Offender profiling - Top-down Approach Flashcards
Define offender profiling
An analytical technique used to help investigators accurately predict and profile characteristics of unknown criminals
Who created the top-down approach?
FBI (American)
What does the top-down approach start with?
A general classification of the crime scene into organised or disorganised
What do the profilers do after they classify the crime?
profilers will start to match what is known about the crime to a pre-existing template
define organised offender
An offender who allows
- evidence of planning
- targets the victim
- tends to be socially and sexually competent
- higher intelligence
define disorganised offeneder
An offender who
- shows little evidence of planning
- leaves clues
- tends to be socially and sexually incompetent
- lower intelligence.
What to the profilers do after matching the crime to a pre-existing template?
They can now construct the profile
What does the offender profile consist of?
A hypothesis of the offenders background
Consider how they are likely to react to being investigated
Why is a offender profile useful?
used to work out a strategy of investigation
