Top Down

• Purpose of profiling

  • identify suspects for close questioning
  • Suggest interrogation strategies
  • Predict future victims and escalation
  • Suggest techniques for rehabilitation
• 2 types of FBI techniques for offender profiling

  1. Top Down: first look at the big picture then look for smaller details that will support the big picture
  2. Typology: a set of clear and distinct categories or types
• The Top Down approach follows a ………. approach

  motivational approach
• What is a motivational approach

  idea that motivation behind attacks are consistent throughout life
• who coined the term ‘serial killer’

  FBI agent Robert Ressler
• What manual did Robert Ressler create

  Crime Classification manual for the FBI
• What are the 2 categories of offenders according to Robert Ressler

  1. Organised offenders
  2. Disorganised offenders
• How are Organised Offenders described - ‘features’

  • Plan and target their victims
  • Above average IQ
  • Socially and sexually competent
  • Living with a partner
  • Angry at the time of the attack
  • Offender follows the media coverage of crime
  • In employment
• How are Disorganised Offenders described- ‘features’

  • Lives alone near the crime scene or victim
  • Socially and/ or sexually inadequate
  • Severe mental illness
  • Physical or sexual abuse in childhood
  • Frightened and confused during attack
• 4 stages of creating an FBI profile

  Stage 1- Profiling Inputs

  Stage 2- Decision making models

  Stage 3- Crime Assessment

  Stage 4- Criminal Profile
• What happens during stage one of an FBI offender profile

  Evidence collected:

  • description of crime scene (photos, sketches)
  • background info about the victim (employment, habits, relationships)
  • details of the crime (weapon, cause of death, autopsy report)
• What is important to consider during stage 1 of an FBI offender profile

  • ALL info, even if it seems trivial, should be included
  • Possible suspects shouldn‘t be considered at this stage - this may bias info collected
• What happens during stage 2 of an FBI offender profile

  profiler starts to make decisions about the data and organises it into meaningful patterns
• What is considered during stage 2

  • Murder types (mass, spree, serial)
  • Time factors (short or long time to commit, night or day)
  • Location factors (kidnapped in one place and killed in another?)
• What happens during stage 3 of an FBI offender profile

  based on data collected, the crime is classified as organised or disorganised
• Features of an organised crime scene

  • Evidence of planning
  • Victim identified and personalised
  • Crime scene reflects control
  • Aggressive acts before victims death
  • Body hidden
  • Weapons and key evidence taken from the scene
• Features of a Disorganised crime scene

  • Little evidence of forward planning
  • Victim or location known to the offender
  • Victim depersonalisation
  • Minimal use of restraints
  • Impulsive, violent acts with sexual acts carried out after the victims death
  • Little attempt to hide or remove the body or evidence
• Example of an organised offender

  Ted Bundy

  • intelligent degree in psychology and studying law
  • Several serious relationships, married during one of his trials
  • Handsome and Charismatic to lure women in
  • Very little evidence at crime scenes
• What happens during stage 4 of an FBI offender profile

  Profile is constructed of the offender which includes hypotheses about their likely background, habits and beliefs

  Description is used to work out a strategy for the investigation to help catch the offender
• What happens when the offender is apprehended

  The entire profile process is reviewed to check that at each stage the conclusions made were legitimate and valid and consider how the process may be revised in future cases
• Limitation of Top Down Profiling - limited sample

  • Ressler interviewed only 36 serial offenders, conducted in the 1980s, where DNA evidence was not something widely known or used by police officers.
  • too limited to generalise a whole approach to every serial offender in today’s modern world. Criminal behaviours may have changed in light of new technology.
  • Approach may not be internally valid or have temporal validity in helping police to create a profile. It is biased towards offenders who are particularly violent and may not be relevant for other criminals
• Research support of the Top Down Approach

  David Canter et al. used smallest space analysis on 100 US serial kills

  Found a subset of behaviours matching the FBIs organised offender typology

  =Suggests the FBIs typology has some validity
• Counter point to David Canter‘s research support

  • many studies argue organised and disorganised types overlap and are not mutually exclusive
  • Maurice Godwin (2002): killers can show contrasting traits (e.g. intelligent with impulsive crimes), suggesting a continuum rather than distinct types
• Strength of Top Down Approach- Wider Application

  • used beyond sexually motivated crimes (e.g. burglary)
  • Tina Meketa (2017): Applied to burglary with an 85% increase in solved cases
  • New categories:
  • Interpersonal: offender knows the victim, steals meaningful items
  • Opportunistic: Inexperienced young offenders