Forensic psychology AO1+AO2 Flashcards
How is offender profiling used?
Offender profilfing aims to identify the person resposible based on the idea that key charateristcis of an offender can be deduced from the characteristics of the offence and the particulars of the crime scene.
What is offender profiling?
An investigative tool used by the police when solving crimes
* Aims to narrow down the list of suspects
* careful scruitiny of crime scene
* anaylisis of other evidence
Hypothesis about the offenders :
* Age
* Background
* Occupation
* Characteristics
What is the top down approach?
An American approach originating in the US as a result of the work carried out by the FBI.
* Conducted interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers
* Determined that data could be split into 2 categories : Organised and Disorganised
* From those categories certain predictions can be made
* Profilers gather data and then assign to a category
→Typology Approach
What are organised and disorganised types of offenders?
The organised and disorganised distinction is based on the idea that serious offenders have certain signature ‘ways of working’. These generally correlate with particular sets of psychological characteristics that relate to the individual.
What does an Organised offender look like?
- Evidence for planning
- have a type
- high levels of control
- Tidy - no clues of evidence
- above average intelligence
- skilled/professional employment
- socially and sexually competent
- Married, possibly with kids
What does a disorganised offender look like?
- Little evidence of planning
- Spontaneuous spur of the moment
- Little control
- Crime scene reflects impulsivity
- Below average intelligence
- Unskilled work or unemployed
- History of sexual/relationship dysfunction
- Lives alone/close to the crime scene
What are the 4 main stages in constructing an FBI profile?
1. Data assimilation
2. Crime scene classification
3. Crime reconstruction
4. Profile generation
Describe the stages in involved in constructing an FBI profile?
- Data assimilation
- Reviewing evidence
- Crime scene classification
- Crime reconstruction
- Hypothesis in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of victim and suspect
- Profile generation
- Hypothesis relating to the likely offender
What is a strength of using cateogries to identify the offender?
**There is support for a disticnt organised categoryy of an offender **
Canter et al. (2004) analysed 100 US murderers by different serial killers using the smallest space analysis
* Statsitcial method identifies behavioural correlations
* The study examined 39 aspects of serial killings, such as torture, body concealment and weapon use.
The results revealed a susbset if features aligning with the FBI’s organised offender typology, suggesting that this aspect of the approach has some validity
What is a weakness of using cateogries to identify the offender?
Many studies suggest that the organised and disorganised types may not be mutually exclusive
* Maurice, (2002) - It is difficult to classify killers as one or the other type
* Could have multiple contrasting characteristics
* High intelligence and sexual competence, but commits a spontaneuous murder leaving the body at the crime scene
Could mean that the typology is more of a continum rather, than one or another
What is a strength of the top-down approach?
A strength of the top-down approach is that it can be adapted to other crimes
Meketa(2017) reported that the top-down approach had been recently applied to burgulary →85% rise in solved cases
* Organised and disorganised remain
* Interpersonal and oppurtunistic have been added
Suggests that the approach has wider application than was originally assumed
What is a weakness of the top-down approach?
Flawed evidence
The top-down approach was based on interviews conducted with 36 murderers (25 serial killer)
* Then classified as either disorganised or organised
* sample is poor
* Unrepresentative
* Not randonm or large
* No standard questions →no comparisson possible
* Self report may not be the ideal given the sample
All suggests that the top-down approach does not have sound scientific basis
What is the bottom-up approach?
