The typology Approach

Indicated a broad distinction between Organised and disorganised offenders
Based on inteviews and case details of 36 sex offenders who volunteered to be interviewed about their crimes
It involves: collecting data from police records and crime scene, classifying the crime scene as organised/disorganised, looking into the victim behaviour to create a hypothesis and creating a profile or the likely criminal
Organised offenders:
1. Hide the body
2. Planned the attack
3. Unknown victim
4. Use of restraints
5. High intelligence
6. Sexually competent - live with partner
7. Experiencing anger/depression at time of attack
Disorganised offender:
1. Leave evidence and body in sight
2. Victim known
3. Sexually incompetent
4. Not planned
5. Live alone
6. severe mental illness
Canter et al - evidene against the typology approach
Although the organised/disorganised distinction is widely cited - validity not been established
Interviews conducted to establish the two types were limited sample
Distinction is an oversimplification and the addition of a third category questions the notion of only two types of offender
Other classification systems-
1. Jenkins (1988) - suggested the respectable and predictable type categories of murder
2. Holmes and de Burges- suggested 6 types that could be defined according to the 14 characteristics

Resource summary

	Created by issiscott12 almost 9 years ago