offender profiling - the top-down approach Flashcards

1
Q

offender profiling

A

investigative tool employed by the police when solving crimes

main aim is to narrow the list of likely suspects

compiling of a profile will usually include careful scrutiny of the crime scene and analysis of the other evidence such as witness reports to generate a hypotheses about the probable characteristics of the offender

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2
Q

american approach

A

originated in the us as a result for work carried out by the FBI in 1970s

specifically in FBIs behavioural science unit

drew upon data gathered from interviews with 36 sexually motivated murders including ted bundy and charles manson

they concluded that the data could be categorised into organised and disorganised crimes

each category had certain characteristics

offender profilers who use the top down approach will collect data about a murder and then decide on the category the data best fits

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3
Q

organised and disorganised types of offender

A

organised and disorganised distinction is based on the idea that serious offenders have certain signature ways of working

these generally correlate with a particular set of social and psychological characteristics that relate to the individual

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4
Q

organised offender

A

show evidence of having a planned crime in advance

victim is deliberately targeted

suggest that the killer has a type of victim they seek out

offender maintains a hugh degree of control during the crime and may operate with almost detached surgical precision

little evidence or clues left behind at the scene

tend to be above average intelligence

in a skilled professional occupation

socially and sexually competent

usually married and even have children

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5
Q

disorganised offender

A

show little evidence of planning

suggests that offences may be spontaneous

crime sece rend to reflect the impulsive nature of the attack

the body is usually still at the scene

there appeared to have been very little control on the part of the offender

tend to have lower than average IQ

unskilled work or unemployed

often have a history of sexual dysfunction

failed relationships

tend to live alone

relatively live close to where the offence took place

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6
Q

constructing an FBI profile

A

4 main stages in the construction

  1. data assimilation - profiler reviewers the evidence
  2. crime scene classification - as either organised or disorganised

3 crime reconstruction = hypotheses in terms of sequence of events behaviour of the victim

  1. profile generation - hypotheses related to the likely offender eg demographic background physical characteristics behaviour
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7
Q

strenght

A

research support

support for a distinct organised category of offender

in order to test the organised-disorganised typology which is central to the top down approach

David Canter - conducted an analysis of 100 US murres each committed by a different serial killer

technique called smallest space analysis - a statistical technique that identifies correlations across different samples of behaviour

in this case the baalysis was used in order to assess the co-occurrence of 39 aspects for he serial killings

included things such as whether there was torture of restaurant or an attempt to conceals the body the form of the murder weapon etc

this analysis revealed that there dfoes seem to be soem features of many serial killing which mateched the FBIs typology for organised offenders

suggest that a key component of the FBI typology approach has soem validity

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8
Q

strength

A

wider application

can be adapted to other kinds of crime such as burglary

critics fo top-down proilimhn have claimed that the technique only applies to limited numbers of crimes such as sexually motivated riders

however Meketa reports that top-down profiling has recently been applied to burglary leading to an 85% rise in solved cases in the three US states

detection method retains the organised and disorganised distinction but also adds two new stergories interpersonal and opportunistic

suggest that the top down approach profiling has wider application than was originally assumed

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9
Q

limitation

A

flaswe evidnece

evidnece on which it is based

as we have seen FBI profiling was developed using interviews with 36 murders in the US

25 of which were serial killers the other 11 being single or double murderes

at the end of the process 24 of these indicidual wer classified as organised offenders suggest that and 12 were disorganised

Canter et al have argued tha the sample was poor the FBI agents did not select a random or even a large sample nor did the sample include different kinds of offender

there was no standard set of questions so each interview was diffent and therefore not really comparable

suggest that tip down profiling does not have a sound scientific basis

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