that sexual offenders or serial killers have a certain distinctive appearance.
Clark and Morley found that majority of convicted rapists were typically very average men (with families and jobs)
Positive evaluation of the top-down approach: influence
Approach is highly influential and had been used/adapted by other countries around the world
Negative evaluation of the top-down approach: disorganised or organised
Assumes that offenders are either organised or disorganised and that they cannot have elements of both
Negative evaluation of the top-down approach: subjective
Different profilers may reach different conclusions using the same evidence from the crime scene
Negative evaluation of the top-down approach: FBI study
Sample of 36 offenders is very small and the methods/motives used may not be able to be generalised to other offenders
