Offender profiling: Bottom Up Approach Flashcards
Where did the bottom up approach originate?
Britain
What is the aim of the bottom up approach?
To generate a picture of the offender, including their likely characteristics, routine behaviour and social background
What does the bottom up approach not rely on, unlike the typology approach?
Fixed typologies
Typology approach relies on them and intuition of the profilers
What is bottom up approach grounded in?
Psychological theory
More so than the top down approach
What is investigative psychology?
An attempt to apply psychological procedures alongside psychological theory to the analysis of the crime scene
What is the aim of investigative psychology?
Establish patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur across crime scenes
What is developed during investigative psychology? What is the use of this?
Statistical database which is used as a baseline comparison
What are examples of specific details of an offence which are matched to the database?
history
background
What is interpersonal coherence?
The way the offender acts at the scene, including the interaction with the victim and may reflect their behaviour in everyday interactions
What did Canter and Heritage (1990) find?
Conducted a content analysis of 66 sexual assault cases, data analysed using smallest space analysis
Common characteristics were identified such as impersonal language and lack of reaction
Patterns occur differently in different people
Lead to an understanding of how an offenders behaviour may change over a series of offences by the same person
What is smallest space analysis?
Computer programme which identifies trends correlations in patterns of behaviour
Who came up with geographical profiling?
Rossmo (1997)
What is geographical profiling?
It is to do with the locations of linked crimes to make inferences about the likely home or operational base of the offender - known as crime mapping
What is the assumptions of geographical profiling?
That serial killers will restrict their work to geographical areas they are familiar with and so understanding the spatial pattern of their behaviour provides investigators with a centre of gravity, likely to include the offenders base
What does geographical profiling allow offender profilers to do?
Make educated guesses about whether the offender is likely to strike next, this is called the jeopardy surface
What are the two types offender behaviour according to Canter?
Marauder - Operates close proximity to their own home
Commuter - Travelled from their house
What is a pattern or behaviour likely to create?
A circle around their usual residence
What did Lundigran and canter (2001) find?
Collated information from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the USA.
SSA revealed spatial consistency in the behaviour of killers
The offenders base was invariably located in the centre of the pattern
Effect was more noticeable in those who travelled short distances
How does the bottom up approach compare to top down in terms of it’s scientific basis?
The bottom up approach is more grounded in evidence and psychological theory than the top down approach
Use of computer programmes and artificial intelligence investigators are more able to manipulate biological, psychological and geographical data
What about wider application for bottom up approach?
It can be used for less serious offences unlike the top down approach
What did Copson (1995) find?
Surveyed 48 police forces and found that the advice provided by the profiler was judged to be useful in 83% of cases but in 3% to lead to accurate identification of the offender.
What did Kocsis (2002) find?
That chemistry students created a more accurate profile for a solved case than senior detectives
