offender profiling Flashcards
what is offender profiling
a behavioural and analytical tool that is intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminals.
what is the top - down approach
profilers start with a pre-established typology and work down in order to assign offenders to one of two categories based on witness accounts and evidence from the crime scene.
an example of the top down approach
FBIs behavioural science unit drew upon data gathered from in depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers including ted bunny and Charles Manson. offender profilers will match what is known about the crime and the offender to a pre-existing template that the FBI developed
which two categories are used to classify criminals
organised and disorganised
organised category is
when the criminal has show the crime is planned in advance. and the victim is deliberately targeted
disorganised category is
little evidence of planning, spontaneous crime.
what are the 4 main stages of constricting an FBI profile
data assimilation - reviews evidence
crime scene classification - organised or disorganised
crime reconstruction - hypothesis of behaviour
profile generation - hypothesis related to likely offender
true or false - the method of profiling is best suited to crime scenes that reveal important details about the suspect but more common offences do not lend themselves to profiling
true
true or false - this method is not based on outdated models of personality
false - critics have suggested that this approach as naive and that see behaviour as being driven by stable dispositional traits - poor validity
true or false there is evidence supporting the disorganised offender
false - canter et al used smallest space analysis to analyse data from 100 murders in the USA, details were examined with reference to 39 characteristics of the typical killer - evidence for organised but not for disorganised.
what is the bottom-up approach
work up from evidence collected codevelop hypotheses about the likely characteristics, motivations and social background of the offender - data driven
what is investigative psych
attempt to apply statistical procedures to the analysis of the crime scene
what is the aim of investigative psych
establish patterns of behaviour that are likely ti occur across crime scenes - in order to act as a baseline for comparison
what concept is central to this approach
interpersonal coherence
what is interpersonal coherence
the way offender behaves at the scene as well how they interact with the victim may reflect their behaviour in an everyday situation.
