Forensic Psychology

Question 1

what is offender profiling?

Answer 1

a behavioural and analytical tool intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown offenders

Question 2

offender profiling main aim and general how?

Answer 2

to narrow the list of suspects, compiling a profile involving scrutiny of crime scene and analysis of other evidence to generate a hypothesis of probable characteristics

Question 3

when did the top down approach originate and where?

Answer 3

originated in 1970s in the USA as a result of work carried out by FBI

Question 4

how did FBI work trigger top down approach?

Answer 4

FBI’s behavioural science unit used data from in depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated murderers (including Ted Bundy) and concluded the data could be categorised into organised/disorganised with each category having characteristics meaning for future crimes these could be applied to find the offender

Question 5

describe organised offenders?

Answer 5

evidence of pre planning the crime (victim is deliberately targeted)
maintains high degree of control and may operate with detached surgical precision
little evidence left behind
above avg intelligence
skilled professional occupation
socially and sexually competent
usually married (with children0

Question 6

describe disorganised offenders?

Answer 6

little evidence of planning, offences are spontaneous and impulsive -> body still at the scene and little control
lower than avg IQ, unskilled or unemployed work wise, history of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships
live alone and close to where it took place

Question 7

steps of constructing an FBI profile ?

Answer 7

• data assimilation (profiler reviews evidence)
• crime scene classification ( organised or dis)
• crime reconstruction (hypotheses in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of victim etc
• profile generation (hypotheses related to likely offender)

Question 8

research evidence about top down approach?

Answer 8

Canter - studied 39 cases of American serial murders and found that the idea of “organized” and “disorganized” crimes doesn’t always apply neatly. They noticed that some “organized” traits are common in serial murders, but “disorganized” murders rarely fit into clear categories.

Question 9

evidence for the effectiveness of the top down approach?

Answer 9

The TDA has been used successfully in 17% of case, which may seem like a negligible number, however it means that the perpetrators of some very serious crimes were caught before they could harm anyone else

Question 10

weakness for top down approach involving validity and bias?

Answer 10

The TDA is based on interview data from 36 serial killers in the 1970s which means that it lacks temporal validity and may suffer from several types of bias (e.g. social desirability bias, confirmation bias) which would damage the validity of the approach

Question 11

strength and weakness for top down approach terms of wider application?

Answer 11

• Can be applied to burglary cases, leading to a 85% rise in solved cases in the US
  HOWEVER - not necessarily appropriate for every type of crime as its basis lies in the documenting of (mainly) sexually-motivated serial murder which means that it lacks consistency (and, by association, reliability) across crimes.