top-down approach

• Canter conducted an analysis of 100 US murders each committed by a different serial killer to test the organised-disorganised typology which is central to the top-down approach. This analysis revealed that there is a subset of features of many serial killings which matched the FBIs typology for organised offenders (e.g. the use of restraint or torture). This suggests that a key component of the FBI typology approach has some validity.
• However, many studies suggest that the organised and disorganised types are not mutually exclusive. There are a variety of combinations that occur at a murder scene.
• Maurice Godwin argues that in reality it is difficult to classify killers as one or the other type. A killer may have multiple contrasting characteristics. This suggests that the organised-disorganised typology is probably more of a continuum.
• Top-down profiling can be adapted to other kinds of crimes such as burglary.
• Tina Meketa reports that top-down profiling has recently been applied to burglary, leading to an 85% rise in solved cases in 3 US states.
• One limitation of top-down profiling is the evidence which it is based on.
• FBI profiling was developed using interviews with 36 murderers in the US. Canter argued this sample was poor - the FBI did not select a random or even large sample nor did the sample include different kinds of offender. There was no standard set of questions so each interview was different and therefore not really comparable. This suggests the top-down approach does not have a sound, scientific basis.
• Organised offender= offender who shows evidence of planning, targets a specific victim and tends to be socially and sexually competent with a higher-than-average intelligence
• Disorganised offender= offender who shows little evidence of planning, leaves clues and tends to be socially and sexually incompetent with lower-than-average intelligence
• Constructing an FBI profile:

  1. data assimilation
  2. crime scene classification (organised or disorganised)
  3. crime reconstruction
  4. profile generation
• The top-down approach originated in the US as a result of data from interviews with 36 sexually-motivated murderers.