Forensic

• what is offender profiling?

  a behavioural and analytical tool to help investigators profile characteristics of unknown criminals

  - also known as criminal profiling

  - an investigative tool employed by the police when solving crimes

  - main aim : to narrow the list of likely suspect

  - professional profilers work alongside the police -- carefully scrutinise crime scene, analyse evidence to generate hypotheses about probably characteristics of offender (e.g. age, gender, occupation level)
• what are the two approaches to offender profiling?

  - the top down approach

  - the bottom up approach
• what is the top down approach?

  - focus on the big picture (large, wide ranging factors) and use that to make predictions using a pre-existing template

  - focuses on the general sweeping statements to make conclusions on the individual (nomothetic)
• how did the top down approach develop?

  - developed in the 1970s in the US by FBI

  - FBI behavioural science unit gathered data from in-depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers (e.g. Charles Manson and Ted Bundy)

  - concluded that serious crimes could be categorised into organised/ disorganised

  - crime matched to pre-existing template (classify as organised or disorganised)

  - also known as the typology approach - classify the criminal which informs later police investigations
• why do we look at types of offenders?

  - behavioural categories can tell us which type of offender committed a crime

  - works on the assumption that serious offenders have a modus operandi - a signature or specific way of working

  - knowing an offenders type allows us to predict other things about them - certain MO's correlate with psychological and social characteristics

  - generally used in cases of serial violence against strangers esp. sexual or 'bizarre)
• what is the general approach of organised offenders?

  - planned and controlled

  - detached, surgical precision
• what is the weapons for organised offenders?


  brought to the scene
• what is the evidence for organised offenders?

  destroyed or removed
• what is the victim for organised offenders?


  - attempts to control

  - has a 'type'

  - deliberately targeted
• what is the offender characteristics for organised offenders?

  - unknown to victim

  - socially and sexually competent

  - normal / high intelligence

  - In skilled, professional occupation

  - angry / depressed

  - usually married / have children
• what is the general approach for disorganised offenders?

  - unplanned and chaotic

  - spontaneous
• what is the weapons for disorganised offenders?


  improvised
• what is the evidence for disorganised offenders?


  - body often left at scene

  - lots of evidence
• what is the victim for disorganised offeders?

  little attempt at control
• how is ted bundy an organised offender?

  - graduated and showed potential for a career in law or politics

  - a charming, intelligent and articulate young male

  - had a girlfriend

  - preyed on young women

  - used a ruse, often wearing his arm in a sling or his leg in a fake cast and walking on crutches

  - when arrested, his car was found with masks, handcuff and rope

  - confessed to 30 murders!
• how is Richard chase a disorganised offender?

  - in and out of mental institutions

  - lived on his own

  - no social life or girlfriend

  - abused drugs and alcohol

  - no victim type

  - murders were opportunistic (walked the streets checking if doors were open)
• how is Richard Ramirez a mix of organised and disorganised offender?

  - difficult childhood of physical abuse caused epilepsy

  - shown photographs as child depicting torture and murder of women in Vietnam war -- led to drug taking behaviour and high school dropout

  - starting stealing to support drug habit

  - went out prepared to commit burglaries with knife or gun

  - left multiple forensic clues at scene including satanist signs his friends knew him for

  - MO of killing male before assaulting female

  - left women alive - leaving evidence

  - no set victim type other than couples

  - careful to scout a house and area before breaking in
• what are the 4 stages to constructing an FBI profile?


  Data assimilation - reviewing evidence from the crime scene e.g. crime scene photographs, pathology reports, witness reports

  Crime scene classification - organised or disorganised

  Crime reconstruction - generating a hypothesis in terms of the sequence of events and the behaviour of victim and suspect

  Profile generation - likely offender e.g. demographic background, physical / psychological characteristics
• what are limitations of the top down approach?

  - only useful for certain crimes with unique characteristics so cannot help for most common offences e.g. burglary -- limited approach, bottom up more effective

  - Canter et al. 's smallest space analysis technique to analyse 100 USA murders in ref to 39 organised / disorganised characteristics. Only found evidence of a district organised type of offender -- lacks validity

  - Canter : why are we trusting 36 serial killers to tell the truth? issues win self -report techniques, especially when implications are so serious for individual

  - typological approach developed from interviews of 36 killers : 25/36 serial killers. Very small and unrepresentative sample -- cannot generalise
• what are strengths of the top down approach?

  - still widespread and has been used to identify serious offenders effectively
• what is the bottom up approach?

  profilers work up from systematic analysis of evidence collected at the crime scene to create a unique picture of the offender (likely characteristics, routine behaviour, motivations and social background for example

  - it does not begin with fixed typologies, but is data-driven : emerges through rigorous scrutiny of the details of the offence

  - more grounded in psychological theory than top-down approach
• when was the bottom up approach developed?

  - largely developed in Britain

  - David Canter : aimed to make the process of offender profiling much more scientific
• what is investigative psychology?

  a form of bottom up profiling matching details from crime scene with statistical analyses of typical offender behaviour patterns, based on psychological theory

  - attempts to apply statistical procedures + psychological theory to analyse evidence from crime scene

  - patterns of behaviour likely to occur according to psychological theory and previous evidence are stored in statistical database - used as baseline for comparison

  - new crimes compared to database:

  -- reveals significant details about likely offender e.g. age, personal history, family background

  -- reveals if a series of crimes is likely to be committed by the same person
• what is interpersonal coherence?


  - the way a person behaves at a crime scene e.g. through the way they interact with the victim

  - assumes the way they behave at the crime scene will likely mirror their behaviour in their 'normal' life

  - the significance of time and place is key -- could tell us where the offender lives or type of employment
• what is forensic awareness?

  have they been subject to police interrogation before? are they covering their tracks?
• what is geographical profiling?

  - geographical profiling : a form of bottom up profiling based on spatial consistency - an offenders base and future offences can be inferred through the geographical location of previous crimes

  - crime mapping : using information from the linked crime scene to man inferences about the likely base of the offender

  - understanding spatial pattern of offending behaviour gives investigators a 'centre of gravity' which includes their base and likely next offending locations (the jeopardy surface)

  - used alongside investigative psychology to create hypotheses about how the offender thinks and operates - modus operandi
• who came up with geographical profiling?

  Kim Rossmo in 1997
• what is Canter's circle theory in geographical profiling?

  - patterns of offending usually forms circle around their residence -- the more offences the more obvious this is

  - there are two models of offending behaviour :

  - 1) the marauder -- who operates closer to their home base

  - 2) the commuter -- likely to have travelled a distance away from their usual residence

  - this can give insight into the nature or the offence planned vs opportunistic, offenders' mental maps, mode of transport, employment status, approx age etc
• what are strengths of the bottom up approach?

  - supporting evidence showing real life application of investigative psychology

  - supporting evidence for geographical profiling

  - better than the top down approach as can be used for more widespread crimes
• what are limitations of the bottom up approach?

  - mixed results for the utility
• how is supporting evidence a strength of investigative psychology?

  - Canter and heritage conducted an analysis of 66 sexual assault cases using smallest space analysis (identifies correlations across patterns of behaviour). They found that several behaviours were in patterns for individuals

  - this can be used to understand how an offenders behaviour may change over time or help investigators establish whether several offences were committed by the same person
• how is supporting evidence a strength of geographical profiling?

  - Lundrigan and Canter collated information from 120 serial murder cases in the USA. They found a high degree of spatial consistency in the offenders' behaviours with a centre of gravity where the offenders base was -- more pronounced for marauders
• how is comparison to the top down approach a strength of bottom up approach?

  - bottom up offender profiling is more rooted in evidence and psychological theory than the top-down approach, especially with the use of advanced artificial intelligence

  - so it can be applied to a wider range of offences, as smallest space analysis can be used to investigate crimes such as burglary, which the top down approach is unable to do
• how is mixed results a limitation of bottom up approach?

  - Kocsis found chemistry students created a more accurate offender profile than bottom up analysts
• why are similarities between the bottom up and top down approach?

  - both look at the crime scene to build a profile

  - both used to narrow field of suspects

  - both assume there's a pattern in an offenders behaviour
• what is atavistic form?

  - atavistic = tendency to revert to an ancestral type

  - atavistic form : a biological approach suggesting criminal activity is a result of criminals being genetic throwbacks (primitive subspecies) lacking in evolutionary development -- they are unable to adjust to civilised society so turn to crime

  - criminal behaviour is a natural tendency rooted in genealogy

  - such criminals are identifiable by distinct facial and cranial characteristics
• what are Lambroso's main characteristics?

  - prominent jaw

  - narrow, sloping brow

  - high cheek bones

  - facial asymmetry

  - dark skin, extra toes / nipples

  - insensitivity to pain

  - use of criminal slang

  - tattoos

  - unemployment
• what are lambrosos characteristics for fraudsters?

  - thin, reedy lips
• what are lambrosos characteristics for murderer?

  - blood shot eyes

  - curly hair

  - long ears
• what are lambrosos characteristics for sexual deviant?

  - glinting eyes

  - swollen, fleshy lips

  - projecting ears