Offender Profiling Flashcards
Two types of offender profiling
Top Down and Bottom Up
Top Down is used by
The FBI
How were top down profiles made
Content analysis of interviews with 36 murderers in 1970s
How are offenders split in the top down approach
Into cateogries based on the crime and their characteristics.
What do the FBI do when searching for an unknown offender?
Analyse the crime for clues and characteristics which fit each typology so predict what person they are looking for
Top down typologies
Organised and Disorganised
Organised offender
- advanced planning
- low evidence and high control
- high IQ
- usually married with children
Disorganised offender
- spontaneous
- messy scene of crime
- low IQ
- history of failed relationships. alone
Top Down AO3 + application
To other crimes
- 85% more burglary cases solved
Top Down AO3 + Canter
100 serial killings
- distinct patterns in if body left and use of weapon consistent with typologies
- validity to existence
Top down AO3 - Godwin
Distinction between typologies too simplstic
- can show both characteristics
- false positive or negative
Top down AO3 - method
- unstrucuted interviews
- sample bias (only those caught)
- motive of ppts
Bottom up where
Britain
Bottom up - who created
David Canter = top down focuses too much on intuition and is not scientific
Bottom up features
Investigative psychology and geographical profiling
