Offender Profiling

What is offender profiling?

A tool used by investigators to help predict the characteristics of offenders and narrow down on likely suspects

1 of 20

What are the two types of offender profiling?

Bottom-up and Top-down

2 of 20

Who developed the top-down approach and when?

The FBI with Ressler in the 1970s

3 of 20

How many criminals were used to develop the top-down approach and what type of crime did they commit?

36 offenders of sexually motivated murders

4 of 20

Briefly explain what the top-down approach to offender profiling is?

The typological approach categorises an offender into one of two categories based on evidence and analysis of the crime scene(s)

5 of 20

What are the two types of offender in the top-down approach and their characteristics?

Organised: control attack and victim (sometimes binding them); bring weapon to the crime scene; forensically aware; socially & sexually contempt; clever
Disorganised: chaotic attack; improvise weapon; leave forensic evidence; socially & sexually inept

6 of 20

What are the 4 steps in the process of creating an offender profile using the top-down approach?

Data assimilation: looking at evidence
Crime classification: organised or disorganised
Crime reconstruction: hypothesis of what happened
Profile generation: hypothesis of characteristics

7 of 20

What are the strengths of the top-down approach?

Influential: used and adapted by agencies across the world
Useful: can be applied to other crimes

8 of 20

What are the weaknesses of the top-down approach?

Original research used a small sample: ungeneralisable; invalid and limited practical use
simplistic: only 2 types of offender; doesn't account for a wide range of offenders and crossover of categories
unscientific: applying preconceived ideas and uses as

9 of 20

Who developed the bottom-up approach?

Canter and Britton with the British police

10 of 20

Briefly explain what the bottom-up approach to offender profiling is?

Profiling a criminal using evidence from the crime scene and comparing it to a statistical database

11 of 20

What is investigative psychology?

Identifying behaviours that are likely to exist or coexist across crime scenes

12 of 20

What is the statistical database?

Acts as a baseline comparison for details found at a crime scene

13 of 20

What are the three factors looked at using investigative psychology and how do they help profile an offender?

Interpersonal coherence: The behaviour of an offender at a crime scene may reflect how they behave in their everyday life
Time and place: when and where the crime occurs may suggest where the offender lives and works
Forensic awareness: an offender being

14 of 20

What is geographical profiling?

Using information about the location of the crime scene to infer where the offender is based

15 of 20

Who developed the circle theory and what is it?

Canter: the pattern of offending is likely to form a circle around the offender's base, getting wider as the offender becomes more confident.

16 of 20

What are the 2 models of offender behaviour according to geographical profiling?

Marauder: operates close to their home
Commuter: travels to commit a crime

17 of 20

What are the strengths of the bottom-up approach?

Scientific: based on systematic analysis and statistical techniques; valid
Useful: easily applied to a range of crimes

18 of 20

What are the weaknesses of the bottom-up approach?

Unuseful: Copson found that the police reported only helpful in 3% of cases
Limited data: can create accurate profiles
Generates misleading information: e.g Wimbledon Common murders (arrest of an innocent man)

19 of 20

Which method of offender profiling is commonly used in the USA and which is commonly used in the UK?

USA: top-down
UK: bottom-up

20 of 20

Get Revising

Offender Profiling

Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Back

Card 3

Front

Back

Card 4

Front

Back

Card 5

Front

Back

Comments

Similar Psychology resources: