Offender Profiling Ao1

Question 1

Offender profiling is…

Answer 1

Is a behavioural and analytical tool used when trying to find suspects
It aims to predict the probable characteristics of the unknown criminals using evidence from the crime scene

Question 2

2 types of offender profiling

Answer 2

Top down
Bottom up

Question 3

Top down approach is from where AND WHO and when

Answer 3

America FBI 1970s

Question 4

How did top down approach come about

Answer 4

From data gathered by in depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated killers
Match what is known about the crime and the offender to a pre existing template that the fbi developed
Murdered or rapists are classified in one or two categories (organised and disorganised) on the basis of the evidence

Question 5

Organised types of offender characteristics

Answer 5

Shows evidence if having planned crime in advance
Maintain a degree of control during crime
Married w children
Above average IQ, skilled profession
Operate with deattached surgical precision
Victim deliberately targeted

Question 6

Disorganised types of offender characteristics

Answer 6

Little evidence of planning
Spontaneous spur of the moment act
Crime scene reflects impulsive nature of the attack
Have a low IQ in unskilled work or unemployed
History of failed relationships
Tend to live on their own and near where the offence took place

Question 7

List 4 stages of top down

Answer 7

1)Data assimilation
2) crime scene classification
3) crime scene reconstruction
4) profile generation

Question 8

Describe data assimilation

Answer 8

Information is gathered from crime scene about exactly what happened
They will look at photos of the scene, forensic evidence, police reports etc

Question 9

Describe crime scene classification

Answer 9

A decision is made regarding whether the criminal appears to be organised or disorganised

Question 10

Describe crime scene reconstruction

Answer 10

Hypotheses are generated about what probably happened during the crime scene eg victim behaviour and the sequence of events

Question 11

Describe profile generation

Answer 11

A rough sketch of the criminal is developed including social groups, appearance is likely behavioural traits

Question 12

Who theorised bottom up profiling

Answer 12

David canter

Question 13

Describe bottom up profiling

Answer 13

Profile is generated by making inferences from systematic analysis of evidence of the crime scene using knowledge of psychological theories and statistical analysis
Then creating hypotheses of probable characteristics of offender
Data driven

Question 14

Two types of bottom up profiling

Answer 14

Investigative psychology
Geographical profiling

Question 15

Is bottom up USA or British

Answer 15

British

Question 16

How is bottom up different to top down

Answer 16

Profilers work up from evidence created from crime scene developing a hypothesis about likely characteristics motivations and social background of offender
Profile is data driven
Doesn’t have fixed typologies (disorganised or organised) like the USA
Investigator goes into more rigorous and scrutiny about the details of the offence

Question 17

5 steps of investigative psychology

Answer 17

Interpersonal coherence
Significance if time and place
Criminal characteristics
Criminal career
Forensic awareness

Question 18

Describe interpersonal coherence

Answer 18

Behaviour including interactions the victim which may reflect everyday behaviour Eg controlling or apologetic

Question 19

Describe significance of time and place

Answer 19

When and where crime happened
May indicate where offender lives

Question 20

Criminal characteristics

Answer 20

Placing criminals into categories is a useful exercise to help the police

Question 21

Describe Criminal career

Answer 21

This considers how far into thier criminal expirence offenders are and how their pattern of crime pattern may progress

Question 22

Describe forensic awareness

Answer 22

Knowledge of the cjs and potential prev subject of police eg cover if tracks due to knowledge of ev

Question 23

John Duffy

Answer 23

Police therorsed correctional things about him
Eg he had marriage problems, had an interest in martial arts, small and unattractive - he had acne
Needed to dominate women - violently attacked wife

Question 24

geographical profiling theorised by

Answer 24

Rossno 1997

Question 25

Describe geographical profiling

Answer 25

Based on principle of spatial consistency - that an offenders operational base and future offences are linked
Crime mapping - used to link local crime stats, local transport and geographical spread to make inferences of home and social hangouts of offender
The assumption is that serial killer swill restrict their work to areas they are familiar

Question 26

What is circle theory

Answer 26

Ppl operate within a limited spatial mind set that creates imagined boundaries in which crimes are likely to be committed

Question 27

4 zones in circle theory

Answer 27

1 - offenders home
2- buffer zone - no hunting as its too close to home
3- the hunting comfort zone - offender feels comfortable committing crimes
4-distance decay - too far from home risk and cost too high to travel here

Question 28

2 types of offender

Answer 28

The marauder
The commuters

Question 29

What is marauder

Answer 29

Offender operates in close proximity to their Homebase

Question 30

What is commuter

Answer 30

Offender likely to have travelled distance away from their usual residence