Offender profiling: top down approach

Question 1

AO1: what is it?

Answer 1

• an American approach
• developed by FBI
• use a typology (classification system)
• 2 types of offenders: organised & disorganised
• use behavioural evidence to decide type
• knowing offenders type allows us to predict other things about them

Question 2

AO1: how it works

Answer 2

• gather data from crime scene and identify characteristics
• offender categorised as organised or disorganised
• hypothesis made about what happened at the crime
• profile of offender made

Question 3

AO1: organised characteristics

Answer 3

• weapon bought to scene
• evidence removed
• had control of the victim
• unkown to victim
• socially and sexually competent
• normal to high intelligence
• angry/depressed

Question 4

AO1: disorganised characteristics

Answer 4

• weapon improvised
• evidence left at scene
• little control of victim
• known to victim
• socially and sexually inept
• low intelligence
• severely mentally ill

Question 5

AO3: limitation- only applies to certain types of crimes

however, recently has been shown to work for burglary

Answer 5

P: top down only applies to certain types of crimes
E: best suited to crime scenes which reveal a lot about offender
E: e.g. rape, arson and serial killing
L: means the top down approach is limited to its use, for crimes like burglary there is very little revealed about offender.
HOWEVER, been shown recently that top down profiling has been applied to burglary, leading to an 85% rise in solved cases

Question 6

AO3: limitation- approach was developed using biased sample

however, useful for male serial killers

Answer 6

P: approach was developed using a biased sample
E/E: sample of 36 American male serial killers, using self report methods
L: low population validity so cant be generalised to target population
HOWEVER, still very useful for the applying it to male serial killers

Question 7

AO3: limitation- based on outdated models of personality

Answer 7

P: based on outdated models of personality
E: system is based on assumption that offenders have patterns of behaviour that are consistent
E: this does not take account for external factors
L: top down approach is low in validity due to use of inaccurate models

Question 8

AO3: limitation- classifications are too simplistic

Answer 8

P: classifications are too simplistic
E: Holmes suggests there are four types of serial killers and another researcher questioned how someone with high intelligence who commits an unplanned murder would be classified
E: a criminal may not fit into one of the two types
L: question’s the validity of the top down approach