Offender Profiling

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  • Created by: erinjs
  • Created on: 31-05-22 14:16
What is offender profiling?
A tool used by investigators to help predict the characteristics of offenders and narrow down on likely suspects
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What are the two types of offender profiling?
Bottom-up and Top-down
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Who developed the top-down approach and when?
The FBI with Ressler in the 1970s
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Who developed the bottom-up approach?
Canter and Britton with the British police
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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
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What is investigative psychology?
Identifying behaviours that are likely to exist or coexist across crime scenes
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What is the statistical database?
Acts as a baseline comparison for details found at a crime scene
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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
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What is geographical profiling?
Using information about the location of the crime scene to infer where the offender is based
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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.
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What are the 2 models of offender behaviour according to geographical profiling?
Marauder: operates close to their home
Commuter: travels to commit a crime
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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
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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)
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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
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What are the two types of offender profiling?

Back

Bottom-up and Top-down

Card 3

Front

Who developed the top-down approach and when?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

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

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

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

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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