Forensics - Offender Profiling

Question 1

what is offender profiling?

Answer 1

a behavioural and analytical tool used to predict probable characteristics of criminals + narrow down suspects

Question 2

what are the types of offender profiling?

Answer 2

top down

bottom up

Question 3

what is the top-down approach?

Answer 3

using pre-existing conceptual categories of criminal characteristics, then fitting evidence into a category to classify the criminal

Question 4

what is the bottom-up approach?

Answer 4

using evidence to build and create a criminal profile of characteristics

Question 5

what are the categories in the top-down approach?

Answer 5

organised

disorganised

Question 6

how were the categories created in the top-down approach?

Answer 6

using interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers (eg Ted Bundy)

Question 7

what is an organised profile?

Answer 7

a criminal who plans out their crime in advance and is usually:

intelligent

socially competent

lived with somebody

high degree of control

Question 8

what is a disorganised profile?

Answer 8

a criminal that is more impulsive and doesn’t plan, usually:

less intelligent

socially incompetent

lived alone

little control

Question 9

what are the 6 stages in the top-down approach?

Answer 9

input

decision

assessment

profile

assessment

review

Question 10

what are the issues with the top-down approach?

Answer 10

small, specific sample - sexually motivated serial killers, not generalisable, biased as narcissists + liars

behaviours in organised/disorganised not mutually exclusive

subjective judgements made that could mislead investigation

undermining research from Canter

Question 11

what are the advantages of the top-down approach?

Answer 11

ecological validity - used widely in FBI

offers new perspectives

helps stop people jumping to conclusions by having thinking stages

Question 12

who developed bottom-up profiling?

Answer 12

canter

Question 13

what is canter’s five factor model?

Answer 13

interperson coherence

time and place

criminal characteristics

criminal career

forensic awareness

Question 14

what is geographical profiling?

Answer 14

analysing locations of where crimes are committed, the spatial relations between crime scenes, and how they might relate to the offenders place of residence

Question 15

what is the circle theory?

Answer 15

most offenders have a spatial mindset and commit their crimes within an imagined circle

Question 16

what are the 2 types of offenders according to the circle theory?

Answer 16

marauders

commuters

Question 17

what is a marauder offender?

Answer 17

an offender who lives within the geographical area in which the crimes are committed

Question 18

what is a commuter offender?

Answer 18

an offender who travels to another geographical area and commits crimes in a defined space

Question 19

what is criminal geographic targeting?

Answer 19

computerised system that predicts where an offender is likely to live based on geographical profiling

Question 20

what are the advantages of bottom-up profiling?

Answer 20

applications in policing - ecological validity - 75% officers found it useful

more objective and scientific than top-down

Question 21

what are the disadvantages of bottom-up profiling?

Answer 21

uses secondary data - internally invalid

75% police officers said it was useful but only 3% said it helped catch criminals

91% criminals identified as marauders - could be wasting time looking at commuters

flaws with the model - offender not necessarily living in the centre of the circle, varies on city layouts