Forensics - Offender Profiling (PAPER 3)

Question 1

What is offender profiling?

Answer 1

The idea that you can make assumptions about characteristics of an offender by a careful analysis by the offence they commit

Question 2

What is an MO?

Answer 2

Modus Operandi - the distinctive way that crimes are carried out

Question 3

When is offender profiling used?

Answer 3

Most used for serious serial crimes, often after standard forensic techniques have failed

Question 4

What is the Top-Down Approach?

Answer 4

The use of evidence to try to fit offenders into pre-existing categories (organised and disorganised) by the FBI and CIA

Question 5

What is the Bottom-Up Approach?

Answer 5

The use of statistical analysis to investigate the offender and find out who it is

Question 6

How were the organised and disorganised categories devised?

Answer 6

Interviews with 36 convicted murderers including Ted Bundy

Question 7

What is Stage 1 of the Top-Down Approach?

Answer 7

Data assimilation: Information gathered from the crime scene and choice of victim and location.

Question 8

What is Stage 2 of the Top-Down Approach?

Answer 8

Crime scene classification: The use of data to classify offender into organised or disorganised

Question 9

What does an organised offender look like?

Answer 9

• Planned offence
• Overall control
• Hidden body
• Average or higher intelligence

Question 10

What does a disorganised offender look like?

Answer 10

• Spontaneous offence
• Crime scene random and “sloppy”
• Below average intelligence

Question 11

What is Stage 3 of the Top-Down Approach?

Answer 11

Crime reconstruction: hypothesising the sequence of offender and victim BH

Question 12

What is Stage 4 of the Top-Down Approach?

Answer 12

Profile generation: a range of inferences made such as demographic assumptions, physical features, and expected BHs

Question 13

Positive evaluations of Top-Down Approach (AO3)

Answer 13

Ressier interviews with 36 killers clearly shows distinct typology

Question 14

Criticisms of the Top-Down Approach (AO3)

Answer 14

• Restricited sample of just 36
• Self report method can lead to low validity
• Canter found no evidence of disorganised “type” in review of 100 serial killers interviews

Question 15

What is interpersonal coherence in the Bottom-Up Approach?

Answer 15

Suggests a persons interactional style with victim is the same as their daily life

Question 16

What is time and place significance in the Bottom-Up Approach?

Answer 16

The idea that location and time of crime is significant as chosen by the offender for a reason

Question 17

What is the significance of criminal characteristics in the Bottom-Up Approach?

Answer 17

How the crime is committed suggests aspects of the offenders characteristics based on evidence from prior criminal studies

Question 18

What is the significance of “criminal career” in the Bottom-Up Approach?

Answer 18

How crimes by the same offender change over time due to more experience

Question 19

What is forensic awareness in the Bottom-Up Approach?

Answer 19

How knowledgeable the offender is of the CJS and forensic techniques

Question 20

What is Geographic Profiling?

Answer 20

A branch of investigative psychology focused on where an offender is likely to be based - assumes location of crime is not random

Question 21

What is the least effort principle?

Answer 21

If there are multiple equal locations, the offender will choose the one closest to their “base”

Question 22

What is distance decay?

Answer 22

The idea that the number of crimes will decrease the further away from the offenders base - however there is a “buffer zone” to decrease chances of being recognised

Question 23

What is a Marauder according to Canter’s Circle Hypothesis?

Answer 23

The idea that a if a circle is drawn around a string of linked crimes, the offender’s home will be in the “centre of gravity” in the middle

Question 24

What is a Commuter according to Canter’s Circle Hypothesis?

Answer 24

Offenders who travel outside their home base to commit their crimes

Question 25

What is Smallest Space Analysis?

Answer 25

A programme that uses databases to help decide whether a string of crimes is related

Question 26

Positive evaluations of the Bottom-Up Approach (AO3)

Answer 26

• Canter and Larkin showed that 87% of a 45 strong sample of sexual assaulters were marauders
• More scientific that Top-Down

Question 27

Negative evaluations of the Bottom-Up Approach (AO3)

Answer 27

• No way of knowing whether an offender is a marauder of commuter until they’re caught reducing IRL application
• Not all crimes are recorded so geographical profiling is made more difficult

Question 28

Negative evaluations of offender profiling (AO3)

Answer 28

• Difficult to analyse effectiveness as it’s never used in isolation
• Alison found two groups of police with the same profile but details of very different offenders both found it accurate 75% of the time
• Barnum effect (some statements so vague it can be applied to anyone)
• Will fail when searching for statistically abnormal offenders

Question 29

Positive evaluations of offender profiling (AO3)

Answer 29

• Snook found 88% of Canadian officers agreed criminal profiling is a valuable tool

Question 30

Who devised the Bottom-up approach?

Answer 30

Canter