offender profiling: top down

Question 1

top down

Answer 1

profiler has experience+can use evidence at crime scene to develop a profile of the likely criminal
-an american approach bc it was used by fbi in 1970s
-also known as crime scene analysis

Question 2

modus operandi

Answer 2

-latin term meaning ‘way of operating’
-its a particular way/method of doing something
-so the usual/habital way of working of a person
-how they commit a crime
-ciminal personality stay consistent=mo remian similar so the scene+signartures will remain constent

Question 3

hazlewood+douglas
(1980)

Answer 3

-made distinction between organised+disorganised in an fbi bulletin on ‘lust murder’

Question 4

organised

Answer 4

-planned
-target victim
-aggressive
-weapon=absent
-high iq
-body hidden/removed
-social competence
-skilled occupation
-watches media coverage

Question 5

disorganised

opposite

Answer 5

-unplanned
-no victim target
-victim=depersonalised+avoids convo
-unplan violence
-weapon=present
-body=visible
-low iq
-socially awkward
-unlikely to have a partner
-poor employement history
-liitle interest in crimes

Question 6

douglas
(1992)

Answer 6

-identified a 3rd offender known as ‘mixed’ in order to classify those who dont easily fit into the 2 categories

Question 7

jackson+bekerian(1997)
stages

Answer 7

1. data assimilation: collect all evidence
2. crime classification: organise crime into particular type (D/O)
3. crime reconstruction: reconstructing crime in order to develop predictions about motives+behaviour of offender/victim
4. profile generator: develop a profiel based on this info regarding various characterstics, incl physical appearnaces+personality

Question 8

serial killer

Answer 8

3 or more murdered by same person w period of down time w/out killings

Question 9

mass murderer

Answer 9

kills number of people all in 1 location at one time
eg terrorist

Question 10

spree killer

Answer 10

someone whose killed number of people in 1 period of time, usually a day over several locations
eg active shooter

Question 11

key study

canter et al
2004

Answer 11

-aim to test accuracy of dis/organised offenders
-researchers conducted content analysis on 100 cases of serial killers in the US
-used douglas criteria
-they found a significant higher number of DO crimes. further analysis of types of crime didnt clearly seperate organised+disorganised crimes
=suggests OC harder to spot/less committed
-if =easier to spot DO criteria may be insuffecient

Question 12

ao3-limitation

canter et al
2004

lack of theoritical foundation

Answer 12

-its over simplistic to reduce types of criminality to only 2, even tho 3rd was added it wasnt a solution
-suggests TP based on intuition/’hunch’ rather than objective methods
=bias in interpretation of evidence+problem bc it reduces scientific basis of TDP

Question 13

ao3 limitation

only applies to one type of crime

Answer 13

-mainly to rape+violent oness
-primarly applicable to one crime so most offedners concerned r males
=gender bias as it focuses on men criminals so female D/O crimes may have different characterstics