bottom up approach

• british approach
• aim is to generate a picture of the offender with their likely characteristic, routine behaviour and social background
• profile is data driven and emerges as the investigator engages in deeper scrutiny of the details of the offence
• investigative psychology


  aims to establish patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur across crime scenes

  • in order to develop a statistical database which acts as a baseline for comparison
• specific details of an offence can be matched against the statistical database of patterns of behaviour to reveal important details about the offender
• matching the details of the offence to the database can also determine whether a series of offences are linked and have been committed by the same person
• interpersonal coherence approach


  the way an offender behaves at the scene and how they ‘interact’ with the victim can reflect their behaviour in everyday situations
• significance of time and place is a key variable

  • can indicate where the offender is living