Offender Profiling: Top-Down

Question 1

Offender Profiling

Answer 1

1) The main aim of offender profiling is to narrow the list of likely suspects.
2) Professional profilers are employed to work alongside the police especially in high-profile murder cases.
3) The scene and other evidence are analysed to generate hypotheses about the probable characteristics of the offender (e.g. age, background, occupation, etc.).

Question 2

Top-Down Approach

Answer 2

1) The FBI interviewed 36 sexually-motivated murderers and used this data with characteristics of their crimes, to create two categories (organised and disorganised).
2) If the data from a crime scene matched some of the characteristics of one category we could then predict other characteristics that would be likely.

Question 3

Organised

Answer 3

1) Organised offenders are characterised by:
* Plan the crime - victim is deliberately targeted and the killer/rapist may have a ‘type of victim’.
* High degree of control during the crime and little evidence left behind at the scene.
* Above-average IQ - in a professional job.
* Usually married and may even have children.

Question 4

Disorganised

Answer 4

1) Disorganised offenders are characterised by:
* No planning - spontaneous attack.
* Below-average IQ - may be in unskilled work or unemployed.
* Socially and sexually incompetent - A history of failed relationships and living alone, possible history of sexual dysfunction.

Question 5

FBI Profile Construction

Answer 5

There are four main stages in the construction of an FBI profile:

1. Data assimilation - review of the evidence (photographs, pathology reports, etc.).
2. Crime scene classification - organised or disorganised.
3. Crime reconstruction - generation of hypotheses about the behaviour and events.
4. Profile generation - generation of hypotheses about the offender (e.g. background, physical characteristics, etc.).

Question 6

Strength of of Approach

Answer 6

CAN BE ADAPTED TO OTHER CRIMES

1) Meketa (2017) reports that top-down profiling has recently been applied to burglary, leading to an 85% rise in solved cases in three US states.

2) The detection method adds two new categories - interpersonal (offender
knows their victim, steals something of significance) and opportunistic (inexperienced young offender).

–> This suggests that top-down profiling has wider application than was originally assumed.

Question 7

Limitation of Approach

Answer 7

EVIDENCE IS FLAWED

1) Canter et al. (2004) argues that the FBI agents did not select a random or large sample, nor did it include different kinds of offender.

2) There was no standard set of questions so each interview was different and therefore not really comparable.

–> This suggests that top-down profiling
does not have a sound, scientific basis.