The Top Down Approach^

Question 1

Steps

Answer 1

categories of other crimes
reviewing characteristics of current crime
decide category it fits it
other characteristics in predetermined category
can they be applied?

Question 2

Offender Profilling

Answer 2

beh and analytic tool
intended to help police predict and profile the char of unknown criminals
help create a list of suspect
involves examining crime scene, evidence to get a hypothesis about the offender

Question 3

The Top Down Approach

Answer 3

american
qualitative: look at overall pic and using categories
based on police exp and case studies
suitable for extreme crimes

Question 4

Qualitative AO3

Answer 4

can’t view trends
unlikely to have a large crime sample due to time compulsion
less scientific and reliable

Question 5

Police Experience A03

Answer 5

open to bias
subjective: not all officers will encounter the same crimes or report the same

Question 6

Creation

Answer 6

interview 36 sexually motivated murders
data can be categories into organised or disorganised
each category had certain char
if future crime matched some char then the police can judge other probable char to find criminal

Question 7

(Dis)Organised

Answer 7

criminals have signature way to work that correlate to char

Question 8

Organised

Answer 8

ordered life and kills after life event
actions are planned (weapon)
average to high smarts
employed

Question 9

Disorganised

Answer 9

crime of passion
no planning and likely to leave evidence
less socially competent and unemployed

Question 10

FBI Profiling

Answer 10

Data Assimilation - review evidence
Crime Scene Classification - organised or disorganised
Crime Reconstruction - make hypothesis
Profile Generation - hypothesis linked to suspect

Question 11

Research Support

Answer 11

support for organised category
Canter et al
- analysed murders by 100 murderers
- compared 39 aspects of the kills
proved there are features of kills that matched the categories of organised offender
key component of FBI’s typology has validity

Question 12

VS Research Support

Answer 12

case studies suggest that org and disorg are not exclusive
Godwin
- hard to classify killers
- have multiple diff char
typologies are more likely to be on continuum
classification system may not be valid and should be revised

Question 13

Wider Application

Answer 13

can be generalised to other crimes
Meketa
- used it in burglary
- led to 85% increase in solved crimes in US
2 other categories (interpersonal & Opportunistic) has been applied to approach
- made it more complete method of OP

Question 14

Flawed Evidence

Answer 14

based on evidence from criminals
developed by interviewing 36 sexually motivated murderers
criminals can lie and manipulate the police
approach can only be applied to small range of crimes
lacks credibility

Question 15

Personality

Answer 15

wrong to assume evidence left can tell how offender behaves every day
Mischel
- beh is more situational
approach not useful to catch criminals as everyday beh differs to offending beh
approach is unreliable