Forensic Psychology

• What are the 6 steps to a top-down profile?

  Profiling inputs

  Decision process models

  Crime assessment

  Construct a profile

  Crime Assessment

  Apprehension
• What happens during profiling inputs?

  Data is collected, which may include pictures of the crime scene, the background of the victim, weapon, cause of death, etc.
• When making decision process models, what 3 factors does the profiler consider when organising data?

  Murder type

  Time factors

  Location factors
• Based on decision process models, what 2 categories can crimes be classified as?

  Organised or disorganised crime
• What are the features of an organised crime?

  The crime is planned

  The victim is targeted

  The body may‘ve been moved

  The weapon is hidden

  Violent fantasies may have been acted out on the victim

  The offender is intelligent, social, and sexually competent
• What are the features of a disorganised crime?

  The crime is unplanned

  The victim is random, and had little engagement with the offender

  Possible sexual abuse after death

  Many clues are evident after death (e.g. blood, semen, fingerprints, etc.)

  Offender has low intelligence and poor social skills
• How is a profile constructed?

  A hypothesis about the likely backgrounds, habits, and beliefs of the offender is created. This is used to find a strategy to catch and interview them.
• How is the crime assessment made?

  The profiler creates a report for the police to find suspects based on the profile
• At doing a crime assessment, when should the profiler return to step 2 (decision making profiles)?

  If new evidence is found, or if there are no suspects
• What happens during step 6 (apprehension)?

  If there is an arrest, review the profile to check that the conclusions are legitimate
• What is the top-down approach to offender profiling?

  The top-down approach involves analysis the crime scene an creating a typology of the offender
• Bottom-up approach to offender profiling

  A British approach devised by Canter

  Offender profile is created from statistics about which people tend to commit which crimes
• The 2 factors in the bottom up approach

  Investigative psychology and geographical profiling
• Investigative psychology


  The idea that offender profiling should be based on psychologicL theory and research
• The 3 things that investigative psychology includes

  Interpersonal coherence

  Forensic awareness

  Smallest space analysis
• Interpersonal coherence


  The way an offender acts at the scene of the crime, including how they interact with the victim, may reflect their behaviour in everyday situations
• Forensic awareness


  How individuals who have been subject of police interrogation before may be more mindful of ‘covering their tracks’
• Forensic awareness - Davies et al (1997)


  Rapists who conceal their fingerprints often have a previous conviction for burglary
• Smallest space analysis


  A statistical technique which analyses data about crimes and offender characteristics, looking for the most common characteristics which are found in particular types of crimes. It presents results visually, with most common factors in the centre and the less typical behaviours on the edges
• Geographical profiling


  An analysis of the locations of connected crimes to see if they might suggest anything about the offender’s home
• Circle theory


  A theory that argues that offenders commit crimes within an imagined circle
• 2 types of offenders identified in circle theory

  Marauders and commuters
• Marauder


  The offender lives within the geographical area the crime is committed (usually in the centre)
• Commuter


  The offender travels to another area and commits crime within a circular space. The place they commute to is often found in the centre of the circle. The area chosen may be familiar to the offender
• Evaluation of bottom-up offending profiling - Copson (1995)


  Did a survey of 48 UK police forces

  Over 75% said bottom-up profiling was useful

  3% said it helped to identify the actual offender

  Profiling was only used in 75 cases

  Most officers said they would use it again
• Limitation of bottom-up approach - unscientific


  There is a problem with the use of statistics as figures only come from caught, reported crimes. As unreported crimes don‘t get included, this therefore provides a weaker statistical explanation of offending
• Limitation of bottom-up approach - circle theory

  91% of offenders are found to be marauders

  Lack of evidence for commuters makes the distinction between offenders pointless

  Police may only follow the circle pattern and ignore other areas the crime may‘ve occured
• Limitation of bottom-up approach

  It cannot identify if there is just one offender, or multiple accomplices
• Avatism

  The tendency to revert to ancestral characteristics and behaviours
• Lombroso (1876)


  Criminals were lacking in evolutionary development, making it impossible for them to adapt to a civilised society and resort to crime instead

  The principle markers of criminality were a strong jaw and a heavy brow

  Different types of criminals had different features: murderers had bloodshot eyes and curly hair ; sex offenders had thick lips and protruding ears
• Lombroso’s evidence

  Out of 383 Italian criminals, 21% had one atavistic characteristic, while 43% had five or more
• The 3 types of criminals (Lombroso)

  Born criminals

  Insane criminals

  Criminaloids
• Born criminals

  The atavistic type that is identifiable from their physical characteristics
• Insane criminals

  Those who are criminal due to mental illness
• Criminaloids

  Offenders whose mental characteristics predisposed them to criminal behaviour due to the right circumstances
• Cranial characteristics of offenders


  High cheekbones

  Facial asymmetry

  Strong jaw

  Narrow sloping brow
• Physical features of offenders

  Bloodshot eyes

  Curly hair

  Long hair

  Dark skin

  Glinting eyes

  Swollen, fleshy lips

  Thin lips (fraudsters)

  Extra toes/fingers

  Tattoos
• Limitation of atavistic form - alpha bias

  Women’s crimes were in some way always related to men (e.g. they acted out of lust)

  Different expectations for men and women
• MAOA


  A gene that produces an enzyme to break down neurotransmitters in the brain (e.g. serotonin) after synaptic transmission.
• MAOA-L


  A low-activity version of the MAOA gene that can lead to aggressive behaviour. This can lead to an excess of serotonin, which is reponsible for impulse control. This results in desensitisation to the effects of serotonin