Top down offender profiling

• Top down profiling generates an overall picture through typologies which are developed based on police experience and case studies.

  The case studies are based on 36 known and interviewed serial killers.
• There are 7 decision making tools resulting in the offender either categorised as organised or disorganised:

  • Murder type - isolated, serial, mass or spree
  • Intent - Deliberate and premeditated, part of another crime
  • Victim risk - high, low(prostitute)
  • Offender risk
  • Escalation - Any previous crimes, can it escalate
  • Time - daylight/evening
  • Location - Easily accessible, already known
• Organised offenders are likely to:

  • Clean up after themselves, not leaving a weapon behind
  • Premeditate their crimes and target their victims
  • They may hide the body to prevent being traced or leave it to taunt the police
  • Be highly intelligent, socially and sexually competent
  • Be of high birth order (oldest or older sibling)
  • Be bred from harsh discipline
• Disorganised offender are likely to:

  • Select their victims at random often blitz attacking them
  • Attempt to clear up but leave the weapon, DNA and the body insight (they rush)
  • Be averagely intelligent, socially and sexually incompetent
  • Live/work close to the crime scene
  • Be of low birth order (youngest or younger sibling)
  • Be bred from inconsistent discipline
• AO3

  :) - Research support

  The top down offender profiling helped to convict Arthur Shawcruss.

  Grant developed a profile based on sexually motivated crime and applied it to his case where he convicted Shawcruss for the Ginesee River Killings.

  This shows that the top down approach can generate accurate profiles which can be used to convict offenders which increases the validity of the top down approach.
• AO3

  :( - Reductionist

  Godwin criticises the top down approach stating that 2 categories of either organised or disorganised reduces offender behaviour into 2 sets of criteria.

  The issue with this is that not all offenders fit neatly into either category and therefore predicting characteristics and applying them is difficult.

  Therefore the top down approach is oversimplified and therefore lacks the necessary criterion to be holistic.
• AO3

  :(

  The top down approach is based on a small sample which is unrepresentative.

  This is because it's based on 36 interviewed killers, 25 of which are serial and 11 of which are single or double killers.

  However, not all offenders are killers and it's also not sensible to rely on killers to be honest and open within their interviews to construct a classification system based on them.

  Therefore, the top down approach lacks population validity as it isn't applicable to crimes such as petty theft.
• AO3

  :(

  The top down approach is based on specific patterns and motivations that remain consistent across situations and contexts.

  The issue with this is that external factors are constantly changing and it is based on stable dispositional traits. Dispositional and situational factors interact, which the top down approach doesn't account for.

  Therefore the approach is naive, inconsistent and old fashioned and thus lacks temporal validity.