Forensic Psychology Flashcards
What is offender profiling ?
The likely characteristics of an offender based on the analysis of crime scenes, patterns and evidence
What is the purpose of offender profiling ?
To allow the police/FBI to be able to narrow down the suspects of a crime and to help guide investigative strategies to help catch the criminal
Is offender profiling a top-up or top-down approach ?
Top-Down
What is the top-down approach?
Uses data from past interviews with serial killers to create a profile, it has 4 stages:
Data assimilation
Crime scene classification
Crime reconstruction
Profile generation
What is data assimilation?
Profiler reviews all evidence
What is crime scene classification?
Wether the offender is organised or disorganised
What is crime scene reconstruction?
Hypotheses form on how the crime might’ve happened
What is profile generation?
Hypotheses related to the likely characteristic of the offender
What are characteristics of an organised crime?
Crime is planned
Shows self control
Leaves few clues
Victims is targeted
Control of the victim
What are the characteristics of an organised offender?
Intelligent
Socially/sexually competent
Skilled occupation
Follows media coverage of their crime
What are the characteristics of a disorganised crime?
Little planning
Little attempt to hide evidence
Minimum use of constraint
Random behaviour
What are the characteristics of a disorganised offender?
Lives alone, near the crime scene
Sexually/socially inadequate
Unskilled occupation/Unemployed
Physically/sexually abused in childhood
Who supports top-down offender profiling?
Douglas-15/192 cases profiling actually identified the individual but 77% thought it helped focus the investigation
Who argues against the to-down offender profiling?
Allison-The approach is based on out of date theories of personality, the personality is stable over time, the offenders patterns and motivation remain consistent across situations. However stiationsal factors can be major influences on offending.
What are the limitations of top-down offender profiling?
Can only be applied to certain types of crimes e.g. sexually motivated
It is reductionist, what if the offender had characteristics of organised and disorganised
