bottom-up approach

• the bottom up approach

  profiles work up from evidence collected from the crime scene to develop a hypotheses about the likely characteristics and background of the offender
• investigative psychology

  an attempt to provide procedures to the analysis of evidence from the crime scene. the aim is to establish patterns of behaviour that is likely to occur across the crime scene. specific details of an offence can then be matched to reveal information about the offender e.g. family background.
• interpersonal coherence

  the way an offender behaves at the scene may reflect their behaviour in everyday situations, such as how they 'interact' with their victim
• forensic awareness

  describes those individuals who have been the subject of police interrogation before, their behaviour may give the idea of how good they are at 'covering their tracks'
• geographical profiling

  uses information to do with the location of linked crime scenes to make inferences about the likely home of an offender. the assumption is that offenders limit their 'work' areas they are familiar with meaning it is easier to understand their patterns of behaviour
• jeopardy surface

  helps investigators make an educated guess about where the offender is most likely to strike next
• Canter's circle theory

  the marauder = who operates in close proximity to their home

  the commuter = who is likely to have travelled a distance away from their usual area
• A03 - evidence supporting investigative psychology

  • Canter conducted a content analysis of 66 sexual assault cases, the data was examined using the smallest space analysis which is a computer that identifies correlations across behaviours
  • there was several common characteristics in the data such as impersonal language and lack of reaction to the victim
  • this can lead to an understanding of how an offenders behaviour may changer over a series of offences or whether one or more offence was committed by the same person
• A03 - evidence supporting geographical profiling

  • Lundrigan and Canter collected information from 120 murder cases involving serial killed in the US
  • the location of each body disposal site was in a different direction from the previous sites creating a 'centre of gravity'
  • the effect was more noticeable for offenders who travelled short distances
  • this supports Canter's claim that spatial information is a key factor in determining the base of an offender
• A03 - scientific basis

  • more scientific and objective than the top-up approach as it is more grounded in evidence and with artificial intelligence investigators are more able to manipulate geographical and biological data quickly to to produce insights and assist the investigation