Top down approach

• Aim of offender profiling

  to narrow the list of likely suspects, create hypothesis about probable characteristics of the offender including age race occupation
• Types of offenders

  Based on the idea that offenders have certain ways of working which generally correlate with a particular set of social and psychological characteristics
• Organised

  • evidence of planning the crime

  • high degree of control so little evidence left

  • above average IQ

  • usually married or has children
• Disorganised

  • little evidence of planning, spontaneous

  • crime scene reflects the impulsive nature

  • below average IQ

  • history of failed relationships live alone
• Four main stages in the construction of an FBI profile

  1. data assimilation

  2. crime scene classification

  3. crime reconstruction

  4. profile generation