Top Down Approach

    Cards (8)

    • How was the method produced
      In-depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers
    • The FBI match features of crime scenes and the offender to pre-existing templates (typology approach)
    • What are the two criminal types in the TD approach
      Organised and Disorganised
    • The offender’s way of working (modus operandi) correlates with their characteristics
    • Organised criminals
      • Planned crime
      • Deliberately targets victim
      • controlled
      • little evidence left
      • above average IQ
      • skilled, professional
      • married, normally has kids
      • sexually/socially competent
    • Disorganised criminals
      • Little planning
      • Spontaneous and impulsive
      • body (evidence) left
      • little control
      • unskilled
      • lower IQ
      • unemployed
      • live alone/ close to location of offence
    • What are the four attributes of profiling
      1. Data assimilation (evidence)
      2. Classification (organised or disorganised)
      3. Reconstruction (sequence of events, behaviour of victim)
      4. Profile generation (demographic background, physical characteristics)
    • Example of the Top Down Approach in use:
      Ted Bundy - He was classified as an organised killer due to his charming nature and Hugh intelligence (attended uni of Washington and then law school) with his victims resembling his ex girlfriend.
      however, the gruesome natures of his crime and impulsivity of them can also frame him as a disorganised criminal.