Lesson 1 - Top Down Approach Flashcards
What is offender profiling?
Tool employed by the police to narrow down the list of likely suspects
What idea is offender profiling based on?
Characteristics of offender can be deduced from details of offence and crime scene
What does the offender profiling method involve?
Careful scrutiny of crime scene
Analysis of evidence
Witness reports
What does offender profiling generate?
Hypothesis of probable characters it is of offender
Age, background, occupation
What does the top-down approach involve?
Templates of organised and disorganised offender pre-exist in profiler’s mind
Evidence from crime scene and other details of the crime / victim / context used to fit offender into either pre-existing category
Determine offender as one type or other
What are the key characteristics of the CRIME SCENE of an organised offender?
Shows evidence of planning crime in advance
Little evidence left at crime scene
Victim is DELIBERATELY targeted
Shows killer / rapist has preference for certain type of victim
Maintain high level of control during crime
Almost detached surgical precision
What can be inferred about an organised offender through the top-down approach?
Above average
Skilled, professional occupation
Socially and sexually competent
Often married and have children
What are the key characteristics of the CRIME SCENE of a disorganised offender?
Little evidence of planning
Suggests offence may have been spontaneous
Crime scene reflects IMPULSIVE nature of the attack
Body usually left at crime scene
Very little control from offender
What can be inferred about a disorganised offender from the top-down approach?
Lower than average intelligence
Unskilled work or unemployed
Often have history of sexual dysfunction / failed relationships
Tend to live alone
Live relatively close to place of offence
What are the evaluation points for the top-down profiling?
ALL NEGATIVE
Only applies to certain crimes and not common offences
E.g. burglary
Because crime scene reveals very little about offender
Organised and disorganised distinction developed based on interviews with 36 USA serial killers
Sample is too small and unrepresentative to base a typology system on
Top-down profiling developed based on interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers
Canter 2004 argues NOT VALID to rely on self-report data from convicted serial killers when constructing a classification system
Organised / disorganised distinction is overly simplistic
Holmes 1989 suggests FOUR types of serial killer
- VISIONARY instructed by God or Devil
- MISSION to eradicate their undesirable group of people
- HEDONISTIC for the thrill
- POWER for complete victim control
Canter et al 2004
Analysed data from 100 USA murders with reference to organised / disorganised characteristics
Findings suggested distinct ORGANISED type but NOT DISORGANISED type
Undermines entire classification system
