Flashcards
Forensics: Top Down Approach
Cards in this deck (13)
- 1What is Offender Profiling?Behavioural and analytical tool employed by the police when solving crimes. Helps investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminals
- 2Aim of Offender ProfilingNarrow the field of enquiry and the list of likely suspects. Involves careful scrutiny of the crime scene and analysis of witness reports in order to generate hypotheses about the probable characteristics of the offender
- 3Top Down Approach DefinitionProfilers start with a pre established typology and work down in order to assign the offenders to one of the two categories based on evidence
- 4Where did it originate from?US. FBI Behavioural Science Unit drew upon data gathered from in depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers like Ted Bundy. Match what is known about the crime to a pre established template that the FBI had developed.
- 5What is the organised and disorganised distinction based on?The idea that serious offenders have certain signature ways of working and these correlate with a particular set of social and psychological characteristics that relate to the individual
- 6Organised Offender-Offender who shows evidence of planning
-Victim is deliberately targeted
Has a type
-Little evidence left behind at scene
-Above average intelligence
-Socially and sexually competent
-Maintain a high degree of control during crime
-Could be married and have a good job - 7Disorganised Offender-Show little evidence of planning meaning spontaneous act
-Body is usually left at scene
-Lower than average IQ
-Unskilled or unemployed
-History of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships
-Live alone and often lives near the crime scene
-Low degree of control during crime - 8Stages of Constructing an FBI Profile-Data assimilation: profile reviews evidence like crime scene photos and pathology reports
-Crime scene classification: either organised or disorganised
-Crime reconstruction: hypotheses in terms of sequences of events, behaviour of victim
-Profile regeneration: hypotheses related to likely offender i.e. demographic background, physical characteristics - 9Weakness: Only applies to particular crimesThis profiling is only suitable to crime scenes that reveal important details about the suspect like rape and arson. Common offences like burglary and destruction of property aren't suited to this profiling as resulting crime scene reveals little about offender. Means it is a limited approach to identifying a criminal
- 10Weakness: Based on outdated models of personalityBased on assumption that offenders have patterns of behaviours and motivations that remain consistent across situations and contexts. Approach is seen as naive and is informed by old fashioned models of personality that see behaviour as being driven by stable dispositional traits rather than external factors that may be constantly changing. Poor validity when it comes to identifying possible suspects and predicting their next move.
- 11Weakness: Evidence does not support disorganised offenderCanter et al used smallest space analysis to analyse data from 100 murders in the US. Details of each case were examined with reference to 39 characteristics thought to be typical disorganised and organised killers. Findings did suggest a distinct organised type however it didn't for disorganised which seems to undermine the classification system as a whole.
- 12Weakness: Classification is too simplisticBehaviours that describe organised and disorganised aren't mutually exclusive i.e. a variety of combinations can occur in any crime scene. Godwin asked police investigators how they would classify a socially and sexually competent individual doing a spontaneous act. This has prompted other researchers to propose more detailed typology models. Holmes suggests 4 serial killer types and other researchers focused on the different motivations rather than types.
- 13Weakness: Original SampleOriginal sample with 36 killers where 25 were serial killers and 11 were single or double murderers. Too small and unrepresentative of a sample upon which to base a typology system that may have significant influence on the nature of the police investigation. Also argued that it isn't sensible to rely on self report data with killers when constructing a classification system
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- A level Forensics Flashcards on Forensics: Top Down Approach, created by Christolin Calistas on 09/02/2022.
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- Christolin Calistas · Feb 2022
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- Feb 10, 2022
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