Offender Profiling: Top Down

Question 1

Define offender profiling

Answer 1

Analytical tool used by investigators to predict charactisics of an unknown criminal

Question 2

Describe the American approach

Answer 2

1. Top down
2. Developed from data gathered from in depth interviews
3. Will match what is known about crime with existing template
4. Murderes and rapists organised into either organised or disorganised on basis of evidence

Question 3

Describe organised offenders

Answer 3

1. Show evidence for having planned crime in advance such as target victim
2. High degree of control during crime so little evidence left behind
3. Intelligent, skilled and of high occupation
4. Usually married and have children

Question 4

Describe disorganised offenders

Answer 4

1. Little evidence of planning so spontaneous
2. Body at scene of crime
3. Low IQ and unskilled/employed
4. Tend to live alone, near crime scene

Question 5

What are the 4 main stages of constructing an FBI profile

Answer 5

1. Data assimilation (review evidence)
2. Crime scene classification (dis/organised)
3. Crime reconstruction (hypothesis of events)
4. Profile generation (what the offender might be like, background, characteristics)

Question 6

Only applies to particular crimes

Answer 6

1. Only crime scenes that reveal lots about suspect such as very niche kinds of killing
2. Common offences reveal little about suspect
3. Very limiting

Question 7

Based on outdated models about personality

Answer 7

1. Typology classification system assumes patterns of behaviour are consistent
2. Based on models of personality that are behaviour being driven by constant dispostional traits rather than fluid external factors
3. Poor validity

Question 8

Evidence against ‘disorganised offender’

Answer 8

1. Analyses data from 100 murders in USA
2. Desalsoed examined with reference to 39 characteristics typical of either orgaisned or disorganised
3. Although organised was a distinct type, disorganised was not

Question 9

Classic classification too simplistic

Answer 9

1. Intelligent killers who are spontaneous?
2. Newer models have 4 types
3. Newer models suggest motivation types rather than character types

Question 10

Methodological issues with development of typology models

Answer 10

1. Developed from 36 killers interviews
2. Too small a sample and nature of police investigation influenced it
3. Not sensible to rely on self-report when making a classification system

Question 11

What are the 5 A03 points

Answer 11

1. Only apples to revealing crimes
2. Based on outdated models of personality
3. Evidence from analysis of 100 crimes suggest disorganised is not valid profile
4. More updated versions better than original models
5. Methodological issues