FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY Flashcards
whats offender profiling
provides a description of the offender based on an analysis of the crime scene, the victim and other evidence
what is the top down approach
categorises the crime scene using the fixed typologies and then makes judgements of the offenders
real life example of top down uproach
1970 Ted Bundy
4x organised offender crime scene
planned and targetted
shows self control
leaves few clues
may show a type
organised offender characteristics
high iq
married ( social )
skilled job
disorganised offender crime scene
spontaneous
minimal constraint
little attempt to hide evidence
disorganised offender characteristics
low iq
socially inadequate
unskilled job
4 main stages of top down approach
- review evidence
- classify crime scene
- crime reconstruction- hypotheses
- profile generation
weakness 1 of top down ( suited )
cant be generated to all crimes
best suited to murder eg: torture/ patterns
limited to identifying specific criminals
weakness 2 top down ( over )
oversimplistic
2 categories to fit every criminal is unrealistic
this makes the prediction of the character hard and validity and accuracy decreases
weakness 3 ( research )
reduced validity
approach was developed by interviewing 36 killers in USA
sample is unrepresentative
this reduced validity may affect investigations when identifying
weakness of top down ( contradicting )
research contradicts
cantee analysed 100 murders in usa and found distinct organised type but not disorganised
reduces validity if classification
what is the bottom up approach
a data driven method that aims to create picture of offender through analysis of crime scene
whats investigative psychology
statistical procedures that detect patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur across crime scenes.
these features can be matched against past data for detail
whats interpersonal coherence
the way an offender behaves during crime eg: interacts with victim, this may reflect everyday behaviour
