forensics

Question 1

What are the problems in defining crime?

Answer 1

Cultural issues: a crime in one culture may not be a crime in another

Historical issues: Definitions of crime change over time, e.g homosexuality until 1967

Question 2

what are official statistics as a way of measuring crime? (evaluate)

Answer 2

government records of total no. crimes reported to police and recorded. published annually, allows prevention strategies.

• unreliable, underestimate extent of crime. only 25% offences included

Question 3

what are victim surveys as a way of measuring crime? (evaluate)

Answer 3

record experiences of crime. 50,000 households randomly selected. produce figures since 1982 (annually)

• rely on respondents having accurate recall, misremember when it happened (telescoping) distorting figures

Question 4

what are offender surveys as a way of measuring crime? (evaluate)

Answer 4

self report survey, individuals volunteer crimes they have committed. target groups with risk factors, age, social background.

• responses may be unreliable, self report method, conceal crimes.
• certain crimes overrepresented, (burglary) don’t include corporate crime.

Question 5

What is offender profiling?

Answer 5

Investigative tool used by the police to solve crimes. Predict and profile characteristics of unknown criminals

Question 6

What is the top down approach?

Answer 6

profilers match crime and offenders to a pre-existing template developed by FBI.
Classified into category, organised/disorganised based on evidence.

Question 7

What are organised offenders?

Answer 7

• victim targeted
• weapon absent
• body moved from crime scene
• weapon absent
• high intelligence
• first born
• skilled occupation

Question 8

What are disorganised offenders?

Answer 8

• randomly selected victim
• weapon present
• body left in view
• average/low intelligence
• poor work history
• lives alone
• youngest child

Question 9

How is an FBI profile constructed?

Answer 9

1. data assimilation= review evidence
2. crime scene classification= dis/organised
3. crime reconstruction= hypothesis, sequence of events
4. profile generation= likely offender (characteristics etc)

Question 10

What are Ressler et al’s 7 aspects to create a criminal profile?

Answer 10

1. murder type (serial/mass)
2. primary intent (deliberate or premeditated)
3. victim risk (age)
4. offender risk
5. escalation (getting worse)
6. time factors
7. location factors

Question 11

Evaluate the top-down approach to offender profiling:

Answer 11

• only applies to particular crimes, limited (rape, arson, cult killings) reveal important details
• limited sample, developed using interviews, 36 killers. criticised too small and unrepresentative
• Alison et al, outdated models of personality, dispositional traits rather than external factors (behaviour isn’t consistent) poor validity identifying subjects

Question 12

What is the bottom up approach?

Answer 12

Use evidence from crime scene to generate hypotheses of the offender (characteristics/ social background)

Question 13

What is investigative psychology?

Question 14

What is geographical profiling?

Question 15

Evaluate the bottom-up approach to offender profiling: