Offender Profiling

Question 1

What is offender profiling ?

Answer 1

It is a tool employed by police to narrow down the list of likely suspects . It is based in the idea that the characteristics of the offender can be deduced from the details of the crime scene. By scrutinising the crime scene, Analysing evidence such as witness reports a hypothesis about the characteristics of the offender such as age, background and occupation is created.

Question 2

The top down approach

Answer 2

In this approach the templates of the disorganised offender and organised offender are pre existing in the mind if the profiler , evidence from the crime scene and other details from the crime, victim and context are used to fit the offender in one category or another.
This approach is mostly used in the USA and was created by the CIA

Question 3

Organised offenders

Answer 3

Organised offenders- they show evidence of planning the crime in advance, the victim will be deliberately targeted and this will often reveal the criminal often has a preference for certain types of victims. They have a high level of control during the crime and operate with precision and leave little evidence behind. They often have above average intelligence, are in a skilled profession and are socially and sexually competent. They are often married and have children.

Question 4

Disorganised offenders

Answer 4

They show little evidence of planning suggesting the crime may have been spontaneous. The body is usually left at the scene and there is little control on the part of the criminal reflecting the impulsive nature of the crime. They usually have lower then average intelligence, be in unskilled work or be unemployed. They often have a history of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships.

Question 5

Evaluation of top down approach to offender profiling

Answer 5

• ) it only applies to certain crimes such as rape, arson and murders. The crime scenes of more common crime such as a robbery don’t tell us a lot about the offender.
• ) it was made by the CIA on the basis on interviews with 36 serial killers which is a very small sample and is unrepresentative so can’t be used to categorise all violent from criminals.
• ) the interviews of the 36 killers are self reports so the information may jot be valid as they may have exaggerated or lied about certain details to to gain lighter sentences.
• ) Holmes suggests that are 4 types of serial killers: the visionary serial killer (kills due to the God or another supernatural creature tells them to), mission serial killer ( trying to eliminate a group of people they see as undesirable), hedonistic serial killers ( kill for the thrill) and the power serial killer (kill to have complete control over the victims)

Question 6

What is the bottom up approach?

Answer 6

It was developed in the uk and aims to generate a picture of the criminal and their likely characteristics, routine behaviour and socially background. They do this by systematically analysing evidence left at the crime scene, it does not begin with a fixed typology instead they create a data driven profile for each offender which is created examining details about the offence. It is more grounded in psychological theory then the top down approach