Approaches to Profiling

Approaches to Profiling

1. The US (top-down) approach

   • modern offender profiling began with the FBI in the US in the '70s
   • Behavioural Science Unit began researching family backgrounds, personalities, behaviours, crimes and motives of serial killers with sexual aspects to their crimes
     • included in-depth interviews with 36 convicted murderers
       • however, not a representative sample; murderers are manipulative, so unrelieable
   • FBI developed a classification system for several serious crimes, including murder and rape
     • each 'type' of criminal displayed a different set of characteristics
       • however, Canter (2004) found no such distinct subsets of characteristics
     • classification was based on offenders who had been caught, who may differ from those who are still at large
   • crime scene analysis
     • analysis of the crime scene indicates the type of offender so the classification can be used to determine the characteristics they might have
       • limited to crimes which leave significant evidence and are multiple offences such as serial murder, rape and arson
   • A top-down approach
     • crime reconstruction and profile generation are driven from 'above' by the crime scene classification
   • far from guarantees a conviction
     • however, Douglas (1981) reviewed the costs and benefits of profiling; profiling rarely led directly to the offender (15 / 192 cases) but in 77% it helped to focus the investigation

2. The British (bottom-up) approach

   • Canter argues that people behave consistently; their criminal behaviour reflects their normal behaviour
     • EG. a rapist who shows controlling / abusive behaviour towards his victims will show this traits to people in general
   • the victim group can be used to reveal something about the criminal
     • EG. Ten Bundy killed +30 students, whilst he was a student
   • behaviour that is uncommon can suggest that a number of crimes might have been committed by the same person
     • EG. apologising after a rape
   • Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) - based on data from many incidents; can identify the most useful crime scene evidence
     • Santilla (2003) found consistent patterns among juvenile fire-setters
   • "bottom-up" because the emphasis is on piecing together a profile from the crime scene info
   • Britton (1992) - profiles were neither accurate, nor contributed to arrests
     • however, Copson (1995) found that more than half of police officers felt it provides something extra, an 80% said the info used was useful
       • however, he also found that 14% said that it had assisted in solving a case, and 3% said it resulted in the identification of a suspect
   • British approach assumes that criminals with similar characteristics would show similar crime scene behaviour
     • however, Mokros & Alison (2002) found no significant correlations between characteristics such as age / previous convictions
       • however, they did find important variables such as the time of day