AO1

• What is involved in the bottom-up approach?

  Profilers work up from evidence collected from the crime scene to develop hypotheses about the likely characteristics, motivations and social background of the offender
• How is the bottom-up approach different to the top-down approach?

  The British bottom-up model does not begin with fixed typologies. Instead, the profile is ’data-driven’ and emerges as the investigator engages in deeper and more rigorous scrutiny of the details of the offence
• What is investigative psychology?


  A form of bottom-up profiling that matches details from the crime scene with statistical analysis of typical offender behaviour patterns based on psychological theory.
• The aim of investigative psychology, in relation to offender profiling, is to establish patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur (or coexist) across crime scenes. This is in order to develop a statistical database which then acts as a baseline for comparison
• What is interpersonal coherence?


  The way an offender behaves at the scene, including how they ‘interact’ with the victim, may reflect their behaviour in more everyday situations.
• The significance of time and place is also a key variable and may indicate where the offender is living
• What is forensic awareness?


  Describes those individuals who have been the subject of police interrogation before, their behaviour may denote how mindful they are of ‘covering their tracks’
• What is small space analysis?


  A specific statistical tool within investigative psychology which correlates common offender characteristics and crime scenes.
• What are the 3 underlying themes Canter drew from using smaller space analysis for 48 crime scenes and offender characteristics where the victim was a stranger?

  1. Instrumental opportunistic: easiest opportunity to obtain something/a goal
  2. Instrumental cognitive: concern about being detected
  3. Expressive impulsive: uncontrolled, strong emotions, provoked by victim
• What are the main features of investigative psychology?

  1. Interpersonal coherence
  2. Forensic awareness
  3. Time and place
  4. Small Space Analysis
• What is geographic profiling?


  A form of bottom-up profiling based on the principle of spatial consistency, that an offender’s operational base and possible future offences are revealed by the geographical location of their previous crimes
• What is the assumption in geographical profiling?

  Serial offenders restrict their ‘work’ to geographical areas they are familiar with, and so understanding the spatial pattern of their behaviour provides investigators with ‘centre of gravity’ which is likely to include the offender’s base
• The assumption that offenders will restrict their work to geographical areas is the basis of Canter’s circle theory.
• What are the two ways to describe an offender based on circle theory?

  1. The marauder: who operates in close proximity in their home base
  2. The commuter: who is likely to have travelled a distance from their usual residence
• Spatial decision-making can offer the investigative team important insight into the nature of the offence (i.e. whether it was planned or opportunistic) as well as revealing other important factors about the offender, such as their ‘mental maps’, mode of transport, employment status approximate age etc