Forensics L1-2

Question 1

What is offender profiling?

Answer 1

• tool used by the police to narrow down the list of likely suspects for a crime or crimes
• based on the idea that characteristics of offender can be deduced from details of offence and crime scene

Question 2

What do profiling methods usually involve?

Answer 2

• can vary but usually involve common things
• careful scrutiny of crime scene
• analysis of evidence, including witness reports
• allows generation of hypothesis about probable characteristics of the offender
• like age, background and occupation

Question 3

What is the top down approach to profiling?

Answer 3

• templates of organised offender and disorganised offender are pre-existing in mind of profiler
• evidence from crime scene and other details of crime/victim/context then used
• fit the offender into either of the two pre-existing categories

Question 4

What is meant by organised offenders, TD?

Answer 4

• show evidence of having planned the crime in advance
• victim is deliberately targeted as killer or rapist has preference for a certain victim
• offender maintains high level of control during crime
• little evidence left behind at crime scene
• offenders tend to be of above average intelligence
• in a skilled, professional occupation
• and socially and sexually competent
• often married with children

Question 5

What is meant by disorganised offenders, TD?

Answer 5

• offenders show little evidence of planning
• suggesting offence maybe spontaneous
• crime scene tends to reflect impulsive nature of attack
• body usually left at scene and appears to have been very little control on part of the offender
• offender tends to be of lower than average intelligence
• in unskilled work or unemployed
• often have history of sexual dysfunction or failed relationships
• tend to live alone and often relatively close to where the offence took place

Question 6

Top down profiling, -ve (has no+ve)?

Answer 6

• only applies to certain crimes like rape and murder
• does not work well with common offences like theft
• as crime scene reveals very little about the offender
  = organised or disorganised distinction developed based on interviews with 36 serial killers in the USA
  = critics pointed out that this is too small + unrepresentative a sample to base a typology system on
• developed based on interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers, including Ted Bundy and Charles Manson
• Canter (2004) argued not valid to rely on self-report data from convicted serial killers when constructing a classification system
  = organised or disorganised distinction overly simplistic
  = Holmes (1989) suggests four types of serial killer; visionary serial killer (kill because God/devil telling them), mission serial killer (to eradicate a group of people seen as undesirable), hedonistic serial killer (for the thrill) and power serial killer (to have control over victims)
• Canter et al. (2004) analysed data from 100 murders in USA with reference to the supposed typical characteristics of organised and disorganised killers
• findings did suggest evidence of a distinct organised type
• but not the case for disorganised type which undermines the entire classification system

Question 7

What is the bottom up approach to profiling?

Answer 7

• developed in the UK
• aim is to generate a picture of offender
• including likely characteristics, routine behaviour, and social background
• achieved through systematic analysis of evidence left at the crime scene

Question 8

How does the bottom up differ from the top down approach?

Answer 8

• bottom up does not begin with fixed typologies like top down
• instead profile is data-driven and emerges as the profiler engages in rigorous scrutiny of the details of the offence
• bottom-up profiling far more grounded in psychological theory than the top-down approach

Question 9

What is the aim of investigative psychology, BU?

Answer 9

• to establish a statistical database of behaviours which occur at crime scene and characteristics of offenders who carry out these behaviours
• specific details of offence can then be matched against this database to reveal statistically probable details about the offender
• like their personal history, family background etc
• can also help determine whether multiple offences are linked and likely to have been committed by same individual

Question 10

What is interpersonal coherence, IP BU?

Answer 10

• central to investigative psychology is concept of interpersonal coherence
• suggests the way the offender behaves at the crime scene is similar to how they behave in their everyday life
• e.g. whilst some rapists want to control and humiliate their victim, others can be apologetic
• might tell the police how the offender relates to women more generally

Question 11

What is the significance of time and place, IP BU?

Answer 11

• key variable
• details of time crime occurred and place it occurred in
• may indicate where the offender is based
• like where they live and work
• or their mode of travel
• like train or car

Question 12

What is forensic awareness, IP BU?

Answer 12

• describes individuals who have made an attempt to ‘cover their tracks’
• behaviour may indicate they have been the subject of police interrogation in the past
• or even that the police already have their DNA or fingerprints on file

Question 13

What is geographical profiling, BU?

Answer 13

• study of spatial behaviour in relation to crime and offenders
• focuses on location of crime as clue to where offender lives, works and socialises
• relevant data includes the crime scene, local crime statistics, local transport, and geographical spread of similar crimes
• assumption is that a serious offender will restrict their criminal activities to familiar area
• so offender’s base will be in the middle of spatial pattern of crime scenes
• earlier crimes likely to be closer to offender’s base than later crimes
• as offender becomes more confidence they will often travel further from their comfort zone

Question 14

What are the 2 models of offender behaviour, GP BU?

Answer 14

• Canter + Larkin (1993) propose two models of offender behaviour
  1. the marauder, who operates close to their home
  2. the commuter, who is likely to have travelled a distance away from their home
• spatial pattern of their crime scenes will still form a circle around their home
• this becomes more apparent the more offences that are committed

Question 15

What things can the spatial pattern of a crime tell the police, GP BU?

Answer 15

• whereabouts of offenders base
• whether the crime was planned or opportunistic
• mode of transport
• employment status
• approximate age

Question 16

Bottom up profiling, +ve?

Answer 16

• Canter argues bottom-up more scientific than top-down
• as it is more grounded in evidence and psychological theory
• and less driven by speculation and hunches than top-down
  = can be applied to a wide variety of offences like theft as well as murder and rape unlike top down

Question 17

Bottom up profiling, -ve?

Answer 17

• have been some significant failures when using bottom-up profiling
• in 1992, 21 year old Rachel Nickell stabbed 47 times and sexually assaulted in frenzied attack on Wimbledon Common
• in 2008, following examination of forensic evidence, Robert Napper was convicted of the murder
• he had been ruled out early on in the initial investigation because several inches taller than profile had claimed the offender would be
  = Copson (1995) surveyed 48 police forces
  = found that the advice provided by a profiler was judged to be useful in 83% of cases
  = but in only 3% of cases did it lead to the accurate identification of the offender
• Kocsis et al. (2002) found chemistry students produced more accurate offender profile than experienced senior detectives
• implies that the bottom-up approach is little more than common sense and guess work