Top down approach


A way of narrowing down potential suspects by creating a profile of the most likely offender

  1. Profiling inputs Data is collected including a detailed description of the crime scene, the crime, and background information about the victim. Possible suspects must not be considered, to avoid bias

  2. Decision process models The profiler organises the data into patterns, considering issues such as murder type (mass, spree or serial), time and location factors

  3. Crime assessment The crime is classified as being committed by an organised or disorganised type of offender

Types of crime and offender:

  • Organised - planned, targeted victim, violent fantasies may be acted out. The offender is usually intelligent, socially and sexually competent

  • Disorganised - unplanned, random selection of victim. The offender usually leaves evidence at the crime scene like blood, semen, fingerprints and the weapon

AO3

  • Top-down profiling can be useful for opening up new avenues of investigation. Copson (1995) questioned 184 US police officers: 82% said the technique was useful and 90% said they would use it again. The approach was developed by the FBI to solve bizarre and extreme murder cases. It involves an intuitive application of a profiler’s prior knowledge, and can offer investigators a different perspective, which can help prevent wrongful conviction.

  • However, the method is based on flawed data from interviews with 37 dangerous sexual killers. These individuals can be highly manipulative and unreliable. This data was used to identify the key characteristics that police use to ‘read’ a crime scene. These killers may have a different approach to ‘typical’ killers, so the classification of crimes and criminals may not be generalisable