Forensics: Offender Profiling Flashcards
What is offender profiling
A behavioural and analytical tool that is intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminals, narrow the field of enquiry and the list of likely suspects. They analyse the crime scene and evidence to generate hypothesis, including age, gender and ethnicity about the offender
What is the top down approach?
Profilers start with a pre-established typology and work down in order to assign offenders to one of two categories based on witness accounts and evidence from the crime scene (organised or disorganised). FBI approach
What is a modus operandi?
Offenders have a modus operandi, ‘way of working’, 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’ showing their base (often in the model of their spatial pattern.
What was the FBI 1970s behavioural science unit?
A division in the FBI, data gathered from in depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated killers, put into two categories; Organised (planned, deliberate target, high degree of control, work with detached surgical precision, little evidence, above average intelligence, socially and sexually competent ‘Ted Bundy type’) and Disorganised (spontaneous, spur of the moment, impulsive, lower IQ, sexual dysfunction)
What are the steps to constructing an FBI profile?
Data assimilation, crime scene classification, crime reconstruction, profile generation
What are the downsides to the top down approach?
(All evaluations are negative); Misses important details in crimes such as rape, arson and cult killings. Typology classification system is based off of patterns of behaviour that remain consistent (though offenders may change the ways they commit crimes). Canter et al. (2004), smallest space analysis technique, analysed data from 100 murderers in US, with reference to 39 characteristics typical of O or D killers, yet there was no evidence to form a distinct ‘disorganised’ type. Characteristics are not mutually exclusive; Godwin (2002) argued; “How would you classify a highly intelligent and sexually competent killer who commits a spontaneous murder, where the body is left at the scene?”
What is the bottom up approach?
British approach. Data driven. Where research and statistics of similar crimes are used to develop a profile of the criminal based on previous convictions, to generate a picture of the offender, including characteristics, routine behaviours and social background.
What is investigative psychology?
Applying statistical procedures and psychological theory to analyse the crime scene evidence, patterns of behaviour that occur or co-exist to create a statistical baseline for comparison. Interpersonal coherence is used (which is the way the offender behaves at the scene, including how they interact with the victim, as it may reflect their behaviour in everyday situations) Forensic awareness of the offender is also taken into account (which refers to the individuals who have been subjects of police interrogation before; as their behaviour may denote how mindful they are of ‘covering their tracks’)
What is geographical profiling?
Using information about the location of the crime 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, developed by Rossmo (1997)
What is a jeopardy surface?
An educated guess about where the offender is likely to strike next
What are the two models of offenders behaviour Circle theory (Canter and Larkin (1993))
Marauder (who operates in close proximity to their base), and the commuter (who is likely to have travelled a distance away from their usual residence)
Evidence supporting geographical profiling
Researchers 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 offenders base was invariably located in the centre of the pattern. More noticeable for marauders
Evidence supporting investigative psychology
Researchers conducted a content analysis of 66 sexual assault cases, using smallest space analysis, correlations across behaviour, common in most cases: impersonal language and lack of reaction to victim, supports the use of statistical techniques in profiling
Support for the bottom up approach
Scientific bases, Canter argues bottom up profiling is more objective and scientific than top down approach (as it’s grounded in evidence and psychological theory), smallest space analysis can be applied to a range of different crimes such as theft, whereas top down is generally just murder
Evidence against offender profiling
Some profiling has led to miscarriages of justice. Researchers found more than 75% of the British police officers said that the advice of the profiler had been useful to them in some ways such as making predictions about the crime and improving their understanding of the offender, yet in the Netherlands, profiling advice was seen as vague and that it needed follow up work and some officers didn’t use it if they didn’t agree with it. Other studies have mixed results on effectiveness of profiling.
