Forensic Psychology : L1 Top-Down Approach Offender Profiling

Question 1

What is Offender Profiling?

Answer 1

• A tool employed by the police to narrow down the list of likely suspects for a crime
• Based on the idea that the characteristics of the offender can be deduced from details of the crime scene
• Involves scrutiny of the crime scene to generate hypothesis of offender’s characteristics

Question 2

Two pre-existing categories of Top-Down profiling

Answer 2

Organised offender & Disorganised offdender

Question 3

Organised Offenders

Answer 3

• Evidence of having planned the crime in advance
• Deliberately targeted victim (offender’s preference or motive)
• High level of control
• Little evidence left
• Above average intelligence, professional occupation, socially competent
• Usually have a family

Question 4

Disorganised Offenders

Answer 4

• Little evidence of planning (spontaneous offence)
• Little control, impulsive behaviour shown
• Below average intelligence, unemployed, socially incompetent
• Often live close to where the crime was committed

Question 5

• Evalutation

Answer 5

• Top-Down profiling only applies to certain crimes (murders, rape etc). Common offences (burglary etc) would not work as the crime scene reveals little evidence about the offender.
• Organised vs Disorganised was developed based on 36 serial killers is the USA. Criticised for being too small and unrepresentative a sample.
• Top-Down profiling was developed based on interviews with 36 serial killers. Criticised that it is not valid to rely on self-report data from convicted serial killers when constructing a classification system.
• Organised vs Disorganised distinction is overly simplistic. Holmes (1989) suggests there are four types of serial killers.