Offender profiling: top-down approach

What is offender profiling?

a behavioural and analytical tool intended to help investigators accurately predict the characteristics of unknown criminals (e.g job? family? old?)

What is the top-down approach?

profilers start with a pre-established typology/classification and work down in order to assign offenders to one of two categories based on witness accounts and evidence from the crime scene. It uses pre-existing theories to categories offenders

Which country primarily uses the top-down approach?

The US

What are the two categories they are classed into?

organised and disorganised

What behaviour towards the victim do organised criminals display?

• victim targeted

• controls conversation (powerful, confident)

What behaviour towards the victim do disorganised display?

• victim selected at random (opportunity)

• crime unplanned (spontaneous)

• avoids conversation

What crime scene details do organised criminals convey?

• weapon absent

• body moved from crime scene

• body hidden from view

• attempts to clean up (forensic awareness)

What crime scene details to disorganised criminals convey?

• weapon present

• sexual activity after death (necrophilia)

• body left in view at crime scene

What are the characteristics of an organised criminal?

• socially competent

• high intelligence

• sexually competent

• skilled occupation

• married with children

• commuter - lives away from crime

What are the characteristics of a disorganised criminal?

• socially immature

• average intelligence or lower

• sexually incompetent

• poor work history

• lives alone

• lives close to crime scene

What are the four main stages of constructing an FBI profile?

1. data assimilation

2. crime scene classification

3. crime reconstruction

4. profile generation

What is data assimilation?

the profiler reviews the evidence such as crime scene photographs, pathology reports, witness reports etc

What is crime scene classification?

the crime scene is classified as either organised or disorganised based on the data reviewed

What is crime scene reconstruction?

hypotheses are made about the sequence of events, behaviour of the offender and victim etc

What is profile generation?

hypotheses are made related to the offender, i.e demographic background, physical characteristics, behaviour

How is the fact that the top-down approach has limited practical value because it can only be applied to a very narrow range of offences a criticism?

because it restricts the approach’s generalisability and reduces its external validity. If a method can’t be applied to the majority of real-life crimes, it has limited usefulness for everyday policing. As a result it risks becoming a crime-specific investigative aid rather than a broadly applicable scientific tool

Give an example of this weakness

for example, it can only be applied to a narrow range of offences, particularly extreme and infrequent crimes such as serial murder or rape. These crimes only make up a tiny proportion of police investigations. Most crimes (e.g burglary, common assault) are too ‘messy’ and lack clear behavioural signatures needed to categorise offenders as organised or disorganised

How is the fact that the top-down approach is based on outdated and overly rigid models of personality another criticism?

because profiles produced using this approach may be reductionist and inaccurate, potentially misleading investigators and reducing the scientific credibility of the method

Give an example of this criticism

for instance, the organised/disorganised classification assumes offenders have stable personality traits that consistently shape their behaviour at a crime scene. However, research by Mischel suggests behaviour is largely influenced by situational factors rather than fixed traits meaning offenders may display different behaviours depending on situational pressures or emotions

How is the fact that the sample size used to develop top-down profiling was small a disadvantage of the approach?

because a sample size of 36 people is too small and lacks population validity meaning it can’t be generalised to the wider population. The fact that the sample participants were all from the US (an individualistic culture environment) makes it ethnocentric as well further limiting its generalisability. Additionally, the fact that interviews were used gives the problem of social desirability. The problem with the research used to develop the top-down approach therefore limits the validity of the approach

Give an example of this disadvantage

for example, the top-down approach was developed using interviews of 36 killers in the US (25 serial killer, 11 single/double murderers)

How is the fact that the profiles in the top-down approach are vague a weakness?

because it is subjective to an extent leading to low reliability and validity in offender profiling. This can have an effect on the justice system and lead to a miscarriage of justice in which someone guilty may get away with their crime whilst someone innocent has been found guilty

Give an example of this weakness

for instance, profiles being vague means that investigators can interpret them in multiple ways