FP - Profiling

Question 1

what are the 2 types of offender profiling

Answer 1

• top down
• bottom up

Question 2

what is the top down approach

Answer 2

AMERICAN
- based on the analysis of a crime scene, the victim and other evidence the generate a hypothesis
- include information of what the offender is going to look like/act

Question 3

how was the top-down approach developed

Answer 3

the FBI did in-depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated killer
- categorised offenders as disorganised or organised

Question 4

what are the 4 main stages of FBI profiling

Answer 4

• data assimilation -> reviewing the evidence
• crime scene classification -> organised or disorganised
• crime reconstruction -> hypothesis in terms of sequence
• profile generation

Question 5

what are some characteristic of an organised offender

Answer 5

• planned
• victim targeted
• weapon and body absent from scene
• victim is known
• high intelligence
• watch media coverage

Question 6

what are some characteristics of a disorganised offender

Answer 6

• unplanned
• victim not targeted
• weapon and body are present
• low intelligence
• little interest in their crime

Question 7

AO3 TD + support for a distinct organised category of offender

Answer 7

• to test the organised-disorganised typology Canter 2004 analysed 100 US murders that were committed by different serial killers
• smallest space analysis used to assess the co-occurence of 39 aspects of serial killing e.g. torture
• analysis showed there is a large subset of features of many serial killings which matched organised
• improves external validity

Question 8

AO3 TD X studies to show the categories are not mutually exclusive

Answer 8

• Godwin 2002 argues that it is difficult to classify killers as one or the other type
• a killer may have multiple contrasting characteristics e.g. high intelligence but commits spontaneous murders
• argues that the typology should be more of a continuum

Question 9

AO3 TD + can be adopted for other types of crime, not just murder

Answer 9

• Meketa 2017 reports that top-down profiling applied to burglary lead to an 85% rise in solved cases in 3 US states
• the detection methods keeps the 2 categories of distinction but adds 2 new ones: interpersonal and opportunistic
• wider application than just murder

Question 10

AO3 TD X Based of flawed evidence

Answer 10

• FBI profiling was based of 36 interviews with 36 murders in the US - 25 of which were serial killer and the other 11 being single or double murderers
• 24 of these individuals were classified as organised and 12 disorganised
• Canter argued the sample was poor nor did it include different types of offenders
• no set of standardised questions
• does not have a scientific basis

Question 11

top down vs bottom up approach

Answer 11

BU: looks at minor details and develop a hypothesis about the characteristics of the offender
TD: starts with an established typology and assign individuals to these types based on witness accounts and evidence

Question 12

what is the bottom up approach

Answer 12

BRITISH
- does not use fixed typologies
- uses data-driven method and is more grounded

Question 13

what is smallest space analysis

Answer 13

a statistical technique that identifies correlations across different samples of behaviour

Question 14

what are the 2 methods included in bottom up approach

Answer 14

• investigative psych
• geographical profiling

Question 15

what are the 5 features of investigative psych (CCIFS)

Answer 15

• interpersonal coherence
• forensic awareness
• significance of time and place
• criminal career
• criminal characteristics

Question 16

what is interpersonal coherence

Answer 16

• the way the offender behaves at the scene and interacted with the victim

Question 17

what is time and place

Answer 17

the time and location of the crime can communicate something about their own residence

Question 18

what are criminal characteristics

Answer 18

things about the offender can help classify them

Question 19

what is a criminal career

Answer 19

crimes tend to be committed in similar fashion by offender can provide indication of how activity will develop

Question 20

what is forensic awareness

Answer 20

offenders who show an understanding of a police investigation are likely to have had previous encounters with the criminal justice system

Question 21

what is geographical profiling

Answer 21

• where the crime took place
• taking information from the location to make inferences about the home based of the offender is called crime mapping
• creates spatial relationship - COULD LINK TO AN OFFENDER’S PLACE OF RESIDENCE

Question 22

what is the circle theory

Answer 22

Canter and Larkin
- suggest a criminals base could be identified by looking at the spatial distribution of crime scene
- if crimes are similar in nature are plotted on a map, it may be possible to join them together in a circle
- this would be true for a marauder

Question 23

what is a marauder

Answer 23

an offender who operates close to their home base

Question 24

what is a commuter

Answer 24

offenders who travel to another area and may commit crimes within a defined space but their base will not be in the middle

Question 25

what is CGT

Answer 25

- criminal geographic targeting - computer system developed by rossmo - the formula creates a 3D map which displays data related to the time, distance and movement to and from crime scenes - called a jeopardy surface

Question 26

AO3 BU + supporting evidence for investigative psych

Answer 26

- Canter and Heritage 1990 conducted an analysis of 66 sexual assault cases - data examined with smallest space analysis - several behaviours were identified as common - e.g. the use of interpersonal language - each individual displayed a pattern of such behaviours and this can help them establish whether or not 2 or more offences were committed by the same person

Question 27

AO3 BU + supporting evidence for geographical profiling

Answer 27

- Lundrigan and Canter collated information from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the US - smallest space analysis showed spatial consistency in the behaviour of the killers - the location of each body disposal site created a centre of gravity when offenders start from their home, they go to a different location each time to make a circle effect - offenders base was often located in the centre of the pattern

Question 28

AO3 BU X Geographical information may be insufficient alone

Answer 28

- the success of geographical profiling may be reliant of the quality of the data provided - recording of crimes can be inconsistent between police forces - 75% of crimes are not even reported to the police in the first place - questions the utility of an approach that relies on the accuracy of data - even if the information is correct, other factors may be just as important

Question 29

AO3 BU + profiling has a mixed history

Answer 29

- each police force uses it differently - Copson 1995 surveyed 48 police departments and found that advice provided by the profiler was judged to be useful in 83% of cases BUT the same study revealed that in only 3 cases it lead to the identification of the correct offender