Forensics

• What is considered a crime?

  Any illegal act punishable by incarceration or another type of punishment, after consideration by a judge and jury in a legal trial
• What historical issue complicates the definition of crime?

  what was considered a crime at one point in history, may not be considered a crime according to modern standards e.g. homosexuality only being illegalised in the UK in 1967, through the Sexual Offences Act of 1967
• How do cultural issues affect perceptions of crime?

  Cultural norms influence what is considered acceptable. For example, smacking a child in one culture may be seen as acceptable or even encouraged as a form of ‘tough love’, whereas this is not the case in the UK - smacking a child so that a mark is left is now punishable by law, according to the 2004 Child’s Protection Act
• What are the three main methods of measuring crime?

  Official Statistics, Victim Surveys, Offender Surveys
• What do Official Statistics represent?

  Crimes reported and recorded by police, which have been processed and published by the Home Office on an annual basis
• What do Victim Surveys involve?

  50,000 self-reports from randomly selected households describing the number and types of crimes which have been committed against them during the past year, and is published by the Crime Survey for England and Wales annually
• What is the purpose of Offender Surveys?

  To gather data on crimes committed by offenders for example the types and frequency of crimes they have committed across a set time period (e.g. during the last year), as recorded by The Offender Crime and Justice Survey
• How do Offender Surveys help governmental organimations?

  By revealing patterns and risk factors of crime at a national scale, and so can be used to inform crime prevention/management strategies
• Weakness with Official Statistics- inaccurate representation of crime

  They may conceal the 'dark figure' of crime- where 75% of crime goes unreported. May be due to a lack of standardisation of police recording policies in relation to crime, as well as the victim fearing revenge/retribution or feeling untrustworthy of the police. The effects of these factors was demonstrated by Farrington and Dowds (1985) who found that sudden increases in incidence rates of theft could be explained by a change in police recording policies, where thefts under £10 were recorded.
• Strength of Victim Surveys

  The 'dark figure’ of crime is less likely to be concealed or evident due to the self-report technique, where individuals may feel that there are less repercussions for their actions
• Weakness of Victim Surveys

  Serious methodological problems associated with self-report techniques, specifically the idea of 'telescoping'. Therefore, victim surveys may be no more accurate than official statistics
• What is 'telescoping' in the context of Victim Surveys?

  Misremembering when a crime occurred- the victim may mistakenly believe that a crime had been committed against them significantly more recently than it actually had been, due to the trauma and distress associated with it
• Strength of Offender Surveys

  They have been useful in informing crime prevention and management strategies due to showing patterns and risk factors of offending behaviour. Therefore, this demonstrates a real-life practical application
• Weakness of Offender Surveys

  Data collected from Offender Surveys may be distorted or biased because it has been collected from offenders. These offenders may want to over-exaggerate their crimes to give themselves a feeling of accomplishment and grandeur, or under-exaggerate their crimes to diminish responsibility. This means that too much reliance cannot be placed upon the honesty and integrity of offenders in self-report measures.
• What is offender profiling?

  An investigative tool employed by police when solving crimes to narrow down the list of likely suspects
• What are the two categories of offenders in the top-down approach?

  Organised and disorganised offenders
• What are the four steps in profile generation?

  1. Crime scene classification
  2. Crime reconstruction
  3. Data assimilation
  4. Profile generation
• What characteristics define organised offenders?

  Socially and sexually competent, evidence of planning, little evidence or clues at crime scene, have a specific 'type', carry attack out in a surgical manner, usually married and may have children
• What characteristics define disorganised offenders?

  They are likely to leave the body or clues at the crime scene, no evidence of planning, attacks appear to be random, no specific target, socially and sexually incompetent, often live alone and are unemployed
• Where does the top-down approach come from?

  FBI behavioural science unit drew upon data gathered from in depth interviews with 36 murderers then concluded data could be categorised into organised and disorganised crimes
• What is the aim of offender profiling?

  • Reduce the list of suspects
  • Investigate a narrower field of enquiry
  • Increase the likelihood of solving the case
• What is a main limitation of the top-down approach?

  It only explains crimes with visible characteristics
• For which types of crimes is the top-down approach likely effective?

  'Blue-collar' crimes
• Why might not all offenders fit into organised or disorganised categories?

  Oversimplification of the classification system
• What alternative approach do Keppel and Walter suggest for studying criminals?

  Studying the motives of each criminal
• What is a potential issue with the classification of disorganised offenders?

  They cannot be distinctly identified from organised offenders
• What evidence did Canter et al (2004) provide regarding offender types?

  • Organised offender type exists
  • Disorganised offender type lacks distinct identification
  • Used smallest space analysis on 100 murders
• What does the lack of distinct identification for disorganised offenders suggest?

  The system lacks validity and breadth
• What approach does the bottom-up method contrast with?

  Top-down approach
• What does the bottom-up approach develop as crime scenes are analyzed?

  A profile of the crime
• What are the two hallmarks of the bottom-up approach?

  • Investigative psychology
  • Geographical profiling
• How does investigative psychology function in the bottom-up approach?

  It records crimes onto a database for analysis
• What is emphasized more in the bottom-up approach compared to the top-down approach?

  Scientific methods and statistical analysis
• What does 'interpersonal coherence' suggest in investigative psychology?

  The offender's treatment of victims reflects real-life behavior
• What does geographical profiling infer about offenders?

  They have an operational base
• How is the operational base represented in geographical profiling?

  As a circular shape with a center of gravity
• What is the assumption behind the offender's modus operandi?

  It remains constant across crimes
• According to Canter and Larkin (1993), how can offenders be classified?

  As marauders or commuters
• What percentage of cases did Copson (1995) find offender profiling led to successful identification?

  3%
• What percentage of the time was offender profiling useful according to Copson (1995)?

  83%