offender profiling - top down approach

Question 1

top down approach

Answer 1

• employed by police to investigate crimes
• aim is to narrow field of enquiry
• usually work among police in high profile cases
• usually involve scrutiny of crime scene to gather information about offender e.g age gender etc

Question 2

american approach

Answer 2

originated in USA as a result of FBI behavioral science unit which drew on data gathered by 36 sexually motivated serial killers

Question 3

what do they do in the ‘topology appoach’

Answer 3

profilers match what is known about the crime and the pre-existing template that the FBI develop. they are classified as either organised and disorganised

Question 4

what is the top down approach also known as?

Answer 4

the topology approach

Question 5

organised offenders

Answer 5

• show evidence of having planned the crime in advance
• victim is targeted
• maintain a level of control
• little evidence or clue left behind

Question 6

disorganised offenders

Answer 6

• show little planning which suggests their crimes are spontaneous
• crime scene reflects the impulsive nature of attack
• lower than average iq
• live close to crime scene

Question 7

the case of ted bundy

Answer 7

• serial killer from USA

- raped over 30 women across 7 states

Question 8

evaluation - only applies o particular crimes

Answer 8

it is suited to crime scenes that reveal important details about the suspect e.g rape
offences such as burglary dont really work as little is discovered about the offender at the crime scene

Question 9

based on outdated models of personality

Answer 9

• based on the assumption that offenders have patterns of behaviour that remain consistent among contexts
• several critics has said the approach is nieve as based on outdated models of personality
• poor validity as based on static models of personality

Question 10

canter et al - evidence does not support disorganised offender

Answer 10

small space analysis of 100 murders

• each case was examined for characteristics thought to be typical of 2 types of offenders.
• findings suggested organised type but not disorganised

Question 11

classification is too simplistic

Answer 11

the behaviours that describe the two types are not mutually exclusive as a number of different combinations could occur at each scene

Question 12

original sample

Answer 12

of 36 sample 25 were serial killers - too small and unrepresentative as a sample upon which to base a system