Offender Profiling Ao3

Question 1

Weaknesse - not applicable to every crime

Answer 1

Only applies to certain crimes
- that reveal important details about a suspect such as rape arson cult killing and acting out fantasies
Bugulary and destruction of property dont lend themselves to profiling because the resulting crime scene reveals very little about the offender
Limited approach to identifying a criminal

Question 2

Research support for top down

Answer 2

P: There is support for a distinct organized category of offender
E: • Canter (2004) analysis of 100 US murders committed by different serial killers.
• Smallest space analysis - statistical technique that identifies correlations across different samples of behaviour.
• In this case the analysis was used in order to assess the current occurrence of 39 aspects of serial killings.
• Torture or restraint; attempt to conceal; murder weapon; cause of death.
E: Revealed that there does seem to be a subset of features of many serial killings which matched the FBI is typology for organized offenders
L: this therefore supports the top down approach in classifying offenders as disorganised and organised to help bring offenders to justice

Question 3

Counterpoint to research support for top down

Answer 3

P: However many studies suggest that the organized and disorganized types may not mutually exclusive
E: Maurice Godwin (2002) - it is difficult to classify killers as one or the other type.
E: Could have multiple contrasting characteristics.
• High intelligence and sexual competence, but commit a spontaneous murder, leaving the body at the crime scene.
Could mean that the typology is more of a continuum, rather than one or another.
L: this limits how useful the top down approach is in using a profile to catch offenders

Question 4

Counterpoint to top down not
Having wider application

Answer 4

P: Abr fr A strength of the top down approach is that it can be adapted to other crimes.
• Meketa (20017) reported that the top-down approach had been recently applied to burglary → 85% rise in solved cases.
• Organised and disorganised remain
• Interpersonal and opportunistic have been added.
Suggests that the approach has a wider application than was originally assumed.

Question 5

Evidnece doesn’t support disorganised offender - weakness - top down

Answer 5

Canter 2004
Analysed 100 murders in the USA
Examined the murders using 39 characteristics thought to be of organised and disorganised killers
Evidence was found for an organised killer but not a disorganised killer

Question 6

Weakness - classification too simple - top down

Answer 6

What happens if you have a spontaneous killer who has i high IQ a doctor, married with 2 children and the body is left at scene
There are more detailed typological models
Holmes argues there are 4 types of serial killers - visinary, mission, hedonistic and power and control

Question 7

Research support of investigative psychology

Answer 7

Canter 1990
Content analysis of 66 sexual assaults
Several characteristics were identified as commmon in most cases such as use of impersonal language
These characteristics will occur in different patterns in different individuals
Can lead to understanding of how an offenders behaviour may change over a period of time
Or if 2 or more weeks committed by the same person

Question 8

Evidence supporting geographical profiling

Answer 8

Canter 2001
Collected info from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the USA
Location of each body disposal site in different direction from previous
Creating centre of gravity
Offenders base was located in the middle
Effect was more noticeable when the offender travelled short distances

Question 9

Strength - scientific credibility

Answer 9

More obj that top down
Less reliance on hunches or inferences
Combines geographical biological and psychological data - holistic approach

Question 10

Wider application - strength

Answer 10

Applied to wide range of offences
Can use this approach for burglary and theft as well as murders and rapes

Question 11

Weakness - mixed results for profliling

Answer 11

Caposon 1995
Surveyed 48 police forces
Found that the advice provided by the profiler was judged useful in 83% of the cases
But in only 3% did it lead to accurate identification of the offender

Question 12

Weakness - insufficient geographical info

Answer 12

Successes of GP reliant on quality of the data the police is able to provide
Recording of crimes is not always accurate
- 75% of crimes aren’t even reported to the police
Just using gp on its own may not lead to capturing the offender

Question 13

Similarities between between the top down and bottom up

Answer 13

Both used to narrow field of suspects
They both assume there is a pattern to offenders behaviour which may not always be the case
Both have captured the publics imagination