Top Down approach to offender profiling Flashcards
What is offender profiling
Behavioural/analytical tool used to identify offenders based on available evidence and analysis of crime scene which is used to create a description of the offender
What is the top down approach
Offender profiles match known crimes/offender to pre existing template created by FBI
Templates created through interviews of 36 murderers and 26 killers e.g. Ted Bundy
Police officers use intuition/templates and evidence analysis
Useful for extreme crimes e.g. rape
Created in the US
Why is it called Top Down
Starts with big picture and fills in missing small details
Relies on previous experiences(templates)
Data gathered at crime scene used to identify offender characteristics
Offender is categorised as organised or disorganised
What are the 4 stages of the top down approach
Data assimilation
Crime scene classification
Crime reconstruction
Profile generation
What is data assimilation
Profilers review the evidence
What is crime scene classification
Crime scene/available evidence analysed to categorise criminals into
Disorganised - Criminal is more likely to not plan the crime, low IQ, leave the body at scene, leave clues behind, socially awkward, target people at random, lack of planning
Organised - Plans crime in advance, High IQ, little/no clues left behind, high control over crime, socially competent, usually married.
What is crime reconstruction
Hypothesis created in terms of sequence of events and behaviour of victims/offender
What is profile generation
Hypothesis are generated based on the likely offender e.g. physical characteristics, personality.
Evaluate the top down approach
Evidence to support - 82% of officers found it useful/90% would use again(counter - 1 state out of 50+)
Flawed methodology - Templates based on dangerous murderers with characteristics e.g. very high IQ
Doesn’t work for all crimes - Common offences do not work with approach
Reductionist - Organised or disorganised
