Top-down approach

• Offender profiling


  • Using the evidence or 'clues' of crime to create a profile of the unknown offender
  • Most typically used for mature crimes, such as rape or murder, that are repeated or linked
• Top-down approach


  • Created by the FBI in the 1970s
  • Behavioural Science Unit drew upon data from 36 in-depth interviews with sexually motivated murderers such as Ted Bundy and Charles Manson
  • They can then be categorised into 'organised' and 'disorganised'
• Modus operandi (M.O) and typologies


  • Ways of working used to make inferences about who the criminal is
  • Top-down approach is based on the idea that behaviour reflects personality
• Organised criminals


  • Plans the crime in advance
  • Targets a specific victim
  • Socially and sexually competent
  • Above average IQ
  • Usually in a relationship
• Disorganised criminals


  • Shows little evidence of planning
  • Leaves evidence
  • Socially and sexually incompetent
  • Below average IQ
  • Usually not in a relationship
• Profile construction


  1. Data assimilation - profilers review evidence; photographs, autopsy reports, witness reports
  2. Crime scene classification - organised or disorganised
  3. Crime reconstruction - hypothesis in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of offender
  4. Profile generation - hypothesis related to the likely offender; demographic background, physical characteristics