1) Offender Profiling - The Top Down Approach

Define offender profiling?

Offender profiling is an investigative tool used by the police when solving crimes.

• The aim is to narrow down the list of suspects.

  • Careful scrutiny of crime scene.

  • Analysis of other evidence.

• Hypothesis about the offender:

  • Age

  • Background

  • Occupation

  • Characteristics

Describe the American approach as offender profiling?

The top down approach to profiling originated in the US as a result of work carried out by the FBI in the 70s.

• Interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers.

Determined that data could be split into 2 categories.

• Organised and disorganised.

• Certain characteristics - predictions can be made.

Profilers gather data and then assign it to a category.

• Typology approach.

How are offenders categorised as organised or disorganised?

The categorisation of organised and disorganised offenders is based on the assumption that serious offenders have a certain signature which correlates to their social and psychological characteristics.

Describe characteristics of an organised offender?

• Evidence of planning

• Has a type

• High levels of control

• Tidy - no clues or evidence

• Above average intelligence

• Skilled/professional employment

• Socially and sexually competent

• Married, possibly with kids.

Describe characteristics of a disorganised offender?

• Little evidence of planning

• Spontaneous, spur of the moment

• Little control

• Crime scene reflects impulsivity

• Below average intelligence

• Unskilled work or unemployed

• History of sexual/ relationship dysfunction

• Lives alone and close to the crime scene.

Name an example of an organised offender?

Ted Bundy

Describe Ted Bundy as an example of an organised offender?

By 1972, he had graduated law school and showed great promise for a career in law or politics.

• He was a charming, intelligent and articulate young man with a girlfriend.

He preyed on young women, he would use a ruse - often wearing his arm in a sling or walking on crutches.

• He was arrested after fleeing a patrol car. Masks, handcuffs and rope were found in his vehicle.

He confessed to 30 murders but the actual number is unknown, many victims were never found.

Name an example of a disorganised killer?

Richard Chase

Describe Richard Chase as an example of an organised offender?

Known as the Vampire of Sacramento.

• He had been in and out of mental health institutions.

• He lived on his own, had no social life and no girlfriend.

• He abused drugs and alcohol.

He had no victim type.

His murders were opportunistic.

• He walked the streets checking doors and if the door was locked “that meant you weren’t welcome”.

• He made no effort to conceal crimes.

He was identified by someone he went to school with.

He committed 6 murders in total.

What are the four main stages in the construction of an FBI profile?

1) Data assimilation

Reviewing evidence.

2) Crime scene classification

3) Crime reconstruction

Hypothesis in terms of the sequence of events, behaviour of the victim and suspects.

4) Profile generation

Hypothesis relating to the likely offender.

Evaluate two strengths of the top down approach to offender profiling?

STRENGTH: RESEARCH SUPPORT

CANTER:
Analysed 100 US murders committed by different serial killers.

• Used smallest space analysis.

  • A statistical method that identifies behaviour correlations.

• The study examined 39 aspects of serial killings such as torture, body concealment and weapon use.

The results revealed a subset of features aligning with the FBI’s organised offender typology, suggesting that this aspect of the approach has some validity.

STRENGTH: WIDER APPLICATION

MEKETA:
Reported that the top-down approach had been recently applied to burglaries.

• 85% rise in solved cases.

Organised and disorganised remain.

• Interpersonal and opportunistic have been added.

This suggests that the approach has a wider application than was originally assumed.

Evaluate two limitations of the top down approach to offender profiling?

LIMITATION: ORGANISED AND DISORGANISED TYPES MAY NOT BE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE

MAURICE GODWIN:

It is difficult to classify killers as one or the other type.

• Could have multiple contrasting characteristics.

• High intelligence and sexual competence, but commit a spontaneous murder, leaving the body at the crime scene.

This could mean that the typology is more of a continuum rather than one or the other.

LIMITATION: A POOR SAMPLE

The top down approach was based on interviews conducted with 36 murderers (25 serial killers).

Then they were classified as either organised or disorganised.

• The sample is poor.

  • Unrepresentative.

  • Not random or large.

  • No standard questions - no comparison was possible.

  • Self report may not be ideal given the sample.

This all suggests that the top down approach does not have a sound scientific basis.