offender profiling

Question 1

what idea is offender profiling based upon ?

Answer 1

• based upon the idea that the characteristics of an offender can be deduced from the characteristics of the offense and info from the crime scene

Question 2

what is offender profiling intended to do ?

Answer 2

• the tool is intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of an offender

Question 3

when does the use of offender profiling date back to ?

Answer 3

the use of this may date back as far as jack the ripper (1888)

Question 4

What will the profiler do when offender profiling ?

Answer 4

• study the crime scene
• analyse the evidence
• generate hypotheses about the characteristics of the offender (age, background, occupation)

Question 5

What is the top-down approach described as ?

Answer 5

• it is described as a qualitative approach to offender profiling due to looking at the overall picture and using typologies (categories)

Question 6

what is the top-down approach based upon ?

Answer 6

• based on police experience and case studies rather than psychological theory

Question 7

what is the top-down approach suitable for ?

Answer 7

• it is suitable for the more extreme / unusual crimes such as murder, rape and ritualistic crimes

Question 8

AO3
if its suitable for only extreme crimes, why can this be a limitation ?

Answer 8

• used for only a small percentage of crimes
• so low levels of generalisability

Question 9

How did offender profiling begin ?

Answer 9

• began with the FBI
• when the behavioural science unit began researching the family backgrounds, personalities, crimes and motives of serial killers in the 1970’s

Question 10

What did the FBI do when starting to offender profile ?

Answer 10

• they interviewed imprisoned serial killers
• from the insights they gained and a thorough analysis of the crime details, combined with the intuition of experienced police, they created a classification system for various crimes

Question 11

what were the 2 categories established by the FBI ?

Answer 11

• organised
• disorganised

Question 12

features of an organised crime ?

Answer 12

• well educated criminal
• crime scene is cleared of forensic evidence
• body is moved or hidden
• targeted victim
• intelligent criminal
• crime is planned and controlled
• inconsistent discipline as a child
• older sibling

Question 13

features of a disorganised crime

Answer 13

• random victim
• impulsive crime
• body + weapon left at the crime scene
• socially immature criminal
• poor work history
• lives alone and close to the crime scene
• youngest sibling

Question 14

FBI profiling process

Answer 14

1) data assimilation
2) crime classification
3) crime reconstruction
4) profile generation

Question 15

data assimilation

Answer 15

data compiled from police reports, post mortems, crime scene photos

Question 16

crime classification

Answer 16

decide whether it is organised or disorganised

Question 17

crime reconstruction

Answer 17

hypotheses about crime sequence, offender + victim behaviour

Question 18

profile generation

Answer 18

offender’s physical, demographic and behavioural characteristics are generated

Question 19

AO3
- research evidence
- does not support organised/ disorganised categories

Answer 19

• Canter used info from 100 murders by 100 serial killers in USA to assess the presence of the categories
• found that organised characteristics were typical of most serial killers
• disorganised characteristics were much rarer
• showed that categories have no clear distinction and suggests being organised is a core aspect of all serial killers
• categories not valid

Question 20

AO3 top-down LIMITATION
- only applies to certain types of crime

Answer 20

• issue because most common offences such as burglary and destruction of property do not lend themselves to profiling as the crime reveals too little about the offender
• so limited approach

Question 21

AO3 top-down LIMITATION
- classification is too simplistic

Answer 21

• behaviours that describe each of the types are not mutually exclusive
• a variety of combinations can occur in any given murder scene
  -Grover Godwin asks how police investigators would classify a killer with high intelligence and sexual competence who commits a spontaneous murder in which victims body is left at the crime scene
• prompted other researchers to propose more detailed typological models