Forensic Psychology

• Offender profiling

  Also known as ‘criminal profiling’, is a behavioural and analytical tool that is intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminals. The process involves applying a ‘big-picture’ hypothesis (a typology) to a new situation then looking for smaller details that will support the big picture.
• Origins 

  • Developed by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1970-80s based on interviews conducted with 36 sexually motivated serial killers in prison.
  • Top-down offender profiling is generally used in cases of serial violence against strangers, especially sexual or ‘bizarre’.
• Key Assumptions include:

  • There are 2 different types of offenders (known as typologies).
  • Behavioural evidence from a crime scene can tell us which type of offender committed a crime.
  • Knowing an offender’s typology allows us to predict other things about him/her.
• Organised Offenders

  • evidence of planning crime in advance/little evidence left behind
  • high degree of control during the crime and may operate with almost detached surgical precision.
  • high IQ - skilled professional occupation/socially and sexually competent.
  • Victim is deliberately targeted which suggests the killer has a ‘type’ of victim they seek out.
• Disorganised Offenders

  • little evidence of planning meaning their offences may be spontaneous (spur of the moment attacks).
  • The crime scene tends to reflect the impulsive nature of the attack - the body is usually still at the scene and there appears to be little control from the offender.
  • Lower IQ, unskilled work/unemployed.
• Evaluation - only apply to certain types of crime.

  • critics argue that top-down profiling is best suited to crime scenes which reveal a lot about the offender - such as rape, arson and cult killings, including macabre offences such as sadistic torture and dissection of the body. This suggests that crimes such as burglary or assault (which reveal very little about the offender) do not lend themselves to top-down profiling. Therefore, the top-down approach is very limited in its use and may not aid the police in their pursuit for less serious crimes.