Offending profiling top down

• Offender profiling


  An investigation tool employed by the police when solving crimes
• Aim of profiling


  To create an idea of the offender's likely characteristics. This helps the police focus their resources on more likely suspects, and can create new leads within an investigation
• Styles of approach in offender profiling

  • Top down approach
  • Bottom up approach
• Top down approach (typology approach)

  Evidence from the crime scene and other details of the crime/victim/context are used to fit into either of the pre-existing categories of either organised or disorganised offender
• Types of offenders (Douglas)

  • Organised
  • Disorganised
• Organised offender


  • Crime tends to be planned
  • Victim is specifically targeted - the killer often has a type
  • Maintain a high degree of control during the crime and may operate with almost detached surgical precision
  • Leave little evidence or clues behind at the crime scene
  • Generally high in intelligence, socially and sexually competent, usually have a partner, have a car in good working order and follow their crimes in the media
• Disorganised offender


  • Crime tends to be an unplanned crime or spur of the moment
  • Random selection of victim suggesting the offence may have been spontaneous
  • Have very little control during the crime and is often impulsive
  • Body/evidence is usually left at the crime scene
  • Tend to have a lower than average IQ, be in unskilled work or unemployed and often have a history of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships
  • Tend to live alone
• Construction of the top down profile

  1. Data assimilation - Investigators gather together information from multiple sources

  2. Categorisation - Investigators attempt to categorise the offender as either organised or disorganised

  3. Inference - Investigators make inferences about the offender's likely characteristics based on the categorisation

  4. Validation - Investigators validate the profile by comparing it to the actual offender
• Crime scene analysis


  • Includes all information about the crime itself (weapon, cause of death autopsy report)
  • Even trivial information should be included
• Crime scene classification


  Profilers decide whether the crime scene represents an organised or disorganised offender dependent on the analysis of evidence from the crime scene
• Crime reconstruction


  Reconstructing the crime in order to develop predictions about the motives and behaviour of the offender/victim
• Profile generation


  • A profile is constructed of the offender which includes hypotheses about the offender's characteristics including likely background, personality, habits and physical appearance
  • This description is used to work out a strategy for the investigation to help catch the offender