AO1

• Where did the top-down approach originate from?

  The United States as a result of work carried out by the FBI in the 1970s
• How did the FBI develop the top-down approach?

  FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit drew upon data gathered from in depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated murderers including Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. They then concluded that the data could be categorised into organised or disorganised crimes/murders. Each category had certain characteristics which meant that if, in a future situation, the data from a crime scene matched some of the characteristics of one category, we could then predict other characteristics that would be likely. This could be used to find the offender
• Offender profilers who use the top-down method will collect data about a murder (characteristics of the modern, the crime scene etc) and then decide on the category the data best fits
• The organised and disorganised distinction is based on the idea that serious offenders have certain signature ‘ways of working’ (often referred to as their modus operandi) and these generally correlate with a particular set of social and psychological characteristics that relate to the individual
• Which kind of offenders show evidence of having planned the crime in advance?

  Organised offenders
• In crimes committed by organised offenders how are victims targeted?

  Deliberately, suggesting that the killer or rapist has a ‘type‘ of victim they seek out.
• Organised offenders maintain a high degree of control during the crime and may operate with almost detached surgical precision.
• Crime scene of organised offender

  There is little evidence or clues left behind at the scene.
• Social characteristics of an organised offender

  Tend to be of above-average intelligence, in a skilled, professional occupation and are socially and sexually competent. They are usually married and may even have children
• Disorganised offenders show little evidence of planning, suggesting that their offences may be spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment acts
• Crime scenes of disorganised offenders

  Reflect the impulsive nature of the attack. The body is usually still a t the scene and there appears to have been very little control on the part of the offender
• Social characteristics of disorganised offenders

  Tend to have a lower-than-average IQ, be in unskilled work or employment, and often have a history of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships. Tend to live alone and often relatively close to where the offence took place
• Steps in constructing an FBI profile

  1. Data assimilation: the profiler reviews the evidence (crime scene photographs, pathology reports, witness reports etc)
  2. Crime scene classification: either organised or disorganised
  3. crime reconstruction: hypotheses in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of the victim etc
  4. Profile generation: hypotheses related to the likely offender e.g. demographic background, physical characteristics, behaviour etc
• What is the top down approach ?

  Profilers start with a pre-established typology and work down to lower levels in order to assign offenders to one of two categories based on witness accounts and evidence from the crime scene