Offender profiling

• who was the Bottom-Up approach developed by?

  Canter
• what is the bottom-up approach?

  creates a data-driven profile through analysis of crime scene evidence. it uses data on similar crimes to create predictions.
• what is smallest space analysis?

  a programme used to identify patterns to see if offences are linked.
• what are the 3 types of crime recognised by SSA?


  1. Offender uses the easiest method to obtain something 2. a crime is thought through and planned 3. crimes are influenced by impulse and strong emotions
• what is the acronym for SSA

  everyone, pukes, indigo
• what is geographical profiling?

  Rossmo uses info related to location of linked crime scenes to make inferences about the likely operating base of offender.
• what are the 4 main principles of GP?

  locatedness, systematic crime location choice, centrality, comparative case analysis
• what is the acronym for GP?


  lovely, silly, cute, children
• what is investigative psychology?

  establishes patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur across crime scenes. It attempts to apply statistical procedures and psychological theory to the analysis of crime scene evidence.
• what is canters model of IP?

  he uses all 5 points fo create a profile of the kind of person they’re looking for: interpersonal coherence, time and place, criminal characteristics, criminal career and forensic awareness.
• which of canters model points is the most important and why?

  interpersonal coherence as how they interact with the victim and how they behave at the scene may reflect how they behave in everyday situations.
• what 2 types of offender behaviour did Canter propose?

  Canter proposed 2 models of offender behaviour. marauder: operates in close proximity to their home base. commuter: travels a distance away from their home base.
• what is Canter’s circle theory?

  a pattern of offending is likely to form a circle around the usual residence. the more crimes there are, the more apparent this circle is.
• what is the positive of the bottom-up approach?

  Lundrigham and Canter : collected info from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the US. The location of each body was different to that of the last, creating a « centre of gravity ».
• what is the negative of the bottom-up approach?

  Kocsis et al : found that chem students had a more accurate offender profile on a solved murder case than experienced senior detectives.
• who developed the top-down approach?

  developed by Ressler, Burgess and Douglas who were part of the FBI behavioural science unit. They drew on in-depth interviews like Manson and Bundy
• what is the top-down approach?

  attempts to fit crime details under pre-existing categories. it starts with the big picture and then fills in the details.
• What is the 7 stage process of the American approach?

  Murder type, offender risk, primary intent, escalation, time factors, location factors, victim risk
• what is the acronym for the 7-stage process in the American approach?

  MOPET LV
• what are the 4 points for constructing and FBI profile?

  data assimilation, crime scene classification, crime reconstruction, profile generation
• what are the 2 types of offender?

  organised and disorganised
• how did the type of offender come about?

  Hazelwood and Douglas published an account of the « lust murderer »
• negative of the american approach

  it can only be applied to some crimes. it is best suited to crimes that reveal important details about the suspect (rape, arson, cult killing, macabre practises). More common offences like burglary and destruction of property can’t relate to the profile.