Offender Profiling: Bottom Up Approach Flashcards
What aspects of psychology are used in bottom up approach?
Investigative psychology
Geographical profiling
How does bottom up profiling work?
The profiler makes no initial assumptions about the perpetrator until a statistical analysis of the data from the crime scene has been compared to a database of similar crimes. It is called bottom up because a profile of the offender is built from the data rather than imposed by the investigator at the outset.
What is bottom up profiling?
A cognitive social approach as it analyses the interactions between the perpetrator and others in order to understand their behaviour. The profiler then applies th theories of human behaviour to the evidence that has emerged.
What are the five key ideas in investigative psychology?
Forensic awareness Time and place Criminal career Interpersonal coherence Criminal characteristics
What is the idea of forensic awareness in investigative psychology?
If they leave little or no physical evidence then they may have committed a crime before and been through the system.
What is the idea of time and place in investigative psychology?
Useful for understanding the lifestyle of the criminal, for example, where they live/work.
What is the idea of criminal career in investigative psychology?
Looks at how experienced they are and what they might do next
What is interpersonal coherence in investigative psychology?
Assumes that the behaviour shown in committing the crime is behaviour that they would show in their normal lives
What is the idea of criminal characteristics in investigative psychology?
Help police by putting offenders into a category
Who developed geographical profiling?
Canter (2008)
What is geographical profiling?
Analyses the time and place in which the crime took place. It uses geographical information to find a crime pattern: where the offender originally encountered the victim, attacked them and in a murder case disposed of the body. It looks at the pattern of locations and leads to a decision about whether the perpetrator is a commuter (travelling to a different area to commit a crime) or a marauder (setting out from a base central to the crime location)
finish the evaluation: real life application
Canter’s 1986 profile of the ‘Railway Rapist’ using the bottom up approach directly led to the capture and conviction in 1988 of John Duffy. Canter gave 17 suggested characteristics of the criminal and 12 were found to be accurate, suggesting the method is high in ecological validity and has a useful application.
finish the evaluation: ungeneralisable
It is not possible to generalise from case studies such as this, and this is only limited evidence that the method works. Therefore the research cannot be deemed as correct as their is very little supporting research.
finish the evaluation: relies on statistical analysis
The bottom up method is based on data it relies on statistical analysis and the use of databases. This makes it objective and scientific, thus increasing the validity of the research.
finish the evaluation: geographical profiling is not limited
It can be effective in investigating property crime, too. This means that the research is extremely useful as it is applicable to various crimes.
