forensic psychology-offending behaviour

Question 1

what is the top-down approach

Answer 1

templates are created of organised and disorganised offenders which are pre-existing in the minds of the profiler
-evidence from the crime scene is used to fit the offender into one of the pre-existing categories

Question 2

what is the top-down approach often referred to as

Answer 2

typology approach
the profiler has experience and begins with a pre-establish typology

Question 3

how did the top-down approach orginate

Answer 3

originated in the USA from work carried out by the FBI
the gathered information from in depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers including ted bundy and charles manson.

Question 4

what is the end goal in the top-down approach

Answer 4

They try and develop an evidence base on offenders

Question 5

what are some characteristics of an organised offender

Answer 5

**-victim is targeted **
-weapon absent
**-crime scene orderly attempts to clean up **
**-high intelligence **
-sexually competent
-skilled occupation
-highest birth order.

Question 6

what are some characteristics of a disorganised offender

Answer 6

-victim is selected at random
-weapon present
**-crime scene reflects impulsive nature of the attack **
-average or lower than average intelligence
-sexually incompetent
-poor work history
-low birth order

Question 7

what are the 4 main stages of the construction of an FBI profile

Answer 7

1. Data assimilation- police reports, crime scene photographs and pathology are reviewed by the profiler
2. Crime scene classification-on the basis of the evidence the crime scene is classified as organised or disorganised
3. Crime reconstruction-hypothesis is formed about the crime sequence
4. profile generator-hypothesis about the characteristics of the likely offender are generated

Does candy cains peel

Question 8

what is some supporting evidence for the top-down approach

Answer 8

-copson
-alison

Question 9

what did copson find

Answer 9

he questioned 184 officers and found that 90% of them said they would use the technique again which shows it has practical applications

Question 10

what did alison find

Answer 10

argues that this approach is based on outdated theories of personality being stable. External, situational factors can be a major influence on offending, and they are constantly changing
so this has poor validity

Question 11

what does the original sample suggest about who this can be applied to

Answer 11

the original sample studied sexually motivated killers so therefore this sample can only be applied to sexually motivated killers.
these individuals are also likely to be highly manipulative so may not be the best source of reliable information to help police read a crime scene.
it was also self-report data so they may have fabriated behaviours which reduces validity

Question 12

how has the model been criticised for being too simplistic

Answer 12

the model suggest that the 2 classification systems are mutually exclusive however an offender may combine both or be organised in one crime and disorganised in another
this model doesnt account for the variability in crime so is too reductionist

Question 13

what type of crime does the top-down approach only work for

Answer 13

Top-down approaches work best for particular types of crime, such as premediated murder, rape, torture and so on. They work much less well for crimes such as burglary, because the crime scene reveals little about the offender. Therefore, the top-down approach can only be properly used for certain crimes.

Question 14

what the the bottom up approach

Answer 14

profilers work from evidence collected at the crime scene to develop hypothesis about the likely charcteristics of the profiler.

Question 15

what is investigative psychology

Answer 15

form of bottom up profiling
matches details from the crime scene with statistical analysis of a typical offender behaviour pattern

Question 16

what is geograpahical profilling

Answer 16

an offenders operational base and possible future offences are revealed by the geographical location of their previous crime

Question 17

tell me more about investigative psychology

Answer 17

-the aim is to establish patterns across crime scenes
-this helps develop a statistical data base which then acts as a baseline for comparison
-offences can then be matched against this data base
-this may also be helpful in determining if offences are linked

Question 18

what are 4 assumptions of investigative psychology

Answer 18

-interpersonal coherence-assumption that behaviour is consistent across situations eg-the criminals behaviour with the victim is the same as with other people in their lives.

-time and place-the position and time of crimes may give clues as to where the perpetrator works

-criminal charcateristics-how the crime has been commited suggests aspects of the offenders characteristics.

-forensic awareness-criminal will have forensic awareness eg-if they have commited a crime before they may attempt to clean the crime scene

Question 19

what is smallest space analysis

Answer 19

this is a statistical technique about crime scene and offender characteristics are correlated so connections can be identified

Question 20

what is some supporting evidence for smallest space analysis

Answer 20

-canter and heritage analysed 66 sexual assault cases and identified clear common patterns of behaviour
this supports the technique

Question 21

who found that the profilers advice had been useful

Answer 21

copson surveyed 48 police officers and fiund that
75% of the police officers questioned said the profilers advice had been useful
only 3% said that the advice had helped identify the actual offender

Question 22

how can profilers be harmful

Answer 22

occasionally criminals may not fit into the profile which may lead to miscarriage of justice if they are overused.

Question 23

tell us more about geographical profilling

Answer 23

-based on the assumption thats the offender will restrict there work to areas that are familiar to them
there are 2 types of offender
-marauder-operate in a close proximity to there home base
-commuter-travelled a distance away from their usual residence

Question 24

what is some supporting evidence for the use of geographical profiling

Answer 24

-lundrigan and canter-found in 120 murder cases the killer disposed of bodies in various different locstion which formed to the “centre of gravity” and there base residence was always in the middle of this. This supports the use of geogrpahical profiling in helping determine a killers base

Question 25

why may geographical profiling be dangerous

Answer 25

petherick-highlights some of the dangers of relying too much on geographical profiling. The researchers offender base may not be located in the centre. Representing ranges in terms of circles may be oversimplified.

Question 26

general evaluation of offender profiling

Answer 26

effectiveness of offender profiling is difficult to access as it is never used in isolation other forensic techniques are also used. So it is difficult to identify how much a profile contributed to solving a particular case.