Offender Profiling Ao1 Flashcards
Offender profiling is…
Is a analytical technique
It aims to predict the probable characteristics/description of the unknown criminals using evidence from the crime scene - help narrow down list of suspects
2 types of offender profiling
Top down
Bottom up
Top down approach is from where AND WHO and when
America FBI 1970s
How did top down approach come about
fbi based in quantico virginia
from data gathered by in depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers
how does top down approach work
they start with a template before they analyse the crime, they have pre existing category through which they see the crime scene
either organised or disorganised types
Organised types of offender characteristics
Shows evidence of having planned crime in advance
Maintain a degree of control during crime
Married w children
Above average IQ, skilled profession
body hidden
socially and sexually competent
Disorganised types of offender characteristics
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
socially and sexually incompetent
Tend to live on their own and near where the offence took place
List 4 stages of top down
1)Data assimilation
2) crime scene classification
3) crime scene reconstruction
4) profile generation
Describe crime scene classification
A decision is made regarding whether the criminal appears to be organised or disorganised
Describe crime scene reconstruction
Hypotheses are generated about what probably happened during the crime scene eg victim behaviour and the sequence of events
Describe profile generation
A rough sketch of the criminal is developed including social groups, appearance is likely behavioural traits
Who theorised bottom up profiling
David canter
Describe bottom up profiling
doesnt assume fixed typology
Profile is generated by making inferences from details of the crime and works up to build understanding of the offendner from there
Two types of bottom up profiling
Investigative psychology
Geographical profiling
Is bottom up USA or British
British
How is bottom up different to top down
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
what is investigative psychology
uses psychological theory and stats to analyse crime scene evidence and generate a database of criminal beh patters - data driven approach
2 things investigative psychology assumes
data driven approach
interpersonal coherence
describe investigative psychology - data driven approach
a statistical database that records details about crimes - identify patterns that occur across crime scene
allows relationships between crimes to be established
Describe interpersonal coherence
the way the offender behaved at the crime scene will be consistent with how they behave in everyday life eg if an offender was highly controlling of the victim during the crime they would expect them to be controlling with other people
John Duffy
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
geographical profiling theorised by
Rossno 1997
Describe geographical profiling
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
What is circle theory
Ppl operate within a limited spatial mind set that creates imagined boundaries in which crimes are likely to be committed
4 zones in circle theory
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
2 types of offender
The marauder
The commuters
What is marauder
Offender operates in close proximity to their Homebase
What is commuter
Offender likely to have travelled distance away from their usual residence
