Behavioural Analysis

Question 1

When was the FBI behavioural science uni established?

Answer 1

1972

Question 2

NCAVC

Answer 2

National centre for the analysis of violent crime

Question 3

VICAP

Answer 3

The violent crime apprehension programme

Question 4

VICLAS

Answer 4

Violent crime linkage analysis system

Question 5

What is offender profiling?

Answer 5

Inferring characteristics of an offender based on their crime scene actions

Question 6

London (1986)

Answer 6

• series of 24 sexual assaults on females committed over a 4 year period
• was close to railway stations

Question 7

Canter

Answer 7

• carried out a systematic analysis of the victim rape statements and locations where the offences had occurred

Question 8

What was included in the preliminary profile? (Residence)

Answer 8

• lived in the area

- possibly lives with wife or girlfriend

Question 9

Age?

Answer 9

• mid to late 20’s
• light hair
• about 5 ft 9
• right handed
• a secretor

Question 10

Occupation

Answer 10

• probably semi-skilled or skilled job

- job not in contact with public

Question 11

Character?

Answer 11

• keeps to himself but has one or two close male friends
• little contact with women
• has knowledge of railway system

Question 12

Sexual activity

Answer 12

• considerable sexual experience

Question 13

Criminal record

Answer 13

• probably under arrest for some time

- possibly for aggressive attack under influence of alcohol

Question 14

How accurate was professor cantors profile?

Answer 14

13/17 points made in the profile were correct

Question 15

Investigative psychology

Answer 15

• the scientific psychological study of offender actions and detection processes
• aims to advance the psychological understanding of offending activity, offenders and the investigative process

Question 16

Weaknesses of early offender profiles?

Answer 16

• no base rates
• multiple outs
• included information that could not be falsified
• provision of vague statements
• bamum effect
• reliance on personal judgement rather than actuarial assessment

Question 17

Barnum effect

Answer 17

The Tendency to accept general or vague characteristics and take them to be accurate

Question 18

Evidence for the effect?

Answer 18

• ppt’s constructed meaning from ambiguity

Question 19

Evidence of confirmation bias?

Answer 19

• ppts selected only parts of the profile that were correct

Question 20

Evidence of demand characteristics?

Answer 20

Ppts did what they thought the researcher wanted them to

Question 21

Alison, Smith, Eastman and rainbow (2003)

Answer 21

• Analysed 21 UK and American profiles
• half of the profiles included advice that was unfalsifiable
• one fifth of statements were vague or open to interpretation
• in 80% of cases profiler had not given any evidence or justification for their opinion

Question 22

Toulmins framework

Answer 22

• breaks the profile down into component parts to enable the strengths and weaknesses of the claims to be analysed
• aids the construction of profiles

Question 23

5 parts?

Answer 23

1. Claim
2. Modality (strength of the claim)
3. Grounds (support for the claim)
4. Warrant
5. Backing (formal support for warrant)

Question 24

BIA

Answer 24

• used to develop advice for the investigators, based on the study of behaviour exhibited in the commission of crime

Question 25

Services?

Answer 25

- interview - media advice - case linkage analysis - predictive profiling - investigative suggestions - familial DNA prioritisation - nominal prioritisation

Question 26

What should their input be viewed as?

Answer 26

- intelligence not evidence | - decision support not decision making

Question 27

Investigative Psychology

Answer 27

- aims to advance the psychological understanding of offending activity, offenders and the investigative process

Question 28

Areas?

Answer 28

1. Understanding and modelling criminal behaviour 2. Improving the investigative process and detection rates 3. Improving investigative interviewing 4. Psychological evaluation of evidential material 5. Risk/threat assessment and reduction

Question 29

The investigative cycle

Answer 29

- Action - decision making - information - types of information, retrieval, evaluation - inference: A-C equation, crime linking, geographical profiling

Question 30

Two key questions IP seek to answer

Answer 30

1) do offenders show consistency in their behaviour 2) how can we distinguish between offenders ? A-C equation is a question of both offender consistency and differentiation

Question 31

Offender consistency hypothesis (canter, 1995)

Answer 31

Behaviours at a crime scene are more typical of an offender committing a crime than other offenders committing similar crimes

Question 32

Why did IP emerge?

Answer 32

- as a scientific discipline in the early 1990’s following canters psychological input to operation Hart

Question 33

When was offender profiling evaluated?

Answer 33

Following the failed investigation into the murder of Rachel nickel

Question 34

Differentiating Offender styles

Answer 34

1. role offender assigns to victim 2. Action systems 3. Narrative perspectives

Question 35

Role offender assigns to victim

Answer 35

- victim as object - v as person - v as vehicle

Question 36

Action systems

Answer 36

Source of action in relation to agent Locus or effect in relation to agent Mode

Question 37

Narrative perspective

Answer 37

Romantic quest Tragedy Adventure Irony

Question 38

Narrative theory of criminal action

Answer 38

- going beyond informed speculation - developing theories and models of criminal actions and experiences - no assumptions made about unconscious motivations - how offender interacts with others - role offender assigns to their own life - role offender assigns to the victim - crime as an interpersonal transaction

Question 39

IP methodology

Answer 39

- focuses on examining offenders actions rather than what they say about them - use of police recorded data - quantitative modelling of qualitative material - co-occurrences of behaviours across crime scenes - uses multi dimensional scaling

Question 40

Canter and Heritage (1990)

Answer 40

- Smallest Space Analysis (SSA)