offender profiling: the top down approach

what is the top down approach

profilers start with pre-established typology and work down to lower levels in order to assign offenders to one of two categories based on witness accounts and evidence from the crime scene 

who uses the top-down approach

the FBI

who was the top-down approach established by

the FBI therefore non psychological base (eval)

what method did the FBI use to build the top-down approach

• analysed data from interviews with 36 sexually-motivated murderers including Ted Bundy and Charles Manson

• they were sorted into organised and disorganised

• this was then used to find the offender

what are the characteristics of an organised offender

• signature modus operandi 

• planned the crime in advance

• deliberately seeks victims and has a ‘type’ of victim 

• leaves little evidence

• above-average intelligence

• socially and sexually competent 

• may be married with children 

characteristics of a disorganised offender

• little evidence of planning

• spontaneous or impulsive

• little control

• lower than average IQ

• unskilled or unemployed

• sexual dysfunction and failed relationships

• tend to live alone

what are the 4 stages in conducting an FBI profile

1. data assimilation - profiler reviews the evidence

2. crime scene classification - organised or disorganised

3. crime reconstruction - hypothesis in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of the victim etc.

4. profile generation - hypothesis related to the likely offender

strength - support for a distinct organised category of offender

• Canter et al. analysed 100 US murdered using smallest space analysis

• identified correlations and assessed the co-occurence of 39 aspects of serial killings

• revealed there was a subset of features related to serial killings that match the FBI’s typology

• suggests top-down approach = valid

counterpoint to support for organised category

• organised and disorganised are not mutually exclusive

• there are a variety of combinations of behaviours

• Godwin (2002) said its difficult to classify killers and there may be multiple contrasting characteristics

• suggests the organised-disorganised typology is more of a continuum

strength - can be adapted to other types of crime 

• Meketa (2017) reports the TD approach led to an 85% increase in solved burglary cases in 3 US states 

• method uses organised-disorganised distinction but also adds interpersonal (offender usually knows the victim) and opportunistic (generally inexperienced) 

• increases wider application of the TD approach

limitation - flawed evidence

• FBI agents didnt select a random sample when interviewing the 36 serial killers and coming up with the TD approach

• there was no standard set of questions in the interviews

• may not have a sound scientific basis

limitation - assumes all offenders have a modus operandi

• TD is based on behaviour consistency and that offenders have a modus operandi

• Mischel argues behaviour is more influenced by the situation the offender is in and it may not be consistent between crimes

• therefore the TD approach may tell us little about how the offender behaves in every day life as crimes aren’t always consistent