Forensic psychology Lesson 2: Bottom-Up Approach to Offender Profiling

Question 1

What is the bottom up approach?

Answer 1

An approach which aims to generate a picture of the offender
(likely characteristics, routine behaviour and social background)

• achieved via the systematic analysis of the crime scene
• does not begin with fixed typologies,
• it is data driven and emerges as the profiler scrutinises the offence
• more grounded in psychological research than top-down approach

Question 2

What is the aim of investigative psychology?

Answer 2

To establish behaviours that are likely to occur at certain crime scenes

• this is done to create a statistical database which the acts as a baseline for comparison
• specific details of an offence can then be matched against the database in order to reveal statistically probable characteristics of offender
• can also link multiple offences to see if they have the same perpetrator

Question 3

Wha is interpersonal coherence?

Answer 3

The way in which an offender behaves at the crime scene

• e.g. how they interact with the victim which may reflect their behaviour in everyday situations
• shows significance of time and place
• shows if the offender has forensic awareness

Question 4

What is forensic awareness?

Answer 4

A term used to describe the fact that individuals have made an attempt to ‘cover their tracks’
- may indicate that they have been subject to police interrogation in the past, or even that the police have their DNA fingerprints on file