The Bottom up approach Flashcards
who was developed by
David canter, English
what are the 3 main features of his theory
interpersonal coherence
forensic awareness
smallest space analyst
what is interpersonal coherence
when people are consistent with their behaviour so there will be correlations with the elements of the crime.
what is forensic awareness
where certain behaviours my reveal an awareness of particular police techniques and past experiences.
davies et al found rapists who concealed fingerprints often had previous convictions for burglary
what is ‘smallest space analysis’
a statistical technique developed by canter. it is data about many crime scenes. offender characteristics are correlated so that most common connections can be identified
what did salfati and canter do in 1999
analysed the co-occurence of 48 crime scenes and offender characteristics taken from 82 uk murder cases where victim was a stranger.
they identified 3 underlying themes
what were the 3 underlying themes that salfati and canter discovered in their study
instrumental opportunistic- offender taking easy opportunites
instrumental cognitive - concern about being detected, more planned
expressive impulsive - uncontrolled and in the heat of emotions
what is geographical profiling
idea where criminals reveal themselves through where they commit their crimes rather then the crimes they commit - concerned with where rather then who
what is the circle theory
canter and Larkin (1993), suggested a criminals base may be identifiable by looking at spatial distribution of crime scenes. it joins plot points together in a map and that the criminals base would be in the centre of the circle
criminal geographic targeting
computerised system in which there is a 3 dimensional map displaying spatial data related to time, distance and movement to and from crime scenes
why might the bottom up approach. not be as scientific as it claims to be
it uses statistical techniques and computer analysis. this can only be as good as the input of data and the underlying assumption used to work out links between data items. this data is only related to convicted criminals so tells us little about patterns relating to unsolved crimes.
this means in practise it is inevitiably biased
what did copses study in 1995 show
48 police forces surveyed, 75% of officers said its useful but only 3% said it helped identify the offender
- however its important to note police officers Said they would use a profiler again
why is the circle theory very limited
a disadvantage is it can’t distinguish between multiple offences in the same area. its also limited to spatial behaviour
conclusion on the bottom up approach
while an offender profile can be helpful in narrowing down possibilities. it mist be used with great cautions to avoid wrongful convictions
