OFFENDER PROFILING: TOP DOWN AO1 & AO3 Flashcards
1
Q
offender profiling
A
- also known as ‘criminal profiling’, a behavioural and analytical tool that is intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminals.
2
Q
what is the main aim of top down approach
A
- The main aim of offender profiling is to narrow the field of enquiry and the list of likely suspects.
- Methods vary, but the compiling of a profile will usually involve careful scrutiny of the crime scene and analysis of the evidence in order to generate a hypothesis about the possible characteristics of the offender.
3
Q
Top down approach (FBI DATA)
A
- The top-down approach = profilers start with a pre-established typology and work down in order to assign offenders to one of the two categories based on witness accounts and evidence from the crime scene. (disorganised and organised)
- The top-down approach was established in the 1970s as a result of work carried out by the FBI by their Behavioural Science Unit, who carried out a set of in-depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers, including Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.
4
Q
what are some characteristics of organised offenders
A
- precision
- little evidence left behind (planned crime)
- married/family
- well educated (above average)
5
Q
what are some characterists of disorganised offender
A
- unskilled/unemployed
- tend to live alone (relatively live close to the crime)
- lower than average IQ
- impulsive/unplanned/left clues
6
Q
How do they construct an FBI profile?
A
- Data assimilation - Profiler reviews evidence
- Crime scene classification - Organised vs disorganised
- Crime reconstruction - Hypothesis in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of victim
- Profile generation - Hypothesis related to the likely offender
7
Q
one strength is research support for an organised catageory
A
- canter et al looked at 100 US serial killers. smallest space analysis was used to acess the co-occurrence of 39 suspects of the serial killings.
- analysis revealed a subset of bev of many serial killings which match FBIs typology for organised offenders.
- this suggests that top down approach has some validity
8
Q
counterargument Godwin (2002)
A
argued that, in reality, most killers have mutiple contrasting characteristics and dont fit into one “type”. this suggests that the organised- disorganised typology is probably more of an continium
9
Q
Another strength is that it can be adapted to other types of crime E.G buglarly
A
- Mekata(2017 reports that top-down profling has recently been applied to buglary leading to an 85% rise in solved cases in three US states
- the detection method has added two new catagories- interpersonal (ofender knows victim) and opportunistic
- has wider application than assumed
10
Q
Personality
A
- the top down approach is beased on behavioural in consistencys - that serial offenders have characteristic ways of working so crime scene characteristics help idenitification
- mischel argued that peoples behaviour is much more driven by the situation they are in rather than personality
- this suggests that a profiling based on behavioural consistencys will not lead to correct identification.