Lesson 1: Top-Down Approach to Offender Profiling

Question 1

What is offender profiling?

Answer 1

Offender profiling is based on the idea that the characteristics
of the offender can be deduced from details of the offence and crime scene

Question 2

What do profiling methods usually involve?

Answer 2

-Careful scrutiny of the crime scene
-Analysis of evidence

This helps deduce a possible hypothesis about the probable characteristics of the offender

Question 3

What is the top down approach?

Answer 3

A method where the characterisitcs of a crime and likely offender are matched to two pre existing categories; organised and disorganised offenders.

The offender is then determined as one type or the other.

Question 4

What is an organised offender?

Answer 4

-Offenders that show evidence of having planned the crime in ADVANCE.

-They maintain a high level of control during the crime and operate with an almost detached surgical precision. There is little evidence left behind at the scene of
the crime.

Question 5

What are the characteristics of an organised offender?

Answer 5

-Above average intelligence
- In a skilled professional occupation
-Socially and sexually competent
-Often married or have children

Question 6

What is a disorganised offender?

Answer 6

-Offenders that show little evidence of having planned the crime in advance, suggestion that the offence may have been spontaneous.

-The crime scene tends to reflect the impulsive nature of the attack, the body is usually left at the scene and there appears to have been very little control on the part of the offender.

Question 7

What are the characteristics of disorganised offenders?

Answer 7

-Lower than average intelligence
-Unskilled in work or unemployed
-History of sexual dysfunction
-Tend to live close to where the offence took place

Question 8

State a negative evaluation of top-down profiling
(hint: application)

Answer 8

• Top-down profiling only applies to certain crimes (e.g. rape, arson, cult killings,
  and murders that involve macabre practices such as sadistic torture, dissection
  etc.). Common offences, such as burglary do not lend themselves to top-down
  profiling because the crime scene reveals very little about the offender.

Question 9

State a negative evaluation of top-down profiling
(hint: unrepresentative)

Answer 9

• Top-down profiling was developed based on interviews with 36 sexually
  motivated serial killers, including Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. Canter (2004)
  has argued that it is not valid to rely on self-report data from convicted serial
  killers when constructing a classification system.

Question 10

State a negative evaluation of top-down profiling
(hint: simplistic/ 4 categories)

Answer 10

• The organised or disorganised distinction is overly simplistic. Holmes (1989)
  suggests there are four types of serial killer;

1) Visionary serial killer (kill because God or the Devil is directing them to)

2) Mission serial killer (kill to eradicate a group of people they consider to be undesirable)

3)Hedonistic serial killer (kill for the thrill)

4) Power serial killer (kill to have complete control
over the victims)

Question 11

State another negative evaluation of top-down profiling
(hint: no distinct disorganised)

Answer 11

• Canter et al. (2004) analysed data from 100 murders in the USA with
  reference to the characteristics thought to be typical of organised and
  disorganised killers. The findings did suggest evidence of a distinct organised
  type, however this was not the case for disorganised type which undermines the
  entire classification system.