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Paper 3 - Psychology > Offender profiling > Flashcards

Offender profiling Flashcards

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1
Q

Offender profiling

A

Collection of empirical data in order to build up a picture of the characteristics of those involved in a certain type of crime

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2
Q

The primary aim of offender profiling

A

Assist investigative practice and provide advice to the police to help solve the crime and identify offenders

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3
Q

Ebiske (2008)

A

Profiling involves using an understanding of human behaviour. motivation and pathology = characteristics of the perpetrator

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4
Q

Top-down approach

A
  • Crime-scene analysis
  • Evidence from the crime scene is compared to patterns from previous crimes in order to make a prediction about more crimes and the likelihood of when and where they will occur.
  • Starts with the big picture and then fills in the details
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5
Q

4 key stages of crime-scene profiling

A
  1. Data assimilation
  2. Crime classification
  3. Crime reconstruction
  4. Profile generation
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6
Q

Data assimilation

A
  • Police reports
  • Crime scene
  • Photographs
  • Pathology reports
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7
Q

Crime scene classification

A
  • Organised

- Disorganised

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8
Q

Crime reconstruction

A

Hypotheses;

  • Victim behaviour
  • Crime sequence
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9
Q

Profile generation

A

Present hypotheses;

  • Demography
  • Physical characteristics
  • Behavioural habits
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10
Q

Organized offender

A
  • Psychopathic - kills after critical life event
  • Highly organized in most facets of life
  • Cleans up the crime scene and removes or covers up evidence
  • Planned, controlled and targetted victim
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11
Q

Disorganized offender

A
  • Psychotic - emotionally aroused
  • Disorganized and chaotic lifestyle
  • Little or no attempt to tidy up the crime scene
  • Little evidence of planning and random victim
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12
Q

SPOT burglary styles

A
  • Opportunistic
  • Organized
  • Disorganized
  • Interpersonal
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13
Q

Opportunistic

A

Offence description

  • Unlawful entry - entry left open
  • No preparation or tools
  • Unoccupied residence
  • Low-value items stolen
  • Little evidence left behind

Offender description

  • Young
  • Adolescent onset
  • Short criminal career
  • Low offending frequency
  • Don’t know the victim
  • Mostly male
  • Don’t have a car
  • Versatility, prior petty theft/ shoplifting arrests
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14
Q

Organized

A

Offence description

  • Clean but forced entry
  • Tools brought to the scene
  • No evidence left behind
  • High-value items stolen

Offender description

  • Older
  • Adolescent onset
  • High offending frequency
  • Limited versatility - prior arrests for theft/burglary
  • Often have a car
  • Lives with someone/partner
  • May have met victim
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15
Q

Disorganized

A

Offence description

  • Forced entry
  • Scene left untidy
  • Tools/ evidence left
  • Low-value or no items stolen

Offender description

  • Young
  • Early-onset
  • Long criminal career
  • High offending frequency
  • Versatility - past arrest for drugs offences
  • Don’t know victim
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16
Q

Interpersonal

A

Offence description

  • Occupied residence
  • Victim targeted
  • Attempted, threatened or committed violence at scene
  • Personal items stolen

Offender description

  • Adult
  • Late criminal onset
  • Solo offender
  • Have a car
  • Single/ not cohabiting
  • No record/ arrested for violence
  • Female victims
  • Know of victims
17
Q

Bottum-up approach

A

Developed in the UK that uses statistical databases to look for consistencies in an offender’s pattern of behaviour when committing a crime.
- Starts with details and creates a bigger picture

18
Q

Investigative psychology

A
  • Statistically based attempts to identify patterns in different crime characteristics + consideration of geographical factors in undertaking crime
  • Analyse behaviour and social interactions between offender and victim
19
Q

Canter and Larkin (1993)

A

Two types of offending;

  • Marauder - doesn’t stray far from their home base
  • Commuter - move well away from it to commit their crime
20
Q

Key psychological principles

A
  1. Interpersonal coherence
  2. Time and place significance
  3. Criminal characteristics
  4. Criminal career
  5. Forensic awareness
21
Q

Interpersonal coherence

A
  • Actions of the offender will be the norm to them

eg/ type of victim may reflect the subgroup the offender belongs to

22
Q

Time and place significance

A
  • Offender needs to be in control so they will choose a specific place

eg/ Marauders or Commuters

23
Q

Criminal characteristics

A
  • Analysis of crimes/ offenders assists classifying and identifying behaviour patterns
24
Q

Criminal career

A
  • Number of times crime repeated + with growing confidence may increase
25
Q

Forensic awareness

A
  • Previous contact with police may assist criminal in covering their tracks
26
Q

Features that help identify if crimes are committed by the same offender

A
  1. If offender has behaved in the same way each time they commit a crime - OFFENDER CONSISTENCY HYPOTHESIS
  2. Evidence of ‘behavioural distinctiveness’ sometimes known as the criminals ‘signature’
27
Q

Canter and Heritage (1990)

A
  • Interested in whether there were particular pattens of behaviour occurring across similar crimes.
  • Detailed qualitative content analysis - 66 sexual offences committed by 27 offenders.
  • Reports from a range of police forces in the UK = less likely to be ethnocentrically biased.
  • Smallest-space analysis = support research methodology.
    = 5 key variables relevant to all 66 cases

5 factor theory;

  • No reactions to the victim
  • Impersonal language
  • Surprise attack
  • Vaginal intercourse
  • Victims clothing disturbed

The general underlying pattern of behaviour = attacks was impersonal, sudden + victim’s response irrelevant to the offender.

28
Q

Large sample size

A
  • Increased representativeness of the findings

- Generalizability of findings

Paper 3 - Psychology (24 decks)

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