AO1

• 1. Offender Profiling

  • Investigative tool used by the police when solving crimes
  • Professional profilers will often be called upon to work alongside the police - especially during high profile cases
  • Careful Scrutiny of the crime scene and analysis of other evidence is used to generate a hypothesis about the likely characteristics of an offender (age, background, occupation etc.)
• 2. The American Approach

  • Originated in the United States, because of work carried out by the FBI in 1970's
  • FBI's Behavioural Science Unit looked at data from in-depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated murderers including Ted Bundy
  • The data could then be categorised in to organised or disorganised crimes/murders
  • These categories had certain characteristics which would be used in future crime scenes
  • Offender profilers who use the top-down approach will collect data about a murder and then decide which category fits best
• 3. Organised Offenders

  • shows evidence of planned a crime in advance
  • The victim is deliberately targeted - victim 'type'
  • Maintains a high degree of control
  • surgical precision
  • little evidence or clues left behind
  • Above-average intelligence, in a professional occupation
  • Socially and sexually competent
  • Usually married with children
• 4. Disorganised Offender

  • shows little evidence of planning - spontaneous
  • crime scene often reflects the impulsiveness of the attack
  • body is usually left at scene
  • Lower than average IQ, and in an unskilled work or unemployed
  • Possess a history of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships
  • Live alone and often relatively close to where the offence took place
• 5. Constructing an FBI profile: Data Assimilation

  Profiler reviews the evidence - crime scene photos, pathology, reports, witness reports etc
• 5. Constructing an FBI profile: Crime Scene Classification

  as either organised or disorganised
• 5. Constructing an FBI profile: Crime Reconstruction

  Hypotheses in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of the victim etc.
• 5. Constructing an FBI profile: Profile Generation

  Hypotheses related to the likely offender e.g. of demographic background, physical characteristics, behaviour etc.