Forensic psychology: top down approach Flashcards
what is the top down approach?
profilers start with a pre-established idea and work down to assign offenders are either organised of disorganised
who developed the top down approach?
US federal bureau of investigation
when was the top down approach developed?
.1970’s
what are the four stages of the top down approach?
.profiling inputs -specialists collect forensic evidence from the crime scene
.decision process models -this data is used to make assumptions about time of day, murder weapon
.classifying the crime -profilers determine wither the killer is organised or disorganised type
.criminal profile -based on classification and other data, experts create a ‘profile’ for the most likely suspects
what 2 categories can an offender be put into?
.organised
.disorganised
what is an organised offender?
.planned crime where the victim is targeted and the body is hidden or removed
what are the limitations to taking a top down approach?
.based on the assumption that offenders have patterns of behaviour and motivations that remain constant across situations and contexts (this is an outdated model of personality)
.evidence found to challenge the ‘disorganised type’ -Canter 2004
what is a disorganised offender?
.unplanned crime where the victim is not targeted and the body is left visible
what did canter 2004 do?
.analysed data from 100 murders in the USA and looked at 39 characteristics links to the two different types
what did canter 2004 find?
.evidence only supported an organised type only
what are the strengths to taking a top down approach?
.it’s had a large influence on offender profiling -uses facts about a crime and matches it to pre-existing templates to classify criminals into 2 categories
how is the top down approach useful to the police?
.allows the police to review evidence to produce a sequence of events or hypotheses about the background and physical characteristics of a offender
