Forensics: Defining and Measuring Crime, Offender Profiling

Question 1

What are the 2 problems with defining crime and give examples?

Answer 1

• Cultural: Forced marriage made illegal in the UK in 2014, however it is a practice in other countries.
• Historical: Homosexuality still illegal in many parts of the World and only made legal in UK in 1967.
  -> Parent’s right to smack child outlawed in 2004.

Question 2

What are the 3 ways of measuring crimes?

Answer 2

• Official statistics
• Victim surveys
• Offender surveys

Question 3

What are official statistics?

Answer 3

• Crimes reported to the police and recorded in official figures which allow gov to formulate prevention strategies and police initiatives.
  -> Published by Home Office as a ‘snapshot’ of the number of crimes committed across the country.

Question 4

What are victim surveys?

Answer 4

• The public’s exp of crime over a particular period.
  -> E.g. 50,000 households randomly chosen to report on the crimes that they have been a victim of in the past year, this is compiled in the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

Question 5

What are Offender Surveys?

Answer 5

• Individuals self-report on the types of crimes they have committed.
  -> The offender Crime and Justice Survey aimed to identify trends in offending and relationship between perpatrator and victims.

Question 6

Evaluate the use of official statistics as a way of measuring crime

Answer 6

• Unreliable, significantly underestimate true extent of a crime.
• Only 25% of offences are included in the stats.
• 75% referred to as the ‘dark figure’ of crime.
• Farrinton and Dawds (1985) in Nottingham more petty crimes were reported than in neighbouring areas.

Question 7

Evaluate the use of victim surveys as a way of measuring crime

Answer 7

• Greater degree of accuracy.
• 2006/7 official stats suggest a 2% decrease in crime from the year before.
• Recall: ‘telescoping’ could distort figures.
• Telescoping: inaccurate perceptions regarding time, where ppl see recent events as more remote than they are (backward telescoping) and remote events as more recent (forward telescoping).
  -> Mental horror in memory can occur whenever we make temporal assumptions regarding past events.

Question 8

Evaluate offender surveys as a way of measuring crime

Answer 8

• Insight into how many people are responsible for certain crimes.
  -> Unreliable, Exaggerated or concealed figures?

Question 9

What is Offender Profiling?

Answer 9

• A behavioural and analytical tool intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile characteristics of unknown criminals.

Question 10

What is the ‘top-down approach’?

Answer 10

• Profilers start with a pre-established typology and work down in order to assign offenders to 1 of 2 categories based on witness accounts and evidence from the crime scene.
• Profiler has exp, can use evidence at crime scene to develop a profile of the likely criminal.

Question 11

What are the aims of offender profiling?

Answer 11

• Narrow the field of enquiry and the list of likely suspects.
  -> through analysis of the crime scene and evidence.
• Generate hypothesis: age, gender, ethnicity etc.

Question 12

What is an example of the ‘American Approach’ to offender profiling?

Answer 12

• FBI: 1970s Behavioural Science Unit.
• Data gathered from in-depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated killers.
• Organised into one of two categories: organised or disorganised.

Question 13

What are Modus Operandi’s ‘ways of working’ in crime?

Answer 13

Organised:
- Planned
- Above-average intelligence
- Socially and sexually competent

Disorganised:
- Spontaneous
- Impulsive
- Lower IQ

Question 14

List the weaknesses of Offender profiling:

Answer 14

• Limited application to crime
• Outdated models of personality
• no evidence for disorganised killer (refutes Modus Operandi)

Question 15

(-) Explain how offender profiling has limited application to crime

Answer 15

• Misses important details in rape, arson and cult killings.
• A limited approach to identifying a criminal.

Question 16

(-) Explain how offender profiling uses outdated models of personality (Alison)

Answer 16

• Alison et al (2002), approach is naive and informed by old-fashioned models of personality.
  -> Behaviour assumed to be driven by dispositional (inherent) traits.
  -> Poor validity and static.

Question 17

(-) explain how there is no evidence for disorganised killers (refutes Modus Operandi ‘ways of working’) (Canter)

Answer 17

• Canter analysed data from 100 murders in the USA.
• examined with reference to 39 characteristics typical of organised and disorganised killers.
  -> found no particular evidence of traits for disorganised killers.

Question 18

what is the British bottom up approach

Answer 18

• when research and statistics of similar crimes are used to develop a profile of the criminal based on previous convictions.
  -> generate a picture of the offender.
  -> characteristics, routine behaviours and social background.

Question 19

What is investigative psychology

Answer 19

• applying statistical procedures and psychological theory to analyse crime scene evidence.
  -> patterns of behaviour that occur/co-exist.
  -> interpersonal coherence
  -> forensic awareness

Question 20

what is interpersonal coherence? (investigative psych)

Answer 20

• way the offender behaves at the scene, including how they interact with the victim, may reflect their behaviour in more everyday situations.

Question 21

what is forensic awareness? (investigative psych)

Answer 21

• describes individuals who have been subjects of police interrogation before; their behaviour may denote how mindful they are of ‘covering their tracks’.

Question 22

What is geographical profiling (Rossmo)

Answer 22

• Using info about the location of the crime scene to make inferences about the likely home or operational base of an offender - crime mapping.
• Used to create hypotheses about what the offender was thinking and their modus operandi.

Question 23

Explain the Modus Operandi (MO) approach

Answer 23

• The core assumption of profiling is the existence of a MO
• serial offenders restrict their ‘work’ to geographical areas they are familiar with.
• Criminals often operate in a similar way and this reflects their personality.
• Provides investigators with a ‘centre of gravity’.
  -> Includes their base (often in the middle of the spatial pattern).
  -> Jeopardy surface- educate guesses about where the offender is likely to strike next.

Question 24

What is the circle theory -> Canter and Larkin

Answer 24

• Two models of offenders behaviour.
  -> The Marauder – who operates in close proximity to their home base.
  -> The commuter - who is likely to have travelled a distance away from their usual residence.

Question 25

(+) give evidence which supports investigative psych (Canter and Heritage)

Answer 25

• Canter and Heritage (1990) conducted a content analysis of 66 sexual assault cases.
• Common in most cases: Impersonal language and lack of reaction to victim (impersonal and sudden).
• Supports the use of statistical techniques in profiling.

Question 26

(+) give evidence with supports geographical profiling (Lundrigan and Canter)

Answer 26

• Lundrigan and Canter (2001) collated information from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the USA.
• Smallest space analysis: the location of each body disposal site was in a different direction from the previous, creating a ‘centre of gravity’.
• The offender’s base was invariably located in the centre of the pattern.
• More noticeable for maraunders.

Question 27

(+) explain how the bottom down approach is supported by scientific bases (Canter)

Answer 27

• Canter: found bottom up profiling is more objective and scientific than top down approach, as it is grounded in evidence and psychological theory
• With use of AI, investigators are able to manipulate geographical, biographical and psychological data quickly to produce insights.

Question 28

(+) explain research which supports offender profiling (Aubumere)

Answer 28

• Aubumere, 75% of British police officers said advice of the profiler had been useful to them in making predictions about the crime.
  -> advice improved their understanding of the offender.
• other police officers also stated that it supported their ideas and feelings about the offender.

Question 29

(-) explain research which refutes offender profiling (Aubumere)

Answer 29

• Police from the Netherlands stated that they found the profiler’s advice as vague, that it was not financially viable, and that it needed follow up work.
• They also ignored advice if they didn’t agree with it.

Question 30

constructing FBI profile

Answer 30

• A: data assimilation
• C: crime scene classification: time, date, location
• R: crime reconstruction: background, habits, beliefs
• C: profile generation