offender profiling: bottom up approach

Question 1

AO1: investigative psychology

Answer 1

• aim is to establish patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur across crime scenes
• the database acts as a baseline for comparison
• interpersonal coherence is is the way the offender behaves at the crime scene
• key variables: significance of time and place, forensic awareness

Question 2

AO1: geograpahic profiling

Answer 2

• uses info about the location of linked crimes scenes to make inferences about likely home or operation base of offender
• crime mapping: based of theory of spatial consistency. Can be used in conjunction with investigative psychology to create hypothesis
• assumes serial offenders will restrict their work to areas they are familiar with
• canters circle theory: pattern of offending forms circle around offenders home base
• the marauder: operates in close proximity to home base
• the commuter: likely to have travelled a distance

Question 3

AO3: investigative psychology: strength- evidence from meta analysis

however, data base doesn’t show all crimes

Answer 3

P: evidence for investigative psychology from meta analysis
E: used small space analysis, found that several behaviours identified as common in different crimes
E: this helps establish whether two or more offences were committed by the same person
L: shows that investigative psychology is useful
HOWEVER, data base only shows crimes that have links between them. So new criminals or criminals the have not been found will not be in the data base

Question 4

AO3: geographical profiling: strength- evidence from Canter

however, low pop validity

Answer 4

P: evidence from Canter
E: they collected info from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the US
E: small space analysis reveals spatial consistency in the behaviour of the killers. Creates circle around killers home base/operation base
L: shows evidence for geographical profiling
HOWEVER, they only looked at serial killer and ones in the US, this means it is culturally bias and the finding can’t be generalised to target population.

Question 5

AO3: strength- more scientific than top down

Answer 5

P: more scientific than top down
E: it is more grounded in evidence and psychological theory, less driven by speculation.
E: with aid of AI, investigators are able to manipulate geographical data quickly to produce insights that assist the investigation

Question 6

AO3: limitation- profile may be wrong

Answer 6

P: profile may be wrong
E: rachel nickels case, the real murderer was ruled out at an early stage due to being several inches taller than the profile.
E: lead to main suspect being harmed as he got in a relationship with an undercover police woman