Paper 3: Forensic psychology Flashcards
Offender profiling
Aims to narrow the list of suspects?
- Main aim of offender profiling is to narrow the list of likely suspects.
- Professional profilers employed to work alongside the police especially in high-profile murder cases.
- Scene and evidence analysed to generate hypotheses about probable characteristics of offender.
Top-down approach
FBI data?
- FBI interviewed 36 sexually-motivated murderers and used data, together with characteristics of crimes to create two categories: organised and disorganised.
- If data crime scene matched some of characteristics one category could predict other likely characteristics.
Offender types based on ‘ways of working’?
- Organised and disorganised distinction is based on idea that offenders have certain signature ‘ways of working’.
- Generally correlate with particular set of social and psychological characteristics that relate to the individual.
Organised?
Targets victim, controlled, higher IQ
- Evidence of planning crime e.g. targeted or ‘type’ of victim
- High degree of control during crime and little evidence
- Usually married and may have children
Disorganised?
Impulsive, lower IQ
- Little evidence of planning i.e. event may be spontaneous
- Crime reflects impulsive nature e.g. body still at scene
- Below average IG, may be in unskilled work
- History of failed relationships, sexual dysfunction
Four stage of FBI profile construction?
- Data assimilation - review of evidence
- Crime scene classification - organised/disorganised
- Crime reconstruction - generation of hypotheses about behaviour and events
- Profile generation - generation of hypotheses about offender.
(AO3)
Research support for top down organised?
P - Study looked at 100 US serial killings. Smallest space analysis used asses co-occurence of 39 aspects.
E/E - Analysis revealed subset of behaviours many serial killings match FBI typology for organised offenders.
L - Suggests key component of FBI typology approach has some validity.
Counter: some argue most killers have multiple contrasting characteristics and don’t fit into one ‘type’.
(AO3)
Top down approach adapted to other crimes?
P - reports top-down recently been applied to burglary leading to an 85% rise in solved cases in three US states.
E/E- Detection method adds two new categories. Interpersonal and opportunistic.
L - Suggests top-down profiling wider application than originally assumed.
(AO3)
Top-down evidence flawed?
P - some argue FBI agents did not select a random or even large sample, nor did it include different kinds of of offender.
E/E- No standard set of questions so each interview was different and not comparable.
L - Suggests top-down not have sound scientific basis.
Investigative psychology:
Bottom up approach.
Offender profile emerges based on data?
- Unlike US, British model does not begin with fixed typologies. Profile ‘data-driven’ and emerges as investigator looks at details of offence.
- Aim is to generate pic. of offenders characteristics, routines and background.
Investigative psychology:
Statistical analysis of crime scene evidence?
- Statistical procedures dated patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur across crimes.
- Done to develop statistical ‘database’ which acts baseline for comparison.
- Features of offence can be matched against this database suggest potential details about offender.
Investigative psychology:
Analysis based on psychological concepts e.g. interpersonal coherence?
- central concept is interpersonal coherence, way an offender behaves at scene may reflect their behaviour in everyday situations.
- Might tell police something about how offender relates to women more generally.
Geographical profiling:
Inferences about the offender based on location?
- location of crime scenes used to infer the likely home or operational base of an offender = crime mapping
- Serial offenders restrict ‘work’ to areas they are familiar with (spatial consistency). Location also be used alongside psychological theory to create hypotheses about offender and their modus operandi.
Geographical profiling:
Marauder and commuter types of offender?
- The marauder - operates close to their home base
2. The commuter - likely to have travelled a distance away from their usual residence when committing a crime.
Geographical profiling:
Circle theory uses offending locations?
- pattern of offending locations likely to form a circle around offenders usual residence.
- Offenders spatial decision, making can provide insight into the nature of the offence.
