Forensics: offender profiling: the top down approach

Question 1

what is offender profiling

Answer 1

an investigative tool used by police when solving crimes, aims to narrow the field of enquiry and list of likely suspects

Question 2

what are the general methods of offender profiling

Answer 2

• usually involves scrutiny of crime scene
• and analysis of evidence to generate hypotheses about characteristics of the offender

Question 3

outline the ‘American approach’

Answer 3

• (typology approach) = profilers match what they know about the offender + the crime to pre-existing templates developed by FBI
  -murderers/rapists classified as organised or disorganised

Question 4

where does the concept of ‘organised’ and ‘disorganised’ offenders come from

Answer 4

this distinction is based on the idea that serious offenders have certain ‘ways of working’
- these methods correlate with a specific set of social and psychological characteristics

Question 5

organised offenders

Answer 5

• show evidence of having planned the crime in advance
• victim has been specifically targeted and may reflect that the offenders have a ‘type’
• high degree of control maintained throughout crime (little/no evidence left)

Question 6

disorganised offenders

Answer 6

• little evidence of planning - which suggests the offence may have been spontaneous
• crime scene often reflects the impulsive nature of attack e.g. weapon left behind, multiple clues
• typically low IQ, unemployed, history of failed relationships

Question 7

what are the four main stages of constructing an FBI profile

Answer 7

Data assimilation - Profiler reviews evidence
crime scene classification - organised/disorganised
crime reconstruction - hypotheses sequence of events
Profile generation - Hypotheses related to the likely offender

Question 8

what are the three AO3 points for the top down approach of offender profiling

Answer 8

• only applicable to particular crimes
• based on outdated models of personality
• evidence doesn’t support the ‘disorganised offender’

Question 9

outline ‘only applicable to particular crimes’ as a weakness of the top down approach

Answer 9

• best suited to crime scenes that reveal important details about a suspect (e.g. rape, cult killings etc)
• resulting crime scenes of common offences (Burglary + assault) reveal little about the offender
• so at best, a limited approach to identifying criminals

Question 10

outline ‘based on outdated models of personality’ as a weakness of the top down approach

Answer 10

-typology classification system is based on the assumption that offenders have patterns of behaviour + motivation that are consistent
-critics (Alison et al) suggested this approach is naïve as it sees behaviour as being driven by stable factors
- so has poor validity when identifying suspects

Question 11

outline ‘evidence doesn’t support the ‘disorganised offender’ as a weakness of the top down approach

Answer 11

• Canter et al - used a technique called the smallest space analysis (analysed data from 100 murders in the USA)
• case examined with reference to 39 characteristics typical of (dis)organised killers.
• findings showed evidence of an organised type but the disorganised type undermined the classification system